Bamboozled

Pierre Delacroix, the only Black writer at a television network, pitches something he expects to get him fired: a literal revival of the nineteenth-century minstrel show, a variety programme with Black performers in blackface. The network buys it and it becomes a huge hit. Spike Lee does not soften the satire and forces the audience to look at what it is laughing at. In the closing section he runs a compilation from the real archive of racist representation in American film and television, and the argument closes there. Damon Wayans, Savion Glover and Jada Pinkett Smith star. It was shot on digital video, drew no interest on release, and earned its standing over years. Who it is for: viewers who want hard satire and the history of American media. Who it is not for: anyone who must avoid blackface and images of racist representation.