Film review: controversial Antebellum brashly reflects America's divided times
Out today on VOD and DVD, the racially charged revenge-horror offends almost as much as it provokes
Janelle Monae kicks redneck ass in Antebellum.
Antebellum is available for streaming via VOD and on DVD, Blu-Ray, and 4K Ultra HD
With critics calling it everything from “vile” (The Atlantic) to “noxious” (Vulture), Antebellum already rates as one of the most controversial films of the year as it rolls out on VOD.
Sadly, flaws and all, it may also go down in history as the one that most accurately reflects the rage and division in 2020 America.
It’s almost impossible, however, to discuss Antebellum without giving away directors Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz’s central conceit. Their audacious outing recalls Octavia Butler’s haunting novel Kindred, if she aspired to the politicized psychological terror of Jordan Peele and the schlocky dark fables of M. Night Shyamalan.
A bold unedited tracking shot introduces us to a plantation, where Black slaves hang laundry and pick cotton around an Antebellum mansion as Confederate soldiers watch over them. The scene culminates in a hard-to-watch act of violence against a defiant runaway, setting a grimly exploitive tone. Most of that violence—branding, rape, beatings, and belittlement—is directed at Janelle Monáe’s Eden, in what feels explicitly like a hamfisted setup for grand revenge.
It’s important to note that R&B singer Monáe commits on every level to her heroine. But it’s hard not to feel like her suffering is being used to elicit horror thrills. We learn little about her fellow slaves, about why they can’t or won’t rise up, or even about who they are.
Renz and Bush try to tie the violence that happens on this estate to the racist movements of today—to the Confederate-flag wavers, the Proud Boys, and even the Deep South plantation tours that celebrate and gloss over the deeply complicated history of Antebellum grandeur. They confront the difficult idea that white supremacists reserve the worst hate for the most articulate African-Americans. And on one level, you have to admire their ambition. But they just don’t have the sensitivity or insight to pull it off. Plus, there are logistical holes big enough to shoot a Civil War cannon through.
If there’s one overriding thing wrong with the film, it’s tone. The directors undercut their ideas with horror-B-movie tropes. Their depictions of mostly helpless, nameless slaves feel like they’re rolling back civil-rights achievements, not moving them forward.
The movie's bloody carnage leaves you scratching your head. What are the messages here? That violence is the answer to violence? Those are important questions in a country where Black men are being suffocated by police and white supremacists are staging tiki-torch marches of fear. Is America this far gone?
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