BLACK DYNAMITE

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Instant classic.

Scott Sanders's lovingly executed Blaxploitation homage had me rolling on the floor at its Tribeca Film Festival screening with its great score, perfectly timed jokes, and sight gags.

"Black Dynamite" could just be Michael Jai White's big break into mainstream features for his unforgettable performance as a super-soul brother cut from the same purple velvet as Shaft or Dolomite.

Blaxploitation tropes, deadpan tone, and stereotypes are treated with sublime narrative precision and visual detail. Perhaps Sanders should make spoof versions of other genres.

He certainly has a magic touch with Blaxploitation. "Black Dynamite" could serve as a textbook DIY how-to guide for what constitutes the elements of Blaxploitation cinema.

This may be the all-time best party film next to "Animal House." If this movie doesn't make you laugh, call a doctor.

Rated R. 90 mins.

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THE SPOOK WHO SAT BY THE DOOR — CLASSIC FILM PICK

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This rarely seen classic of blaxploitation cinema is director Ivan Dixon’s 1973 incendiary filmic rendering of Sam Greenlee’s novel about a black former CIA agent who turns the government’s methods against itself while leading a group of “freedom fighters” through the streets of Chicago.

Larry Cook plays soul brother Dan Freeman with all the revolutionary charisma and spark of a man consumed with bringing justice and equality to his people.

This is one badass muthafucka. 

Pulled from cinemas by the FBI weeks after it opened to sell-out crowds, “The Spook Who Sat By The Door” is a blistering document of social revolt that still bristles with a timely, and timeless, impression of righteousness and intelligence.

Ivan Dixon’s guerrilla filmmaking tactics give this film a rare brand of immediacy that rings like the Liberty Bell. "The Spook Who Sat By The Door" is a crucial addition of the blaxploitation cannon. Get your hands on this cinematic hand grenade and watch it twice like a "double-tap kill shot."

Fuck Hollywood; this is the real shit. 

Rated PG. 102 mins.

BAADASSSSS!

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Writer/director/actor Mario Van Peebles ("New Jack City") creates a fascinating docudrama love letter to his father, Melvin Van Peebles, about his maverick dad's making of the groundbreaking independent blaxploitation film "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971).

There's no mistaking the revolutionary tone of the film's attention to the way blacks have been represented in the media, and the desperate measures necessary to rise above the prevalent oppression of minorities in this country.

Although "Baadasssss" is by no means a perfect movie - it loses momentum half way through - it does successfully capture a spirit largely missing in American cinema today.

Where are the modern John Singletons?

See the brilliant "Boyz N The Hood" (1991), or Ivan Dixon's "The Spook Who Sat By The Door (1973), to see the tradition that Melvin Van Peebles original Blaxploitation classic spawned.

Rated R 108 mins.