JordanHey guys, welcome to The Out the Trunk Pod with Jordan and Darius. This is our movie review segment. My name is Jordan. That's Jordy B Riding on all socials.
DariusAnd I'm Darius. That's Deez All Up in the area on all socials.
JordanAnd today we're going to be reviewing The Blackening.
DariusAll right, we're going to go with Act 1, Reunion at the Cabin. Some college friends, 7. 8 surprise reunite for Juneteenth at a secluded cabin expecting games and celebration. Their weekend turns unsettling when an ominous discovery reveals someone has already carefully planned their arrival there. Classic bait and switch using the known actors to draw you in then send them home.
JordanRight, just kill them off right away.
DariusScream did this. And a few others did it where it's like, Hey, we only need you for like 10 minutes.
JordanYeah, yeah, you get two scenes, bro.
DariusYou'll be home before dinner, so.
JordanYeah, right. You only get the lines for real.
DariusYeah. So that and the shrooms in Molly made me feel, oh, man, when my kickbacks used to just have booze and maybe we.
JordanYeah, we never really did that in college. I mean, people did, but I didn't. So, yeah, I'm with you on that. Also, is it just weird? Did you feel that this movie came out 10 years ago?
DariusIt was very resistance Twitter coded. Like it was the whole linking for Juneteenth is just not as real.
JordanYeah, it felt very right. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's actually wrote this down. I think I can't remember. So somebody said like, we're missing out on like black moves. Our black moves are very different now. And somebody made a great point and they said it's because A lot of black movies now, they're just explaining our blackness to white people.
DariusYeah.
JordanAnd this movie kind of does that a little bit.
DariusIt's very, you remember when like Oscar so white was like the peak of Twitter? It just feels like it was written during that time where it was just like, you know, where there's just a certain kind of, I have it in here, like a blavity. Yeah, I'll get into it later. But yeah, it's very much they literally play a blackboard game where it's like, name that black tune. And it's like, yeah, very cringe. What else you got for act one, man?
JordanIt's funny you brought up the first scene that they had two people that we know, Ivan **** famously, of course, of Insecure, and Jay Farrell from SNL and his impressions. He's Jay Ferro is a great impressionist, and he was in this movie for 5 minutes and he was terrible in every minute of this movie. He was saying.
DariusBecause he wasn't trying that. He was like.
JordanHe's just not believable as an actor to me.
DariusI don't know why. Oh, well, yeah, because he's not good. He's not. Yeah, he's not. I just don't see the talent impressions. Don't impress me. And he's not funny.
JordanHe's not as good for comedy. Correct. Yeah.
DariusAnd I don't I don't get I understand why impressions are important for like an SNL because you need the skits and the different things like that. But I think having good characters, original characters is more important than just, okay, so you can sound like Chris Rock, but like, why is that funny? I don't get it.
JordanYeah it's like like I love impressions and like Eddie is one of the greatest ever obviously and he one of the greatest impressions ever but he also had great jokes you know uh that's the difference there um and I think Jay for me Alicia Farrow he does his impression so much that when he's being himself that feels like a bad act like I feel like a bad impression uh so maybe that's probably just what it is but yeah he wasn't great no he wasn't um.
DariusWhat's the most amount of people you would go on a cabin vacation with? Assuming, let's just say a four bedroom cabin.
JordanFour bedroom cabin vacation.
DariusYeah, you're not renting a McMansion or anything, just a regular old cabin in the woods.
JordanSo there's four, four, four rooms in a cabin, probably seven people. I'm assuming there's some couples there.
DariusSo yeah, okay. So if there's couples, the numbers different, but just like I mean, so I would say 6, two couples and then, two singles. Two singles. But I'm too old to be sleeping on anybody's couch. I need my own room. And I don't share rooms with people I'm not ******* with women I'm not *******. So I don't share rooms with dudes at all. And I don't share rooms with women I'm not *******. So it would be It would be, you had that to clean up that people. You had to make that not gender neutral. And so, yeah, I had to clean that up. That sounded a little too riding the fence. No pause. But let's just move on.
JordanYou know what's funny? It's funny because somebody was talking to me about they have a beach house. I know it's a friend of mine. And there was something like, yeah, we should go there. And I'm like, Yeah, sure.
DariusJust you and him.
JordanNo, no, it was a girl. Well, it's a friend. No, not a family does or something like that.
DariusWhy are you here? I can't say I'm wax, so I have to look.
JordanOkay, fair enough.
DariusFair enough. We move right along. What did you said your answer was seven. My answer was six. It was fun though. My family and I are planning a cabin like retreat for Christmas. Nice. But we're going to do it.
JordanWe're kind of trying to plan something like that too. Yeah.
DariusWe're not going to do it on Christmas though, because why pay? None of us still believe in Santa Claus. We're all grown. So it's like we're going to go like 2 weeks before and get the same vibe, but for like half the price.
JordanThat's smart.
DariusYou were not flying on Christmas, booking a hotel on Christmas, going grocery shopping on Christmas. Like the youngest is 22. It was my niece. None of us believe in Santa Claus. So why don't we just move this up two weeks and save ourselves a bunch of money and a bunch of hacks. That's smart.
JordanYeah. I'm with you on that. Yeah, we're trying to we're thinking about trying to take a trip this year for Christmas too, but we're trying to get everybody on the same page and all that. You know, we got a big family, so it's tough to.
DariusYeah, my sister showed us the cabins and they look dope and we're going to, we're going to, it's in Minnesota. So mom and pops and my nieces don't have to fly in, but like my sister and I will fly in and, hit the grocery store, buy up anything we think we might need at the liquor store, get some games and I'll cook, take turns cooking, breakfast, lunch, dinner, things like that. So I look forward to it.
JordanThe 3 squares. Yeah. So it sounds fun. Okay, so the one thing that I thought was a bit unbelievable about this movie in the first act was the one thing. Well, several actually. The first guy who pulls up to the house He didn't have the code. And I'm like, you are out in the country, you know, you black and you don't have the code to get into the house that you're renting for the week. Come on now. Like, that's not even logical.
DariusSo I have had now wasn't in the middle of nowhere. It was we were we were taking a cruise out of Miami. But you never fly in the day of the cruise. You fly the night before because flights can get you don't miss your boat. And so we got a family Airbnb in Miami the night before and my flight got in early. And so I just wasn't thinking, I don't do Airbnbs. So I just caught an Uber to the address and I got there and I couldn't get in. So I have not, I wasn't in the middle of nowhere, but it has happened to me. So it can happen if you're not used to Airbnbs.
JordanOkay. So, okay. So what, in the first actor so far in this movie, did you find not believable? Like were some of the things that we were like, we wouldn't do that.
DariusMajor party foul inviting someone that they're not telling anyone else. Yeah, no one cares if you invite your dude. No one cares if y'all, whatever, y'all, everybody grown. But I need to know, like, I'm supposed to be in the woods in a cabin with these people. I need a full attendee list. You can't just bring people on me.
JordanYou can't just have no surprises.
DariusYeah, and like, I'm probably gonna be cool with it, but it is really poor for him to do that to somebody.
JordanYeah. I had that happen once. A friend invited me, hit me up in a group chat of like four people to come to a kickback. I see on social media, it's like a big party. I'm like, cool. I **** with everybody there. I walk in, the first people I see are two people I really, really don't **** with. And I'm like, none of y'all thought to text me. Hey, yo, code red or anything like?
DariusYeah, yeah. I think it's a bit different when you're like on a vacation and you literally can't leave, right?
JordanThat's fair.
DariusAnd, you know, but it's still poor form, you know, if you know, I have at least a heads up, you know, if you know I have.
JordanRight. Let me like be mentally prepared and ****.
DariusBut yeah, I'm at this point, man, I'm just kind of a go with the flow dude. So yeah, I don't know. I probably I would find it to be poor form, but I wouldn't make it a problem on the cab.
JordanI hear you. So yeah. Did you find him to be annoying though? The, I forget what his name, Dwayne, who just like made it such a big deal that she brought her ex to the thing.
DariusYes, 100%. He was being a big baby.
JordanYeah.
DariusUntil he got high, which, could have done without. But he was just being like, ultimately, he.
JordanWas like, did you want to, yeah, I was like, dude, do you want to date him or do you want to date her? Like, I don't want that. What's the real reason behind you acting like that? Because most friends would not.
DariusAnd I understand the frustration that she probably was like ******** to him about whatever dude did.
JordanFor sure.
DariusBut like, man, I don't know, dude, everybody grown. And at a certain point, you got to just accept that grown people going to do what grown people want to do. And you can't keep With 2 grown people want each other, ain't nothing you can say to keep them apart.
JordanIt's nothing you can say, nothing to do.
DariusNothing to say, you just got to let it run its course.
JordanAin't no spell you can catch.
DariusYeah, it's like a cold, man. Ain't no medicine. Just let that run its course.
JordanRight.
DariusWe want to get into Act 2.
JordanYeah.
DariusAll right. Act 2, the game begins. forced into a twisted game built around stereotypes, to say the least, and friendship. The group must answer questions, confront old tensions, and cooperate while searching for a way to escape the cabin alive. Is it just me or does every large party have a random person no one seems to know?
JordanYeah. Every, all the time.
DariusIf you ever go to, if there's 20 or more people at the function, kickback, whatever you want to call it, there's always one where you're like, who is that? And they're like, oh. So you don't know who this is?
JordanYeah. And you walk in and you're like, did I, did I meet them and forget? And he's like, it's like his wife, husband.
DariusI'm so and so. It's like, what's up, man? How's it going? Yeah, cool. Yeah, dude. And they, it just, you just, no one ever actually confirms who they are, who they're with. Yeah. But you know, that's how you know it's good vibes. Cause you know.
JordanThat's true. You want to be inclusive and you got to have friends who know how to meet new people. That's incorrect. Okay, so the spades, the first spades conversation, that was the one realistic thing in this movie where people will chess at you for not playing or not playing well or not knowing how to play, but they're not actually willing to teach you how to play. And it's like, how is anyone supposed to learn?
DariusIt's if you can play, no, you can play spades. It's not, you know, But it is true that I don't recall someone teaching me how to play. It's just I just know. So I don't remember anyone. I remember someone sitting me down and teaching me how to shoot dice. Because doing that wrong can get you harmed. Like literally.
JordanYou will be out of here.
DariusSo you know that requires strict instruction, but.
JordanCorrect.
DariusSpades, I just kind of, I don't remember, I probably did some dorky **** and just like found a computer application and taught me that myself that way, but I don't remember learning how specifically.
JordanYeah, I learned how, because you only play it in like big parties and I don't really go to a lot of big events all the time. You just kind of get.
DariusThat I can just throw caps when you say things. I wish I could just throw a bunch of caps right now.
JordanFlag on the play.
DariusYes. Five yard penalty. Repeat first down.
JordanOkay, let me rephrase that. Of the events I've been to this year, spades weren't played at a lot of them. I put it like that.
DariusI feel like that's a recipe we're losing. I don't remember the last time a game of spades broke out in an event.
JordanReally? Yeah. I mean, so it was played at Sed's birthday party. It was played at, I think, if we played it, they played at Friendsgiving. I think it was played at my cousin's graduation party this year. So that was a few months ago. So, you know, suck my aunts and you know older people you know of course so they know how to play of course.
DariusMaybe they get out enough.
JordanThat's probably true no I think I think we probably are losing the recipes a bit like I mean I don't I mean I don't know a lot of younger people I guess but I I'd imagine they may not know how to play Spades probably not it.
DariusLeads to a question I have later but it's it's more toward the end so okay um What is your most memorable game of spades? I guess I will replace the question I have there because it's bad, but what is your most memorable game of spades?
JordanIt's hard to say. So my parents were kind of like the host parents, they always like, we always had a bunch of cookouts and stuff like that at our house and all that stuff. So we'd have a lot of spades games at our house. I just remember my dad, Cussing out lots of people and get almost get into lots of fights with people **** over space. People accusing people of cheating and **** like that. You know how that goes.
DariusReading it again, playing under the table.
JordanYeah.
DariusMy most memorable one, 2014. I had moved to Raleigh in August, and so we had a family trip to Orlando. not Disney World, but Orlando. We did one day in Universal when, we didn't go to Disney. We were in Orlando. And so I had just financed the move from Southern California to Raleigh in August. So I had no bread like that. So I caught the Amtrak from Raleigh to Orlando.
JordanAnd so how long has it trained?
Darius12 hours? Like 20, 13, 13. And the way down, I just slept. the way back up, they're like, the long trains have a community car and like a bar car. And so I just walked back there trying to get a beer and there were two different game of spades being and played. And so I just sat down and played spades with people as we took the train up the coast basically. And at different styles people would get off and then people would get on and some people would join and people, and I'd hear the stories like one of the dudes playing was on the train back from, he just got out of prison. And so you get out of prison, they give you like 100 bucks and he just bought a train ticket to his hometown because no one picked him up. And so he was just exchanging stories, talking ****. The plan was do some drinking. We ain't really do any drinking. We were just, and we did that. **** it must have started the train. We did that all through the night. I don't think I stopped until I got off the train at like 8am. And so that was a really great experience, man. Just playing fades with random people taking the train up the coast and just hearing everyone's story. When you're dealing with people who are taking a train from Orlando to Raleigh, You get some interesting characters and these it was fun, man. I'll by contrast, my story was kind of boring, but.
JordanThe lure of Florida.
DariusYeah, it was just I heard about a divorce and the guy who got out of prison. He's like he's excited to get home and we were just playing spades. It's a friendly game of spades up and down the East Coast. So that was my.
JordanThat's dope. That sounds really fun.
DariusIt was a good time. You got anything else for Act 2?
JordanYeah so one of my favorite scenes from the movie is where they're they're playing the game all together and it's the question about how many black people were on friends and it's funny because I actually knew the answer and I was like literally thinking it as they were saying the names you know And I like every person that said, they were like, I don't really watch Friends, but I know the mom for Fresh Prince was on one episode. And, you know, I don't really watch Friends, but Gabrielle Union was a love interest. And, you know, it's one of those, I feel it's one of those like lies that some people tell us just sitting it seemed like ultra poor black. It's like, I never saw Friends. It's like, okay, I think people haven't seen it, but.
DariusMy answer would have been zero. But. I can't say I've never watched an episode of Friends because there's been, you're in a hotel room. Right, there's eight channels.
JordanIt's on every channel.
DariusOf course, I've watched it, but I couldn't tell you what happened on the episode. But yeah, I've certainly watched the episode. In the episodes I've seen, there were no black people in that. No, right, yeah. My answer would have been zero, but it would be because It wouldn't have been because I didn't watch the show at all. So.
JordanRight. But it's just funny. Also, I did like the fact that the answer, the correct answer was I didn't watch Friends. I watched Living Single.
DariusOh, that was very corny. I would do the white things like the black. It is black.
JordanYeah. Well, you listen to that weird **** that rock and roll.
DariusYeah. Oh, my God. It's like. You'll tell someone you like a show and they'll be like, hey, black people on it. It's like, I want black shows too, dude. Everything I watch doesn't have to align with my worldview. It just feels like a very boring way to go through life. But I know people who like, if the show is not primarily casted with black people. They just won't watch it. But that just feels like a very boring way, a very unimaginative way to consume content. So.
JordanRight.
DariusThat's not to say you shouldn't watch anything black. I watch a lot of black ****.
JordanYou need to watch. Yeah.
DariusI don't know. I just don't I don't filter my content through. Does it meet my racial quota? I think that's a weird way to go through life. I'm trying to I have all the questions here. And yeah, none of them are that good. Name the actor who played O.J. Simpson's lawyer.
JordanOh, keep getting. Oh, no. Courtney B. Vance.
DariusYeah. So I don't really. That's just me reading a list. So you got anything else right to.
JordanOK, so yeah, they have the first guy who's coming up the stairs and they're trying to save Molly from the guy and. For some reason, they have like the smallest dude and a woman blocking the door. I'm like, Why don't you all get together to block the door like that? I didn't get that as they sit there to talk about the Adderall that that girl took. That was pretty dumb. Also, I feel like the guy who whoever wrote the movie has never done drugs before because Adderall doesn't make you spacey. It makes you super aware and attentive. So I didn't get that either.
DariusYeah, I mean, I thought that was odd as well. The whole I mean, Adderall is literally attention ADHD medication. So I thought that was strange, too. You know, I wasn't I don't really did pick. I expect people to do **** **** in scary movies because that's like the premise.
JordanRight, for sure.
DariusI so call a man boy because I don't I've been watching snowfall. But he The movie would have ended. He's armed. He should have just, we're always going to sit in this room and I'm going to guard the door with my gun. And the first, when the bad guy walks through the door, I'm just going to shoot him and we're going to go home. You know, but that's what the one armed person should do. Everyone get behind me. We're going to block off all walls. We're going to check off the entry point. And when he walks through, we'll shoot him and the movie's over. But that would make for a very boring movie. And then we get to act three where they just run through the woods. So You got anything else for that one?
JordanYeah, that's pretty much it. I mean, I did. I did write down who's the blackest because that scene was pretty kind of funny, but it wasn't much to say about it because I mean, I remember seeing that scene on Twitter and it went viral. I thought it was really funny back then. It didn't necessarily age great, I guess. Also, it was clear as day that The weird dude was probably not going to be conventionally considered quote unquote the blackest.
DariusIt couldn't have made it more obvious he was the bad guy. So heading into actually turning the tables with trust strained and options narrowing the friends combine their strengths, challenge assumptions and seize control of the night, discovering what solidarity requires when every choice carries consequences for everyone. I have here the twist was, you know, the guy The weird guy was the bad guy and they were mean to him earlier. And I just went like, this is, I blamity blacks like fever dream. Oh my God, the cool kids are mean to me. I was just like, they say I talked white. Oh my God. 40 years old still because you're teasing 8th grade. It's like, I just, I allow space for that because it did happen. I was there, but my God, people, like it just, it was a lot. So what else you got? What do you have factory?
JordanYeah. Yeah, they did the one thing you're never ever supposed to do in a horror movie split up. It did work out in their favor, of course, in this movie. Yeah, I did write down the weird kid because, you know, one of my things growing up was always, no matter what happens in school, Always, always, always be nice to the quiet, weird kids because you want to make sure that you make it home.
Dariusa more charitable interpretation of that would be nice to them because it's, like being a kid is stressful and, a lot of change should be nice to everybody. And, it's good to welcome people and, be friends to everybody. So we'll go with the charitable explanation for that. So so it was, I was alluding to it earlier with spades, are we losing that? This movie made me think like that quiz that they had and that trivia that they had and the spades thing is like, is blackness still a monocultural experience?
JordanThat's a great question. I feel like that's really all this movie was trying to say. They just didn't say it well. No, it's not. I mean, it never was. I don't think it ever was. Well, let me rephrase that. After, well, in the US, obviously slavery was a monolithic experience. Reconstruction, Jim Crow, all that was monolithic. But I feel like around, say, I don't know, the 70s or 80s, that's when you started to see different archetypes of black people, I feel like. On a broader scale.
DariusI think housing used to be much more segregated. So black neighborhoods used to have people of all socioeconomic backgrounds. And I think now you're like, and they created a monoculture experience because like the doctor lived in the same neighborhood as the UPS.
JordanThe maid or the bus driver.
DariusAnd who lived in the same neighborhood as you know,
JordanThe drug dealers.
DariusThe drug dealers. And so, because there's only so many places you could live and as a black person, so we all, up through the 90s, we all kind of shared, regardless of our socioeconomic status, the same experience. And I think that is no longer true. Like there are rich black suburbs now. You know, and like black neighborhoods and bad neighborhoods are almost entirely low-income people now where it used to not be the case. It used to be even in the low neighborhood or low income neighborhoods, like the guy who, had a good government job still stayed in that neighborhood. it just, that was just his city. That was his neighborhood. And so I think that fracturing of where we live, the sprawling out of where we live has sort of weakened the ties of a monocultural blackness, if you will. So I just want to say that that's, our experience is fractured. But since we all stayed in the same neighborhoods, we still had the, I'm sorry, our professional lives fractured, our incomes fractured, but our experiences didn't fracture because we all lived in, we all went to the same block parties. We all, Thanksgiving was at the same place. And so it's families now where the well-off such and such don't even come home for the holidays anymore. And so I do think it has fractured. And whether that's a good or bad thing, I don't know. But Yeah, I would say it has fractured a little bit. It's no longer monocultural.
JordanSo yeah, that's very true. Yeah, I think the movie tried to say that and just didn't do a great job because each person was very different. You know, you had the the super pro black light skinned girl. You had the dark skin, like you had the baddie, you know, you had the dude who was like in the street **** but, you know, was in school and I guess got his life together, married the white girl. You got the dude who was, I think he was like a personal trainer or something like that, whatever. Then you got the, you know, basically, essentially Kelly from Insecure, knockoff, who was like the funny loud girl, you know, they trying to fit every, check every box.
DariusYeah, but it's still, you're still dealing with a selected group of people because all these people went to the same college. And most black people don't go to college at all. So it's still, you're still dealing with the same. It's still like, obviously people go to college and they go off and do different things, but you know, they're not there. I doubt most of them live in black neighborhoods primarily. Right. And so, you know, it's just, I do where you live shapes A lot. And you know, I think, The fact that we no longer all live in the same neighborhoods. And look, you know, I get it. I'm not in a rush to move back to the projects either, but it does. I am a little bit intentional about where I live. Like I live in an apartment complex that's still primarily black. And so it's what I prefer. But I do think. You lose connection to your culture when when you, you know. aren't seeing a wide range of it, if you will.
JordanYeah, that's very true. I think, like, even for me, like, you know, I'm in a predominantly white neighborhood, so we don't really talk to the most of, or they don't really talk to us, somebody like that. A lot of them in my neighborhood. So I have, you know, my close friends from where we hang out at, and then I have my friends who live, you know, in other cities. They're mostly black, you know what I'm saying? I mean, I have white friends, of course, but by and large, I almost have to go other places to see my black friends, because Raleigh is not segregated, but there is so many different archetypes of black people that you see around that can make it hard to find a good circle of people.
DariusI hear you, man. I just, you know, it's important to me that like, when I get home from my jog and I wave at my neighbor, she says, how you doing, baby? And when I go and check the mail, the fellas are at the park shooting ball and offering a shot if they're out by the grill and things like that. So it's just, look, am I, you know, Mr. Social with the neighborhood? Am I outside throwing block parties? No, but it's important to me that the waves are friendly.
JordanYes, yeah, exactly. You know, yeah for sure it's like you know in my neighborhood it can be broad daylight and I'm walking Charlie and somebody might steal across the street you know what I mean
Dariusthat is fair what else you got for act three
Jordanoh yeah so yeah we guys we talked about it but did you feel like that the motive was really **** **** for his revenge plot on all these all these people He met them one night at a party.
DariusI don't know, man.
JordanDrove home drunk and tried to kill everybody.
DariusYou know, I, yes, it was paper thin. But the way I see grown people carrying on about, oh, like if I have to hear one more anime kid talking about how mean they were to him in 6th grade, there's a Comic-Con in every ******* city, dude. Go to that and stop ******** at me. I just, I grow, get over it. You know, like these people deeply, deeply feel a way about it. And I think they, I, you know, It seems silly to me, but the way these people be carrying on, who knows? You got anything else for act three?
JordanYeah. No, that's all I got.
DariusAll right, what do you rate it, man?
JordanI gave it 2 1/2 stars.
DariusI gave it three. I found, I saw it in the theaters when they came out and it was a much more enjoyable first watch than a second watch. And so I'm going to factor in that theater because if you ask me leaving the theater, I just had a four. But it's three. The ending was stupid. I just like endless chase scenes. Honestly, I fast forwarded through like 20 minutes of them running around the woods.
JordanYeah, you really could have.
DariusAnd I didn't miss a thing. So I'm going to give it a three. And yeah, I'm with you.
JordanThe acting was good or pretty good for most of it. Just the script wasn't great.
DariusPaper thin. So with that, all right. Thank you for listening. My name is Darius. That's these I love the area on all socials.
JordanAnd I'm Jordan. This Jordan be writing on all socials.
DariusPlease rate, like, and subscribe. We're at Out the Trunk Pod on all socials, Gmail, website, Google, all of the above. Reach us out, rate, like, subscribe, all of the above. Thank you.
JordanThat's a wrap. Thanks for coming to the movies with us.
DariusAll right, y'all.
