“Shaft” underwhelms in opening weeks

by Blake Chapman In the early 1970’s a new genre of storytelling was created in the hills of Hollywood. “Blaxploitation” was the phrase coined for movies featuring black protagonists and their communities which also expressed the political and social issues that dominated the daily life of black America. The original Shaft (1971) was at the forefront of this cultural supernova coinciding with the Black Power movement; which had never before been represented on the silver screen. The eventual downfall of the genre came with increased controversy over if the themes presented were just tokens of black empowerment that bolstered white stereotypes about African-Americans. In the present day movies like Get Out, Black Panther and BlacKkKlansman have continued the effort to feature African-American artists and visionaries to an audience that is divided across generational and socioeconomic lines. Unfortunately, Shaft (2019) does little to advance this movement forward and instead stumbles into plenty of Hollywood's own worn-out stereotypes while trying its best to remain comedic and action-packed.

It seems that the writer’s room got the shaft

These performances are dysfunctional

Action that opens up the space