Review: Righteous fury comes to a racist town in RZAs 'One Spoon of Chocolate'

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For more than 30 years, Robert Diggs — better known as the RZA — has been one of music’s singular forces.Whether guiding the sound and aesthetic of the Wu-Tang Clan or scoring films for Jim Jarmusch and Quentin Tarantino, RZA has concocted an aural blueprint all his own.

As a director, though, his grip is far less firm, and despite his fourth feature being driven by a righteous fury, it’s rarely the potent, politically conscious action-thriller it aspires to be.Indebted to “First Blood” as much as it is to the beloved kung-fu flicks he grew up on, “One Spoon of Chocolate” looks hard at America’s racist past and present, but without the ingenuity or steely nerve of the Wu’s finest moments.RZA reunites with Shameik Moore, who starred in his 2020 heist drama “Cut Throat City” and played Wu-Tang member Raekwon in the Hulu series “Wu-Tang: An American Saga.” In “One Spoon of Chocolate,” Moore is Unique, who’s recently been released from a New York prison after being convicted for assault and battery.

(In Unique’s defense, he was protecting a neighbor from her abusive husband.)A veteran who served three tours in Iraq, Unique longs to be with family to regain his emotional equilibrium, venturing to Karensville, Ohio, to connect with his cousin Ramsee (RJ Cyler).But this sleepy heartland town is secretly rotten to the core, run by a racist white sheriff, McLeoud (Michael J.

Harney).Not long ago, Unique and Ramsee’s cousin Lonnie (Isaiah R.

Hill) died there under mysterious circumstances, although the film’s opening flashback reveals to the viewer precisely what took place: He was viciously assaulted by a masked white gang so his organs could be harvested by a corrupt doctor.Now in the present, Unique finds himself in the crosshairs of those same rednecks, who don’t like his kind in Karensville.Similar to “First Blood,” which introduced mo...