“A Good Day to Be Black & Sexy” is a cavalry of vignettes about black relationships that range from poetic to sexaholic. The variety could have made the feature frenetic, but it’s put together extremely well. You’ll
never ask for anything more or less from every vignette; each one gets in, does its business and then gets out and is satisfying in its simplicity. There was actually a point where I felt that a certain vignette didn’t end conclusively, but then it was given a second part, which tied up the ends nicely.

Dennis Dortch’s direction is both compelling and economical, though not in a way that cheats the viewer. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as a jump cut to create comedic timing, and the camera bobs around like a balloon in the wind that isn’t frantic, but subdued and frank. The acting ranges from solid to superb.

There are two basic types of vignettes in this film. In the first type, what you see is what you get, and these are usually hilarious and chock-full of quotable lines. The other type, the yin to that yang, grabs you every time you think there’s nothing there, revealing an underworld of nuance just beneath the surface, the movie begging you to join in the fun.

It’s a smooth watch in the conventional sense; there aren’t any overdone processed shots or whoosh transitions. It’s old-school fun, and while this makes “Black & Sexy” a bit hokey at times, there’s no denying the authenticity it develops.