Jersey City’s Finest Film Critic has a Book Out (And It’s Fantastic)
2024 is gearing up to be a banner year for Greenville’s very own Odie Henderson!
He has a fantastic new book out called “Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras: A History of Blackploitation Cinema”. For fans of this genre and great writing in general, this is the book for you. It begins in the year 1971. This was the year that two films came out to herald this new film genre – Melvin Van Peebles’s Sweet Sweetback’s Baadassss Song” and Gordon Park’s “Shaft”. One was an independent movie with a male sex worker as the victorious antihero, the other was a studio-backed film with a killer soundtrack that saved MGM from financial ruin. At just under 300 pages, the book is a thoroughly researched, funny and totally entertaining history of the genre.
What an accomplishment for Henderson. He spent years working in IT to support his true passion – film criticism. As a freelancer, he worked his way up slowly and steadily, with his wealth of film knowledge and engaging writing. He started off writing for Roger Ebert’s website in the early 2000’s and then went on to write for Criterion Collection, Village Voice, Vulture, Slant, Salon, etc. – the list goes on. He only recently retired from IT and now serves as Head Film Critic for The Boston Globe, an esteemed regional paper known for their arts coverage (their former film critic, Wesley Morris, now critiques for the New York Times). If you are looking for a quick example of Henderson’s writing prowess, check out his recent 0-Star review in the Globe of the new film “Argylle”. For anyone who has had to sit through that trailer, you know what we are talking about.
Also, if you want to pick up “Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras: A History of Blackploitation Cinema” while also supporting a local business, you can grab a copy at WORD Bookstore in Hamilton Park at 29 McWilliams Place.
Happy Reading!