A young man left his posh Kingwood enclave recently and hopped on board a pontoon boot crossing a Georgia lake for The New Redneck Island, joining 23 other rowdy contestants for the reality TV show now airing at 9 p.m. Thursdays on CMT.
Hunter Larsen, a 2009 graduate of Kingwood High School, is one of the 12 guys and 12 gals fighting it out in various competitions — including mud-pit fights — for the grand cash prize of $100,000 to be awarded at the end of the season. In the premiere earlier this month, these muscle-bound, bikini-wearing Southerners dove right into the raucous action with beer bong chugging and language frequently bleeped.
Larsen, who told Your Houston News he doesn't consider himself a "redneck" but does enjoy being an outdoor-loving guy, landed the gig after interviewing via Skype. That led to a trip to Georgia for a personal introduction and then it was on with the show.
These muscle-bound, bikini-wearing Southerners dove right into the raucous action.
In its fourth season, The New Redneck Island is hosted by wrestling icon "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Jessie James Decker, a country pop singer/songwriter. The contestants pair up as teammates — and as bunkmates — in a Georgia lake house.
By the way, Larsen also describes himself as very competitive, so using the words of Austin, "If you want Larsen to open a can of whoop ass, gimme a Hell Yeah!"
Writer/director Ryan Coogler has become so well-known for his blockbuster films — Creed, Black Panther, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever — that it’s easy to forget that he made his debut with the small-but-powerful 2013 film, Fruitvale Station. After more than a decade, he’s finally returning to original material with his latest film, Sinners.
Each of Coogler’s films has either starred or featured Michael B. Jordan, and this one gives moviegoers a double dose, as Jordan plays twins who go by the nicknames of Smoke and Stack. Set in 1932, the two hustlers have recently returned from mysterious (and possibly criminal) work in Chicago to their hometown of Clarksdale, Mississippi to open a juke joint.
They call upon a number of friends and family to help them with the venture, including cousin and guitar player Sammie Moore (Miles Caton), Smoke’s old girlfriend Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), piano player Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo), bouncer Cornbread (Omar Miller), and Chinese couple Bo and Grace Chow (Yao and Li Jun Li). Trouble is never far from the brothers, though, whether it’s Stack’s old girlfriend Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), the Ku Klux Klan leader who sold them the property for the juke joint, or something even more sinister.
Coogler began his feature film career by confronting the issue of unjustified shootings of Black people by police. How Black people are perceived by society has been a part of everything he’s done since. By placing this film firmly in the middle of the Jim Crow era, he infuses the story with all manner of subtext, including the injustice of sharecropping and prevalent segregation in the South.
Music, specifically Blues, plays a big part in the film as well. It’s championed through the emerging talent of Sammie and the veteran presence of Delta Slim, but it’s also a driving force for other parts of the plot. Sammie is decried by his pastor father for playing “the devil’s music,” while strange newcomer Remmick (Jack O’Connell) seems to appreciate it a little too much. A fantastically surreal scene at the juke joint turns into an entertaining and educational lesson on the history of Black music.
It’s Remmick’s obsession that’s at the center of the final hour or so of the film, one in which all hell breaks loose. The manner of that hell is probably better enjoyed if it’s not spoiled here, but suffice it to say that Remmick has an evil to him that threatens to destroy Smoke and Stack’s venture before it even gets started. The horror aspect of the film is fine, but it winds up being the least interesting part of the story.
Jordan can occasionally go over-the-top with his performances, and with him playing twins the threat of doing so was doubled. But he remains relatively restrained for most of the film, giving each twin their own unique spin. Caton, a rising R&B singer, makes his acting debut in the film and winds up stealing every scene he’s in. The rest of the cast complements each other well, with Mosaku and Steinfeld being standouts.
Coogler has proven himself to be a savvy filmmaker in each of his previous four films, and with Sinners he combines the personal with crowd-pleasing elements to great effect. It features great music, an insightful story, and even some gory action for an experience you’re not likely to find anywhere else.
