With Foxy Brown promoted as an “action heroine with a social conscience,” Grier’s superhero status reaches mythic heights in what is perhaps her most famous vehicle. Tragedy and betrayal strike too close to home, and the political becomes personal for Foxy Brown as she is forced into exacting her own brand of vigilante justice. Harnessing the powers of Black Panther-like revolutionaries, Brown takes on a seedy underground operation headed by an insecure villainess who makes prostitutes available to local officials in order to protect a lucrative drug ring. Not holding back on disturbing allusions to slavery and the history of violence against both women and people of color, Foxy Brown boldly goes where few films dare tread. Castrating the males in power one by one—symbolically and, at one point, literally—Brown seeks more than revenge; she wants her enemies to take profoundly painful walks in the shoes of those they have long oppressed. – BG