Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2015
Images from the Internet
Full Circle Filmworks
87 minutes / 2015
www.fullcirclefilmworks.com
www.mvdvisual.com
Images from the Internet
Mandingo Sex Addict
Directed by Sean WeathersFull Circle Filmworks
87 minutes / 2015
www.fullcirclefilmworks.com
www.mvdvisual.com
Tracy Spencer (Sean Weathers) is a
bit of a nerdy guy: a part-time sports writer who has a strong belief in Jesus.
He’s in love with Felicia (Catalina Dias), who has just left an abusive long-term
relationship and is not ready to just jump into one with Tracy yet.
In a sad state, Tracy runs into the
now grown-up sister of a school chum, leading them to form the creature with
two backs and smoke something out of a pipe, like many good Christians would do
(especially if they’re Republican, apparently, but I digress…). She nonchalantly
tells him about the suicide of someone close to him that happened a few years
back. He hits the bottle, depressed because everything is going bad for him. There’s even a poster of Edvard Munch’s
The Scream in the bedroom to reflect
his attitude. Luckily, this narcissist has a bestie, Nick (Weather’s regular
onscreen sidekick Waliek Crandall); unfortunately, the double dog is trying to
make moves on Felicia.
Anyway, she has a change of heart and
being the guilty Christian he is, Tracy tells her the truth about his fling, so
she rejects him. These events start him on a downward spiral that leads to the
title of the film.
Tracy is both similar and polar
opposites of Weathers’ last few roles in Scumbag
Hustler and Ace Jackson is a Dead Man.
The other characters were full of false bravado fueled by addiction, but Tracy
is more of a conservative cliché who cries and whines often, with glasses and Andy Williams-style sweaters (scarily, the gray one is almost exactly like one I own), but
with sliding down the razor blade of his titular sex addiction, he de-evolves
into a crazed, shell of himself.
Like many of Weathers’ films, there
is a the introduction of a bit of a larger social aspect, such as one of Tracy’s
friends, Brent (Kevin J. Williams) having distaste for Nick’s use of the N-word. However,
this same character has no problem referring to women by the B-word, so I’m not
sure if the message is just not use the N-word, or the hypocrisy and sexism.
Kinda works looking at it both ways.
Speaking of which, obviously from the
title, there is a lot of sex, all
involving Weathers’ character. Sean is not afraid to show his nads, ass or
anything else as he beds woman after woman. And, adding a bit of sexism myself,
they are stacked, Jack. Cleavage aplenty and nudity overflowing as body parts
and appendages swing wild. This is easily Weathers’ best looking female
co-stars to date; acting levels vary, however, but that can be said historically
across the board in any low budget genre.
Also amid the high drama, there is
also quite a bit of humor, such as when the character Crayon (?!?) Jackson
(Adonis Williams) goes into full gangsta mode and threatens Tracy (e.g., if the
viewer takes a shot for every time he uses “dawg,” they’d possibly die of alcohol
poisoning).
Using guerilla-style filming around
New York City and Brooklyn during winter, it’s nice to see Coney Island, and
especially the Narrows between Ceasar’s Bay [sic] and the Verrazano Bridge, very
close to where I grew up. Aswad Issa also keeps getting better with the camera,
so a special nod to him.
The ending is a bit abrupt, but
actually it’s probably how it should end; no, I won’t go into details,
but I can see debates about it down the line between film geeks like myself,
which is a wonderful thing. The only unsatisfying piece is the incomplete
credits (e.g., the cast and characters), and that’s pretty minor
in the scheme of things.
Definitely a strong release for Sean
Weathers, and from what I understand he is going to be putting further Blaxploitation
/ exploitation / softcore sexploitation films aside for a while for some straight-up horror. That
should be fun, too!
No comments:
Post a Comment