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Watching Hour Preview: Foxy Brown

If you're in the know about Blaxploitation, you don't need me to tell you why you should be at one of the Watching Hour screenings of Foxy Brown this weekend. You know Foxy is the mother of all Blaxploitation goddesses. If you don't know about Foxy, let me break it down for you... .

Foxy's man is a good cop, but when he gets in The Man's way, The Man kills her man. Foxy isn't going to take this lying down. Her heart is fueled by revenge... sexy revenge!!!! Foxy infiltrates a harem in order to gain the trust of those responsible. What follows is a war of escalation, but no matter how hard they beat her, no matter how cruel The Man gets, you don't fuck with Foxy Brown! She is one mean mama.

Pam Grier is the tops. Like many of my generation, I was introduced to her in Jackie Brown, which was of course a sort of homage to her early 70s Blaxploitation work. Foxy Brown is where she lays it all out. Forget kitschy mash ups like Sugar Hill. Forget silly genre parodies like I'm Gonna Get you Sucka! and Black Dynamite. This is the real deal. However good you think Foxy Brown is going to be, it's better.

Oh yeah, fair warning, this movie isn't for the feint of heart. When The Man sets his sights on Foxy, they get real, real mean. But it's worth it. There are great scenes in this movie. The prostitutes and judges party. The farm. Foxy's fight scenes. This movie kicks ass and takes names.

Magic Moment: The pickle jar, of course.

I think it's going to be a very Pam Grier weekend around my house. My girlfriend is a Pam Grier nut, and is giving me increasing amounts of shit about never having seen Coffy, so maybe we'll do a double header. Or we could track down The Big Bird Cage and go for the gold.

-Ben

The Watching Hour is a weekly film series at the Starz Film Center, highlighting new and old cult, genre, or otherwise bizarro movies. Quite simply, The Watching Hour is usually the best thing to do in Denver on a Friday or Saturday night. From Giallo to schlock, Blaxploitation to Aussiesploitation, zombies to martial arts to who-knows-what, and everywhere in between. This is good ol’ rock and roll cinema spectacle. Not to be missed. (See the schedule, buy tickets, get directions, etc. here.)