Review: Antebellum

Image courtesy of Lionsgate.

"Antebellum" is a stylish horror thriller with some intriguing ideas, but a major plot twist that completely changes the reality of the story is more faulty than it is clever, and while many of the film's concepts are timely in a very unsettling manner, they could have been put to better use than in a genre film of this type.

No doubt about it, "Antebellum" is great to look at - with its visual palettes, camera movements and art direction - and one has to give credit for its trying to give viewers something to chew on, even if it's in the service of a movie that relishes twists more than it does a political statement. Also, while it's great to see Gabourey Sibide in the first movie I recall seeing her in for a while, the amount of time spent with her character is... a little too much.

The film opens on a plantation, where a slave named Eden (Janelle Monae) is given somewhat preferential treatment due to the fact that she's forced to sleep with a vicious older Confederate general. She tells the other slaves on the plantation to keep their heads down and to bide their time. Meanwhile, Eden watches in horror as a young woman slave who attempts to flee is murdered in front of her husband. 

The plantation scenes are not surprisingly filled with abject cruelty - for example, a young pregnant slave is forced to spend time with a young Confederate who acts shyly, that is, until he gets her alone and is abusive and evil as the rest of the white soldiers or denizens of the plantation. There's also a particularly cruel overseer in the plantation's fields, and a white woman (Jena Malone) who lives with her family on the property and brings her daughter round to inspect new arrivals.

Then, something strange happens. We cut to the present, where Monae plays Veronica, a talking head type whose latest book on black women's struggles in America has led to her appearing on newscasts, where she debates MAGA types. At home, she has a husband and young daughter. She meets up for drinks with some old friends - including Sibide as the chatty one. 

Meanwhile, strange things are afoot - a young girl dressed in clothes from the past wanders around the hotel where Veronica is staying as part of her book tour. Malone pops back up - with an exaggerated southern accent - as a woman wanting to discuss Veronica's book, although Veronica finds her suspicious. Someone sends her flowers, but Veronica can't figure out who did it.

What exactly is going on, you might ask at this point? The question will soon be answered, and the plot twist, resembling one from an old M. Night Shyamalan movie, lands with a great big thud - not because you can't envision certain people involved in the twist wanting to do the things they do, but rather the fact that they're able to carry it off. 

There's a major issue with this twist - which I'm really trying to conceal here - in the manner that certain characters speak and behave. In the scenes before we know the twist, they do so in a way that is believable, given what we're led to believe. Later, when they speak and behave in a way more suited to the story as we've come to understand it, the film's earlier scenes become less believable. I know, that sounds really vague. But the film's big twist is one that, while I'm sure the filmmakers found it to be juicy, fails in execution.

Also, movies about slavery - much like films about concentration camps - are often difficult to witness because we know that things similar to the cruelty depicted onscreen actually occurred. Some genre films - "Django Unchained," for example - have successfully mingled exploitation tactics with historical horrors - perhaps, one of the reasons Tarantino's film worked so well was because it was cathartic to see a slave rise up and kill plantation owners. 

Maybe it's just this moment in time in our nation's history that makes it hard to watch the horrors of slavery provide a backdrop for a genre movie involving plot twists, thriller elements and creepy horror movie tropes. Perhaps it feels too much is at stake in real life for such horrors to be utilized for the sake of cheap thrills. 

Regardless, "Antebellum" is a handsomely made genre movie, and Monae does a good job of juggling a somewhat complex role. And, without giving too much away, there is catharsis in this film when we finally reach the point when the racist villains get their comeuppance. But while "Antebellum" has some elements that make it watchable, it feels disjointed.