Film Reviews & Movie Analysis

This four part Netflix series tells the story of Madam C.J. Walker, the first self made, female millionaire in the United States. Starting from how hair care changed her life, the four part series chronicles her ambition, struggle and of course the eventual realisation of her dreams.

I like that Self Made was only four episodes, and that each stayed around the 45 minute mark. It made it a lot easy to watch, and it didn’t need to be more than it was.

Madam C.J. Walker (Octavia Spencer) was in fact the first self made millionaire but I like that this wasn’t really her goal. It was primarily uplifting the race, creating jobs, and opportunities for black women where there were none. To see themselves represented across America and no longer pushed off to the side to be ignored. That plight alone made this series resonate inspiration.

Racism was of course a prevalent issue during the time, but I liked that the series kept that to one side and focused primarily on the positives; Madam, her family, the black community and the building of her business.

Though it was a good and easy watch, there was no real sense of dread or conflict throughout. We knew that Madam would get what she sort by the end not only because it’s based on history, but also because it was in the title and the trailer. There are people who will walk into this series not knowing a thing about Madam C.J. Walker and I think the anticipation of whether or not she makes it is taken away before you even begin.

The over stylised form of storytelling didn’t really work for me, and was often distracting. There is an imaginative boxing match between Madam C.J. Walker and her nemesis Addie Munroe (Carmen Ejogo), a day dream sequence, and other visualisations of what was going on inside her head. These coupled with the modern music and occasional jerky editing style – it all felt too much, and a little forced.

Aside from the history lesson, what I got from the end of the movie is that men are jealous of female success and generally just trash – which is probably not what the creators were expecting the take away to be. The reason for this however is because there was only one strand of uncertainty, one character who we were watching to make sure they made the right choices. The way everything else was told went as smoothly as Madam C.J. Walkers Wonderful Hair Grower.