Antebellum

While Antebellum is no zombie movie, it treats systemic racism as a kind of contagion that refuses to die, eating the brains of successive generations. There’s only one way to stop it, and that’s by blowing the minds of all those infected — which is precisely the impact Antebellum achieves.

The star works valiantly to channel Eden/Veronica's pain and confusion, and the whole humanity of a life her captors so casually dismiss. As a performer, she commits utterly; if only the story could do the same.

It’s refreshing to see Monáe show what she can do as a lead, and her performance as Veronica possesses a wit and savvy that complement the performer’s natural poise.

Unfortunately, there’s a gulf between a great idea and competent execution, and this first feature, from writer-directors Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz, can’t bridge it.

It’s an audacious swing — but ultimately a miss from a pair of filmmakers who know exactly what they want to say, and haven’t yet mastered how best to say it.

Written and directed by Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz, and propelled by the charisma of Janelle Monáe, it lines up moments of possible insight and impact and messes up just about all of them.

Though the filmmakers hoped to balance the historical atrocities of slavery with contemporary racial oppression, Antebellum — yet another unnecessary slave movie — rarely feels like a horror flick. Instead, its needless brutality, ropy character work, and misguided twist make it easily 2020’s worst movie so far.

Absolutely amazing movie. It’s a work of art! Can’t remember the last time I watched something this powerful

Antebellum is an uncomfortable film from the very first minute, and not only because of what it shows, but because of how it shows it. The subject it tackles —structural racism, past and present— is real, painful, and still denied by many. That generates a legitimate anger as a viewer. The problem is that this anger does not always turn into solid reflection, and that is where the film begins to falter.Visually, it is powerful, even elegant. There is a very carefully crafted mise-en-scène and a clear desire to shock, to shake the viewer, to give you no room to breathe. Janelle Monáe carries the film with presence and commitment, and it is easy to empathize with her character even when the script starts forcing situations. She is far above the material she is asked to **** main conflict of Antebellum lies in its need to underline everything. The central idea is clear very early on, and yet the film insists, hammers, and reiterates, as if it did not trust the intelligence of the audience. This causes what could be disturbing to end up feeling unpleasant, not because of what it denounces, but because of its lack of nuance and narrative breathing **** a thriller, it works at times. There is tension, there are moments that are genuinely unsettling, and scenes that stay with you. But when it tries to close its argument, the film opts for the easy blow and the message in capital letters, losing strength precisely when subtlety would matter most. It remains closer to provocation than to **** is not a bad film, nor is it irrelevant. It has intention, energy, and a subject that matters. But it is also a clear example of how a powerful idea can be diluted when immediate impact is prioritized over depth. It angers you, it shakes you… and in the end leaves you with the feeling that it could have been much more.

I really liked the idea but I feel like they screwed up the reveal. How much better would the twist be if it came in final 15 minutes of movie. We waste 35 minutes in middle of movie getting character development on people who don’t even matter to the real story. The writing is pretty meh for some stretches. The micro aggressions that we are all pretty much aware of at this point are too exaggerated it makes me wonder if the writer has ever experienced one or just read about it on theroot

Story could have been so much more but seems to focus too much on "evil slavery". Like sure there were slaves and it was bad but I'm not here to watch a documentary. Not emotional enough, maybe due to the writing it just bad direction. Something I will forget quickly.

Save yourself the watch, obviously a movie created to add to BLM narrative. But awfully delivered. I should have seen the ratings before wasting my time with it. The twist was absolutely crap. Got **** in with the “from the producers of Get Out” everything after Get Out has been trash. So is this..