Eve's Bayou

Directed by little-known actress Kasi Lemmons, Eve's Bayou tackles insanely ambitious material for a debut feature: it's a period piece concerning such heady subjects as teenage sexual jealousy and filial rage, with a soupçon of voodoo thrown in for good measure. And incredibly, most of it works. True, Lemmons' use of the unusual setting isn't exactly inspired; though the story takes place, as the title declares, down on the bayou (in Loozyyana, to be'g 'zact), and the movie was shot on location, everything sandwiched between the picturesque opening and closing shots of marshy swampland seems fairly generic--most of it might as well have been set in a Detroit suburb, despite the colorful accents and black magic subplots. But as a writer, she's got the unexpected-yet-inevitable thing down pat, and her skill behind the lens is considerable. And what a thrill and a relief it is to finally see a film directed by a black woman that transcends political correctness, that's genuinely cinematically exciting: a movie that's a movie, not a tract. Recommended. (M. D'Angelo)