A toothless satire blends with a half-baked rom-com in “The American Society of Magical Negroes,” a flat comedy which barely seems invested in its provocative, high-wire premise, nor does it know what to do with it.
Justice Smith plays Aren, a put-upon young artist whose yarn sculptures are largely confusing to potential buyers. He’s so sheepish that he’s practically apologetic they’re not connecting, and he walks away from a gallery opening defeated, his shoulders slumped.
On the way home, in the midst of being framed for a robbery, he meets Roger (David Alan Grier), who recruits him into the secret group of the title, who meet in a “Kingsmen”-like clandestine headquarters and are headed up by the flamboyant Dede (Nicole Byer). Their stated mission is to make white people comfortable, because when white people get agitated, or nervous, that’s when bad things start to happen. As long as they can buddy up to white people and make them feel assuaged, or more in control, the balance of the universe is kept in order and life goes on.
It’s a callback to the “Magical Negro” trope in popular storytelling, in which a Black character exists seemingly only to make a white character feel better about themselves, or to overcome personal strife or obstacles. (See “The Green Mile” or “The Legend of Bagger Vance,” both of which are parodied here.) “American Society” brings the “Magical Negro” out of books and movies and into real life, and Aren is assigned a case where he’s asked to partner up with tech bro Jason (Drew Tarver), who works for a Facebook-like social media company.
