Willie Dynamite

A cut above the pimp pictures it resembles, following a flamboyant New York pimp determined to become the city's number one, as a social worker and a rival syndicate close in. What sets it apart is a genuine moral arc: the film is quietly critical of the life it depicts, and its ending is closer to tragedy than triumph.

Roscoe Orman plays the lead with real presence, and the wardrobe alone is worth the runtime. A more thoughtful blaxploitation film than the poster suggests, and unusually willing to question its own hero.