One Spoon Of Chocolate can change a whole glass of milk. That’s the lyric, message, and line of dialogue that kicks off everything about One Spoon Of Chocolate. It’s a movie that does a lot of what you would expect, but also breaks those expectations in interesting ways. RZA is a visionary filmmaker, whether you enjoy his movies or not. They heavily draw inspiration from classic films of the ’70s and ’80s, and this one is no different. However, it brings in a lot of commentary on modern life and the racial issues we face. Add into that some of the hardest-hitting action in recent memory, and you’ve got a lot to like.
One Spoon Of Chocolate is the story of Unique (played by Shameik Moore), an ex-con, and ex-military member who gets paroled but has to go back to his hometown in Ohio to live with his cousin, Ramsee (played by RJ Cyler). It also happens that their family member was previously killed by a group of white supremacists in the same town, earlier. On his first day back, Unique and Ramsee run into that local group after playing some basketball on a public court. They’re led by Jimmy (played by Harry Goodwins) and his dad, the Sheriff (played by Michael Harney).
Unique and Ramsee dispatch them pretty quickly, but the group gets their revenge later that night after they go out with Aretha (played by Emyri Crutchfield) and Darla (played by Paris Jackson). From there, we can see how deep the rot goes with the evil group in Karensville.
RZA Injects Some Truly Hard-Hitting Action
The fights and action in One Spoon Of Chocolate are a real highlight. Throughout the whole thing, it has this almost dreamy feel where people feel supercharged, including our main character, including our main character. Now, he takes some major punishment back from the various no-named white supremacists, but that action really sets the tone for the film. Outside of that, another high point for the film is the look and aesthetic. This movie ACTUALLY HAS COLOR. It has lighting in nighttime shots. There’s fog, there’s atmosphere, it looks like a movie made 20-40 years ago in the best possible way.
So what doesn’t work in One Spoon Of Chocolate? Well, there are like two or three too many montage scenes of Unique training for the final battle. It gets a bit much and adds to the runtime of the film, feeling like it’s a bit too long. Also, while Shameik Moore gives a solid performance as Unique, there are some scenes, particularly when he finds out someone close to him has died, that his performance feels a bit wooden.
The most surprising performance in the film though, is that of Harry Goodwins, who gets some tough material to chew on AND has to do the fight scenes. It’s part of that passed-down generational view on society that the film makes sure to bring up. The rest of the cast does an admirable job as well, but this movie will not be for everyone.
Plenty Of Style Still
The ending of One Spoon Of Chocolate was fascinating, the movie builds to this huge confrontation between Unique and Jimmy and his goons. It feels a lot like First Blood in ways, where someone is going into a small town to take on corruption and evil, and we get a lot of that, but we don’t get the same ending as that film. The ending here is much more interesting in its execution and what they’re trying to say.
Overall, One Spoon of Chocolate is a solid action flick with plenty of style, but it has some pacing issues, and some performances are weaker than others.
One Spoon of Chocolate releases in theaters on May 1st, 2026.
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