Okay. So I had never seen The Inkwell. I had heard of it and thought it was one of those classic Black movies that I managed to go decades without seeing. Well...this movie was ass and weird. It is about this 16 year old boy named Drew with the worlds thickest, driest afro who is a weirdo from New York in 1976. His family plans on going to see his aunt and her family in Martha's Vineyard. He talks to himself saying just random shit and has a doll that he talks to and speaks to him...in his mind. So they head out to this place and everyone seems to hate each other. Drew's grandmother seems to hate his mom. His aunt's husband seems to hate Drew's father. Drew's father hates all of them. He is a former Black Panther. He thinks the family is very uppity. I don't think so. I think they are just weirdos just like everyone else in the film.
Drew hangs with his cousin Junior who is a ladies man I guess. His room is filthy and he has two friends who are goofballs. As L. pointed out at least these guys aren't mean to Drew. They take him to the beach and Drew spots this girl named Lauren who has a perpetually shitty look on her face. At home it is never made clear why Drew's grandmother doesn't like her daughter. The fathers keep getting into it and they end up fighting on a tennis court at one point. Drew's parents are on the verge of divorce. Turns out that Drew set the house on fire and people are worried that he's nuts. I would say so. Drew gets set up with a therapist and she sees him talking to the doll in his bag. Drew meets this older lady named Heather whose husband Harold cheats on her at least three times in this movie.
Drew catches Harold cheating one too many times and sets up a death trap for him with this goofy ass music playing. I'm like, this ain't funny. This kid has burned a house down and talks out loud to a doll. This is a super villain origin story! One day Lauren sees Drew hanging with Heather and now she wants him. She makes him pay for their day of fun at the arcade and demands lobster. She shoves him into a lake and the sun switches positions a few times. Next thing you know they eating lobsters out of a bucket. She agrees to go to the 4th of July celebration with him. He goes to meet up with her and she stands him up. Drew ends up spotting her and this big ass dude in their draws kissing. She sees him looking and that doesn't stop her. She a ho.
Drew runs through the holiday parade recklessly and comes across Heather. She threw Harold out for his cheating ways and is on the beach looking sad. Now I told L. that I would bump this movie up to a 4/10 instead of the 1/10 that I was planning if she fucked this boy and he started acting normal. She said that wouldn't happen. It did! It totally did! She, a grown ass woman, has the sex with this 16 year old boy with all kinds of undiagnosed problems! If this was switched around this movie wouldn't have come out. He wakes up the next morning on the beach with his pants around his ankles and heads home. His cousin sniffs his fingers. His dad knows he has fucked and acting normal so everything is cool. Everyone has made up. Its a happy ending as Drew sniffs his fingers from the back of the car as they head back home.
This movie was fucking strange. The tone was all over the place. They played goofy music to let you know it was a funny scene happening. They had these heavy social commentaries going on where they didn't fit. The therapist braided Drew's nappy afro into messy ass braids and seemed to be okay with the fact that his doll told him to make rocket fuel at home and burn the house down. If this is one of your favorite movies something is wrong with you. This shit was weird.
Larenz Tate as Drew Tate
Joe Morton as Kenny Tate
Suzzanne Douglass as Brenda Tate
Glynn Turman as Spencer Phillips
Vanessa Bell Calloway as Francis Phillips
Adrienne-Joi Johnson as Heather Lee
Morris Chestnut as Harold Lee
Jada Pinkett as Lauren Kelly
Duane Martin as Junior Phillips
Mary Alice as Evelyn
Phyllis Yvonne Stickney as Dr. Wade
Click here for previous The Review and here for Black Movies 101.
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