At first view, Soul Food is a nice movie about a family rebuilding themselves after a long-term illness, and sudden death affects their beloved matriarch, Big Momma. The film touches on how each of the sibling's lives is affected now that their peacemaker is dead, and they have to struggle with their own issues on top of the financial issues that follow their mother’s passing. Then, there is a happy ending thanks to a little child’s meddling. Great movie, right? NO!
Teri was never the villain, technically, Big Momma is, Lem basically beat on Bird without touching her, Maxine is dirty, and cousin Faith should have gotten beat up expeditiously.
Justice for Teri:
As much as Teri did for the family, she was never the villain. Teri paid for Bird’s wedding, the hair shop, the bills for the house, and all for what? First, her villain origin story started because Maxine slept with her boyfriend. Not only that, but Teri caught them getting down and dirty in the parking lot, and Maxine married him. So not only did she get her man taken but her sister is fertile Myrtle, and they keep on getting pregnant. I’m sorry, but Teri should have gotten her lick back by never babysitting, and paying them dust every time she sees them.
If that wasn’t enough, now her whore of a cousin has to live with her, and you know what Faith does. Faith fucked her husband. So, both of her family members sleep with her men. Yeah, Teri should have stabbed everybody. She deserved so much better.
Not only that but Teri was the oldest sibling, and typically the oldest siblings have so much on their plate being the test dummy child, and being the third parent. So it isn’t unbelievable that she had a Type A personality, she grew up being the oldest, and when you are the oldest you are trained to be perfect, because of course your younger siblings are looking after you. She was doing everything for everyone and no one ever asked her is she was ok.
Lem & Bird:
As cute as they are to me, these two needed more understanding than XSCAPE did. Red Flag Number One is in the first ten minutes of the movie when Lem is hunching on some random girl at his wedding. YOU JUST SAID I DO! LOCK IN! Red Flag Number Two is, who allowed Simuel into the wedding. Now, while I am here for drama, but sir at the reception? Where was this energy at the bridal shower? Also, I feel as though Bird was just trying to help. The possibilities of Lem getting a job on his own as a convicted felon were already slim to none. Now should Bird have gone to her ex-boyfriend probably not but she didn’t give anything up. All she did was go to dinner, give up some time, and get a little bracelet.
Red Flag Number Three: you find out that your wife saw her ex to get you a job, the logical thing you do is break her business’s door. IN FRONT OF THE CUSTOMERS?! You pull her into the back room, grab her wrists, and push people into walls. Did I mention she was pregnant? And then you go to jail. See, let’s start going to anger management classes because sir. The reaction would have been warranted if she slept with him. All she did was get a little meal, probably some filet mignon, or a steak, and you did all that. Yeah, anger management is calling Lem’s name.
Maxine Is Grimy:
So not only are you the middle child, but you probably have middle child syndrome, and that’s fine. But you married your sister’s boyfriend, mind you, the only man she ever loved, and continually have kids with him. Oh yeah, Teri really should have stabbed you after she got done stabbing cousin Faith and Miles. If that was not enough, you suggest that Teri take the brunt of the financial burden of why you give out monthly payments. MA’AM, DO YOU HAVE A STABLE INCOME TO FULFILL THESE MONTHLY PAYMENTS? Yeah, Maxine is a different kind of person because what?
Cousin Faith:
In what world is it okay to sleep with your cousin’s husband? Mind you, your cousin is having you live in your house while trying to make it big as a dancer? Yeah, honestly, if I was in the film, I would have held Faith down and let Teri stab her. I’ll be an accessory to an attempted murder. Also, Faith, you are grown enough to know right from wrong; let’s not make dumb decisions because you both “bond” over the arts. You wanted to make sure you kept your room, and you thought if you slept with Miles, you could stay a little longer. I hate to break it to you, but the marriage was doomed. Poor Teri did not want to be with that man for real.
All I have to say is Justice for Teri and Bird you didn’t do a lot wrong.
Late but I want to say THANK YOU! THANK YOU for this post. From when I first watched and then rewatched this movie being older , I never saw Teri as the villain but as a family member that has been taken advantage of over and over again whos feelings have been tossed to the side in the name of "family" To me Soul Food was a movie about an extremely toxic black family that uses food to avoid addressing the real problems and truly heal. They would just rather gaslight and guilt trip Teri. I cheered when Teri said "F** the family" I wanted her to take back her voice and her dignity and just cut all of them off. I almost want to write a fan fic about it.