Antebellum (2020)

 Score: 4 / 5

It begins with a daring long take as we weave through the field surrounding a Louisiana slave plantation. The costumes and rustic set design appear to be from the mid-nineteenth century, in the titular American antebellum period. In fact, the gorgeous natural lighting, the swaying Spanish moss, and the brutal conditions of the plantation reminded me almost immediately of Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave. Then, in slow motion, a woman flees through the tall grass, chased by slavers on horseback; a closeup of her face as a lasso loops around her neck and she is pulled back, dragged along the ground. It's the sort of unbearably violent thing that will get people riled up, filmed in that beautiful-and-disturbing way that could be exploitative. I wondered what movie I was getting into, and this is just the opening sequence.

Antebellum is a rarity. I went in knowing almost nothing about it, and I think that served me well. Because it's ultimately doing a whole lot in terms of plot and theme, and very little of it is clearly defined. At the end of Act 1, which I'll guess is loosely the first forty minutes or so, the entire movie suddenly changes as the rug is pulled from beneath us. It takes some getting used to, but it's the kind of twist that made M. Night Shyamalan famous, and frankly the twist strongly reminds me of one of his movies in particular (can't say which, or I'll spoil it for you!). Some will see it as gimmicky, but by the end I was struck by just how horrifyingly plausible the entire premise is in our country today.

But I don't want to go down that rabbit hole, because it's too difficult to talk about this movie without starting to give away its secrets. Perhaps it would be better to praise Janelle Monae at this point, because she is magnificent as always. Here she plays Eden, a slave planning to escape, and a dual role as Veronica, a renowned sociologist in the present day. Both are strong women working to assert themselves, but their enemies are closing in. The two characters exist quite separately, and we aren't sure of their connection, if there is any. It's a gamble on the filmmakers' part, and one that will leave some people scratching their heads for a while. Thankfully, cinematographer Pedro Luque works hard to capture lots of detail in his gorgeously framed shots; the gritty, tactile warmth of the plantation and the sleek, modern coolness of a bourgeois home clearly belong in the same movie.

Without giving anything else away, I want to end by saying that the movie juggles a lot. I'm not sure it handles its weighty ideas with any real ideological intention or even much conviction. There are themes, but few morals. Despite its contrived plot and major reveals in the latter half, it hardly manages to feel urgent, much less important. Mostly the movie feels angry. Righteous anger from the last four years (and of course, the last several hundred) is past due, and if more movies were made out of raw passion like this I'd be much more critical. The pain and anger fueling this movie could have serviced any number of concise, coherent meanings, but Antebellum as it is seems content to just express itself. With its brilliant, troubling premise, I am surprised it didn't delve deeper to become something profound.