In slow motion, a captain rides on horseback after a fleeing Black woman, loops a noose around her neck, and violently whips her to the ground. Meanwhile, in the movie Antebellum, Veronica is abducted and forced to live out the sick fantasies of the racist purveyors of a secret modern-day antebellum-era plantation. There, he finds the burnt remains of Amara, which he recognizes from her cross necklace. Produced by Jordan Peele’s collaborators Raymond Mansfield and Sean McKittrick, Antebellum arrives on PVOD with the tagline “from the creators of Get Out and Us.” If only their horror film came close to the heights Peele’s masterworks attained when connecting current Black oppression with its systematic causes. She careens through Confederate lines, mouth bloodied and agape. When a job goes dangerously wrong she is forced to fight for her own survival. "[21], American film written and directed by Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz, "Antebellum (2020) - Financial Information", "Janelle Monáe To Star In Lionsgate Pic From Filmmakers Gerard Bush + Christopher Renz", "Eric Lange, Jena Malone, Jack Huston, More Join Janelle Monáe In Lionsgate Race Relations Pic From 'Get Out' & 'BlacKkKlansman' Outfit QC Entertainment", "Marque Richardson Joins Janelle Monáe In Lionsgate Film From 'Get Out' Producers", "Janelle Monáe Horror Movie 'Antebellum' Skips U.S. (2020). Looking for some great streaming picks? The film follows successful author Veronica Henley after she is abducted and finds herself thrust back into the antebellum time period. So yes, both Antebellum and Kindred have a Black woman writer and author as a protagonist who seemingly shifts between her modern-day life and life on an antebellum-era plantation. Ava is a deadly assassin who works for a black ops organization, traveling the globe specializing in high profile hits. [19] David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film a "C+" and wrote, "An artful and provocative movie about the enduring horror of America's original sin, Antebellum can't follow through on its own concept. It has no real perspective on the past and thus fails to make any real impact on the present. It is run by the Confederate States Army. But in an era of Get Out and Us, with their greater understanding of the fears Black people face in everyday America, Antebellum stalls as a horror film, and fails even greater as a weighty commentary on Black people’s present oppressions. [13][14] In October 2020, The Hollywood Reporter said the film was the sixth-most popular PVOD title amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This is only their first real cinema film that they have directed together. Antebellum is a new horror thriller directed, written and produced in part by Gerard Bush and Christopher Renze. In the most heavy-handed way, Bush and Renz equate current racial oppression with the horrific crime of forced servitude, and turns the somber history of slavery into a cruel game. The story of the movie is somewhat like an adapted, copied version of the story of the movie Get Out. One of them, Amara (Achok Majak), runs away again in terror after watching the other men strap a device to her husband, Eli (Tongayi Chirisa). Successful author Veronica Henley (Janelle Monáe) finds herself trapped in a horrifying reality that forces her to confront the past, present and future - before it's too late. Instead, its needless brutality, ropy character work, and misguided twist make it easily 2020’s worst movie so far. A vacationing couple must discover the mystery behind a strange video that shows one of them killing the other. The … Veronica lures him and another guard into the crematorium and sets fire to it, leaving the three men to burn to death as she steals the general's horse and rides off. She wants to try and escape as well, as she is pregnant, but Eden shows her the branding scar to show that it is better not to anger the people in charge. Always pushing the limits and catering to a growing audience, they enter a cold world of mystery, excess, and danger. 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. “From the trailers that are that are out there, we understand what that’s coming from,” Renz said. Watch the Official Movie Trailer Antebellum! She then appears to wake up from what seems like a bad dream. The movie follows profitable writer Veronica Henley after she is kidnapped and finds herself thrust again into the antebellum time interval. The images juxtapose the seemingly idyllic sun-soaked plantation with the forlorn incarceration of slavery. Here, she is a renowned author and activist named Veronica Henley, married to Nick (Marque Richardson) with a daughter, Kennedi (London Boyce). When he is alone Eli kills Daniel with a hatchet and retrieves the phone. Use the HTML below. , Antebellum Isn't Based on a Book, but Its Premise Is Similar to One, 13 Blumhouse Horror Movies That Will Have You Sleeping With the Lights On, Christian Serratos Has Had Some Amazing Beauty Moments on Red Carpets Past, What You Should Know About the Tale of Chang'e From Netflix's Over the Moon, HBO's New Documentary Chronicles the Lives of Transgender Kids Over 5 Years, Courteney Cox's Halloween Costume Was a Spooky Callback to Her Scream 3 Bangs, It Took 140 Wigs and Over 1,000 Pairs of False Eyelashes to Create the Characters in The Witches. The questions surrounding Black trauma have gained greater complexity during a summer of Black Lives Matter and the tragic deaths of African-Americans by cops. "[17], Peter Debruge from Variety called it "A mind blowing thriller"[18] and Stephanie Zacharek from Time wrote "Even if we didn't live in a country where a shockingly large fraction of people think Confederate monuments are A-O.K., Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz's Antebellum would resonate like the boom of a Union Army cannon". But recently, as the Black cinematic renaissance has made new African-American narratives possible, movies centering on Black trauma have come under fire. Still making his life hell. Kindred actually finds main character Dana going back in time and focuses on Dana's connection to the past as she tries not to succumb to the horrors and hopelessness of slavery. When the premise for Antebellum was first announced, many wondered whether it was based on Kindred, the 1979 novel by Octavia E. Butler. In Antebellum, Bush and Renz desperately prod around in the dark, trying to discover the gravity of prestige slave movies like 12 Years a Slave. Visionary filmmakers Gerard Bush + Christopher Renz (Bush + Renz) - best known for their pioneering advertising work engaged in the fight for social justice - write, produce and direct their first feature film, teaming with QC Entertainment, producer of the Academy Award winning films GET OUT and BLACKkKLANSMAN, Zev Foreman, Lezlie Wills, and Lionsgate for the terrifying new thriller ANTEBELLUM. 1 day ago, by Monica Sisavat A Black man in a slave collar screams as grey-coated men hold him at bay. It … In March 2019, it was announced Janelle Monáe had joined the cast of the film, with Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz directing from a screenplay they wrote. Before departing on her next trip, she speaks by webcam with a creepy Southern belle (Jena Malone). Elizabeth also describes herself as a “talent scout” while noticing Kennedi, which makes Veronica uncomfortable and cuts the meeting short. Audiences in 2020 don’t require proof that slavery was inhumane, but the directors are intent on providing it anyway. Antebellum tries to provide commentary on the Black experience and the trauma found within, but loses itself in a hollow narrative and exposition shots. Forced to live life on a plantation under the name Eden, she comes up with a plan to get back to the life she knew before it's too late. While Nate Wonder and Roman Gianarthur’s unnervingly uptempo string score struts away, the camera tracks past Confederate soldiers raising the stars and bars, then to wooden rows of slave quarters. He kicks her in the stomach before leaving. In May 2019, Marque Richardson joined the cast of the film. She is confronted with her success by the world. That evening slaves are forced to work during a gathering of the General and his troops, where he boasts about preserving their way of life for the future. It certainly would've made for a more complex film. In one of the movie’s few satisfying moments — and in a lyrically beautiful image — Eden rides a horse while wearing a Union coat and brandishing a battleaxe. So yes, both Antebellum and Kindred have a Black woman writer and author as a protagonist who seemingly shifts between her modern-day life and life on an antebellum-era plantation. Antebellum looks like Octavia Butler’s time-traveling novel Kindred, with a modern-day Black woman pulled back into pre-Civil War slavery. Jasper orders the group not to speak unless they are given permission. This leaves us wondering exactly who Antebellum was for, while wishing it actually had been an adaptation of Butler's Kindred. So yeah, it feels at times it is you feel helpless. Hollywood Studios Weigh Risks of PVOD", "Janelle Monáe Is Electrifying in Antebellum", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Antebellum_(film)&oldid=986925041, Films postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 3 November 2020, at 20:03. [9] This includes a theatrical release in Australia on October 1, 2020. “Black Twitter is, you know, black Twitter is its own thing. Bush and Renz say they are very familiar with the social media claims, from people who haven’t seen Antebellum, that their film seems to resemble Butler’s work. 1 day ago, by Kelsey Garcia There are few supporting Black characters, other than Eli (Tongayi Chirisa), who desperately tries to persuade Eden to escape, and the pregnant but forceful Julia (Kiersey Clemons). [10] The film was originally scheduled to be released on April 24, 2020, but was delayed to August 21, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, before being pulled off the release schedule temporarily in July 2020. That means Monáe is relegated to silence through much of the film. Jasper’s wife Elizabeth (Jena Malone) brings her daughter (Arabella Landrum) to pick one of the women in the group, whom the little girl names Julia (Kiersey Clemons). Ray Mansfield and Sean McKittrick will serve as producers on the film under their QC Entertainment banner, while Lionsgate will distribute. Required fields are marked *. Please excuse the random lock of hair sticking out ♀️ Antebellum Movie Review... is it based off Kindred by Octavia Butler? Antebellum was released in the United States through Premium video on demand on September 18, 2020, and theatrically in several overseas countries. In contemporary America, Veronica Henley (also Monáe) is a successful Ph.D. sociologist and bestselling author. For nearly 80 years, slave narratives like Antebellum dominated Black-starring prestige cinema. The images surrounding her as character elements — her black-and-beige painting of a crowned Black woman, the stock photo of Barack Obama hanging above her Columbia University degree — are cheap, shallow signifers. Veronica lassoes a noose around Elizabeth’s neck, but Elizabeth slashes at Veronica multiple times until Veronica gains the upper hand and beats Elizabeth’s face. It's hard not to compare the film with Butler's novel, particularly when the message for one is much clearer than the other. A social media personality travels with his friends to Moscow to capture new content for his successful VLOG.
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