Antebellum Review: A Missed Opportunity
It’s not that Antebellum isn’t entertaining. There is a good deal of mental gymnastics you do as you try to find out what’s going on in the film. The problem with Antebellum is that for all the physical violence, rape and historically black trauma you have to endure to get to its end, there is absolutely no pay off! This is a prime example of a film that’s core concept was great in pitch meetings, but never got fleshed out properly by writer/director team Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz.
The film starts out on a plantation with the gruesome killing of a slave who is given the chance to run, only to be shot and dragged back to the center of the plantation by her neck while her loved one watches the scene unfold. We’re introduced to Eden (Janelle Monae) as she’s dumped off a horse and remarks are made to a failed attempt to flee. This particular place seems to be harder than any other plantation. No slave can speak to one another. Break the rules and it will cost you your life.
As the film moves forward, we quickly see more slaves come on to the plantation. It's apparent that they have a certain self-awareness and empowerment that’s not indicative of the typical slave films we’ve seen in the past. In fact, in present day we see Veronica (Janelle Monae), as an adored wife, mother and successful speaker and scholar on race. With continual verbal nods to the past, present, and how they continually collide, the viewer starts to wonder how this all fits together.
Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz try to push a black lives matter emphasis within the film. Their cake is half baked though with a heavy reiteration on the darkness of America’s history of slavery, while missing the nuance of the systemic oppression and racism post-slavery that has us in our current state. So it’s a lost opportunity to make an important social statement in how the past effects us presently.
Janelle Monae has the talent to be a memorable actress in our time, but this isn't her best performance. She does the best with the script handed to her but her delivery of lines are so stiff at times. The southern accents and dialogue of the antagonists of the film are atrocious. Not just that, the motivations of the “villains” is not clear. They're mean just to be mean. The lack of depth in going past a great concept is what sinks this film.
I’ll be honest, the concept of this film is something that black folks may give thought to. I could totally sign up for the elevator pitch of this film, but this script desperately needed to address the motivations of its characters, the trauma of being black in America, and have a conclusion that would tie everything together and maybe leave us deep in thought after the credits roll. It didn’t. So while “from the producer of Get Out” is a great marketing tool. You may not want to compare this to a masterpiece. It's just not a good or honest comparison!
Rating: D+
