After collaborating with Quentin Tarantino on the score for Kill Bill, hip-hop master RZA decided to try his hand at filmmaking in the 2010s with the warmly received martial arts riff The Man with the Iron Fists. His latest film in the director’s chair, One Spoon of Chocolate, sees him tackle a different subgenre of exploitation cinema to mixed, if generally enjoyable, results.

What is One Spoon of Chocolate about?

One Spoon of Chocolate follows a recently paroled veteran who returns to his hometown of Karensville, Ohio (in one of the most obvious puns ever created) hoping to restart a quiet life. However, he soon finds himself back in war after a run-in with some local racists derails his fresh start.

One Spoon of Chocolate Review

The best thing about One Spoon of Chocolate is Shameik Moore (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse), who proves here that he is bona fide movie-star material. It’s not a role that’s particularly flattering for an actor, with cheesy one-liners galore that should undermine any emotional resonance. However, Moore brings a lot to the role in a way that makes it feel nice and grounded.

On the other hand, one of the biggest things holding One Spoon of Chocolate back is its cartoonish villains. Although it’s clear that RZA is angry with the very real bigotry that has been exhibited by white America, the characters are written in such a way that they are exaggeratedly racist and evil in a way that strains credulity. It’s difficult to take these people as genuine threats when everything that comes out of their mouths feels like something that no human — no matter how terrible ‌a human being they are — would say.

But as far as these characters go, they’re little more than devices to give the protagonist a reason to absolutely demolish people on screen and root for him while he does it, and RZA succeeds in that regard. There is some absolutely brutal stuff here that will satisfy action fans hungry for carnage, and while the cinematography can be a bit rough at times, the choreography is generally pretty good.

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That being said, it does take a bit too long for the action to get rolling. The first act feels as if it’s taking its time for its characterization, but once the cartoonish villains are introduced, everything goes out the window. The result is a nearly two-hour action flick that doesn’t have enough action to keep its momentum — made even worse by the fact that the ending is incredibly abrupt and feels like they either ran out of money or were forced to cut it short.

Still, RZA is a very assured filmmaker from a stylistic perspective, wearing his influences of grindhouse exploitation cinema on his sleeve. Some of these are obvious — namely the references to Tarantino, along with the films that inspired the Kill Bill director — but he also integrates some deeper cuts that make his voice feel his own and not merely like a “diet Tarantino.”

And given RZA’s status as the mastermind behind one of the greatest hip-hop groups of all time, it should come as no surprise that the soundtrack for One Spoon of Chocolate is incredible. There are some Wu-Tang needle drops (along with some ODB tracks — his DNA is all over this movie in a really heartfelt way), along with a score by Tyler Bates and RZA that gives the film a very naturally propulsive energy.

Is One Spoon of Chocolate worth watching?

Ultimately, One Spoon of Chocolate feels like an old-school Blaxploitation movie — and not the ones that have been added to the Criterion Collection. It’s just as trashy, politically incorrect, and melodramatic as those movies from the ‘70s that you might have discovered on VHS. And for what it’s worth, that seems to be the exact vibe that RZA is going for with his latest directorial outing. His output as a filmmaker might not be as consistent as his work as a musician, but he has no shortage of vision.

One Spoon of Chocolate hits theaters on May 1.

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