User Reviews for Antebellum

Catsy

CONTAINS SPOILERS8/10 4 years ago

I definitely think this deserves a 7 or an 8. There were some issues I had with this; shallow plot and poor development, no explanation behind motivations except [spoiler]racism[/spoiler], which makes for a funny feeling afterwards.

Veronica is a successful and educated woman who has written books on intersectionality around race and been part of many political debates in her career. She's married with a cute daughter and lives a happy, carefree life with her husband.

In the distant past, Eden is a slave who lives a systemic, abusive life as part of a plantation run by Confederate soldiers who have kidnapped her from her normal life (based on the introduction of new slaves to the compound). At the start of the movie we see that she has been caught after escaping and another couple faces execution for being part of the plot.

These two stories slowly come together over the course of the film. The camera shots are dramatic albeit quite common and tense scenes are brought up by loud and erratic orchestral pieces. I honestly felt shock and horror as the plot unravels and thought it was very clever in the end. I loved the sense of helplessness and the reality of the slaves was made more horrible by the twists in the movie.

This movie was maybe a bit less than 2 hours, but I felt that a lot of content could have been utilised better. Some more background development for the villains, which were disgusting people (but their actions were never something people reacted to(?)), and some more information about what was happening in Victoria's life would have been greatly appreciated.

Spoilers ahead.

[spoiler]I felt like the scene with the hotel room was a massive throw away and didnt contribute at all to the story since we never see Veronica react to it; all her documents being thrown around, her toilet having piss in it, did she honestly believe the hotel staff did that?[/spoiler]

[spoiler]We only have one or two scenes explaining her job and career, barely enough to contribute to the reason for her kidnapping. Plus the cult that re-enacted colonial USA is never confronted by anyone - until the FBI. Surely a string of highly educated and controversial black people disappearing would raise red flags? - the black man that is killed by the colonel was called professor by Veronica.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]However, I must admit I felt like something funny was happening from the start; only the white people have accents, which they drop when with other whites, and the black "slaves" all have neat eyebrows and piercings. I also felt like the butterfly motif was a massive red herring.[/spoiler]

Overall an interesting film but not as deep as the other two the producer backed.

Like - Dislike - 10

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