Review of Antebellum (2020) by Steviegjd — 19 Sep 2020

This is a hard movie to review. I want to like it because I agree with the film's intentions and goals. I know there really are people who want to do what the antagonist characters are doing, feel the way they do and surely don't think they are racists.

I'm sure a good number of them posted 0 reviews for this movie here. I also really like Janelle Monae as an actress; she has a great screen presence and tries really hard here. But she cannot overcome this material.

The movie wants to be like "Get Out", which was great, and a little M. Night Shyamalan with the major plot twist. The former was a wonderful film and Shyamalan can make entertaining movies with interesting twists (but can also make dreadful films with lame twists).

But this script just is not there. Any specific comments would be far too revealing of plot. Many of the characters are simplified and without depth. A friend of the main character, who only appears in the second part of the film, is tonally apart from this entire film and seems like a stereotype from a bad Black Rom Com.

Unlike many people who do not like this film, I believe that evil like this is real and it exists and is being fanned in our current political climate. But the evil here is kind of like slavery torture porn.

It is so unpleasant to watch and so completely without any legitimate motive, other than hate, it is simply vile. Unlike others, I can understand why the message and point of this movie might be enough for some people to like it, especially given our current political and cultural morass.

But it is pretty poor film making. And even good intentions can end of with a bad product.