One Spoon of Chocolate will change your whole glass of milk. Done serving time, ex-convict Unique (Shameik Moore) seeks a fresh start to his life. The only bit of family he has is found in Karensville, Ohio, where cousin Ramsee (RJ Cyler) takes him into his home and social circle, which includes Ramsee’s girlfriend Aretha (E’myri Crutchfield) and Aretha’s best friend, Darla (Paris Jackson). A one-on-one game of basketball between the cousins ends abruptly as a local gang of neo-Nazis demand to use the court, only to be embarrassed by the cousins in an altercation.

The racists plot their counterattack, led by their leader, Jimmy (Harry Goodwins). While they’re unsuccessful in their pursuit of revenge, it’s only the opening salvo. Unique and his friends are in a fight for survival, one where they’re not only fighting racists, but a system that backs and conceals their actions.

The names plastered across the well-done poster of One Spoon of Chocolate are Quentin Tarantino and writer/director and of course legendary music artist RZA, well known for his appreciation of martial arts and action movies. You can kind of see the overarching vision when watching RZA’s latest feature, but it doesn’t take long to gather that it never will push past what it presents on the surface, and some of its more rousing moments come far too late.

It’ll be hard not to think of Get Out as One Spoon of Chocolate is viewed. The comparison begins with the first scene, which sees a young black male assaulted, abducted, and eventually killed while whites benefit from the death (the specifics to how won’t be spoiled). But unlike Peele’s debut which never felt like it was missing information as the story unfolded, the same can’t be said for RZA’s movie. Quite a few scenes fail to connect cohesively, and/or introduced characters turn out to be inconsequential to the movie’s narrative. How does the place where Unique ends up staying possess the right materials to aid in his retribution? Why does a traveling salesman need his cards dispersed by Unique, and why must the salesman give Unique a book of survival?

RZA has mentioned that this film’s taken a 13 year journey to get made, and it’s releasing at a time in our nation’s country where the division depicted in the film isn’t too far fetched. But the biggest problem with his screenplay is that it straddles the line of tone, exacerbating the pace of runtime. While this isn’t to say multiple/clashing tones can’t be pulled off, I’m not sure if RZA is the writer and director to do so, nor is his cast collectively talented enough to refine what he’s aiming for. The aggressively over-the-top caricatures that 99% of the Caucasians in this feature are outfitted with clash significantly with the reserved and grounded parts of the story. When the third act action arrives, RZA directs pieces of it with stylistic flair, and catharsis is achieved at a base level, as it’s entertaining to see overt bigots meet untimely ends. Saying this though doesn’t absolve the fact that this stretch of the feature feels like a completely different movie than what came before it, and some of the fight sequences suffer from questionable framing, poor lighting, wonky editing, or all of the three.

As the lead character, Moore is fine, but a little hard to buy as an action movie ass-kicker when things go balls to the wall, and the nonexistent chemistry he has with Jackson sticks out during their shared screen time. I’ll always be a fan of Cyler, but after this and Night Patrol, it’s hard to see another movie waste his skill and not quite know what to do with him. The aforementioned bigots play their one note adequtely, and Blair Washington brings a veteran presence and an air of gravitas into a nothing character.

In its final form, One Spoon of Chocolate isn’t inedible. But in not nailing down the type of core tone for the movie, it fails to satiate. Instead of getting a good piece of milk, dark, white, or semisweet, blending all together makes for a diluted piece of chocolate.

C-

Photo credits are courtesy of 36 Cinema.