I’m not really sure if I should even try to write a review for this film, but for more in depth insight with some very good analysis, I highly recommend watching [this](https://youtu.be/-qcCaALrx5U?si=spFXJz_GoR4cfC3x) video and reading [this](https://www.patreon.com/posts/fuck-irony-or-71065105) review. This movie is pretty crazy. After watching the video I linked above, I began to understand why Spike Lee doesn’t receive as much credit as he ought to for all of the amazing work he has done over the course of his decades long career. He wasn’t a sellout, he didn’t drop everything after She’s Gotta Have It and start making Hollywood movies that would have had him saying and doing things he didn’t actually want to say or do. He kept on making movies that he wanted to, movies that were deemed controversial, but they really shouldn’t be. Spike sees his movies as thought provoking and I heavily agree with him. I understand now why Spike’s new movie Highest 2 Lowest isn’t getting a wide release, yet when Ridley Scott and Martin Scorsese made movies for Apple they got wide releases. It’s sad seeing a revolutionary filmmaker be treated like this. The fact that Bamboozled is still relevant today speaks volumes. It’s eerie watching Delacroix (played stupendously by Damon Wayans), slowly become a sellout, slowly turning a blind eye to the obvious racism on display through the show he created just so he could stay relevant and continue making projects. He gets what he wants, but at what cost. Sure, he’ll be rich and he’ll never be out of a job, but at the expense of bringing back a negative portrayal of his own race into the spotlight. There’s a scene in this in which Delacroix is being interviewed and in response to a question about criticism to his show (which is called Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show) he says that slavery ended 400 years ago and that people should let it go because now it’s the 2000s, it’s a new millennium. There’s a clip in the video I linked above in which an influencer now known as Big Groove (formerly known as Groovin Gorilla) says how his former name didn’t have anything to do with racist stereotypes and he follows that by saying something very similar to what Delacroix said about it being a new era. This movie is ahead of its time and is very direct and very literal in how it goes about its message. Some would argue that a minstrel show such as the one displayed in this film would never actually happen in real life, but when you watch this and see how Michael Rapaport’s character acts and you see how that one Yale graduate talks to Delacroix about the rules they have to follow in order to avoid any criticism thrown at them, it’s not too far fetched. Also, Delacroix’s dad is Delacroix’s foil. His dad is a comedian who didn’t sellout to Hollywood, he even says that he couldn’t say what Hollywood wanted him to say, he has too much pride. He would much rather enjoy performing comedy to people he loves than not enjoy performing on Hollywood’s agenda while making money. Delacroix, however, does what his father couldn’t. Even though Delacroix came up with the show in order to get fired and even though he thought of it as ironic, the mere fact that he even went there in order to get canned is crazy. By the way, it’s important to note that when Delacroix comes up with his idea for the show, he exploits Manray and Womack, two poor black men, in order to succeed. He had always ignored Manray and Womack before, who had previously asked him for a chance, but now he goes to them just to save himself and his position. Spike Lee did not hold back with this film and sadly, that’s probably why it flopped. I’ve seen clips of him saying that even though he is one of the most accomplished directors of all time, he would sometimes need to fundraise with the help of his fan base because Hollywood thought of him as controversial. It just goes to show how twisted up the modern media world is and this movie is the perfect satire about that twisted up world of media. Additionally, Jada Pinkett Smith delivers a great supporting performance as Sloan, who points out the misogyny within the world of media. Its not the main focus of the movie, but it’s an important topic to shed light on nonetheless. There’s just a lot to take away from this, there always is when it comes to a Spike Lee Joint.
