By: Lana K. Wilson-Combs
With the their new slave drama
?Antebellum,? first-time feature writers/directors
Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz--best known for their shorts and music videos (?Kill Jay-Z?)-- aim for the fences but come up short.
?Antebellum," which is available On Demand, has been billed as a historical movie about the Civil War-era South combined with a ?Get Out? type of mysterious and contemporary edge to it.
Perhaps in the hands of veteran directors and writers like Jordan Peele, Spike Lee (?Black KkKlansman?) or Steve McQueen (?12 Years A Slave?), that could have worked just fine and the film?s one trick wouldn?t be so obvious and laboriously rendered.
To its credit, ?Antebellum?s cast, particularly Janelle Monae (?Hidden Figures? and ?Moonlight?) gives a commanding performance.
?Antebellum? opens on a Louisiana plantation. Immediately we see women and men picking cotton and being told not to speak to each other. Then Eden (Monae) sees brutality handed down to a young black couple trying to escape. As the woman attempts to run away, she?s lassoed around her neck and dragged by her overseer, Captain Jasper (Jack Huston, TV?s ?Fargo? and ?Manhunt?). All this as her shackled and horrified husband watches helplessly.
Turns out that Eden helped orchestrate the woman?s failed escape and she pays severely for her actions by being iron branded by master Him (Eric Lange, TV?s ?Perry Mason?).
When other female slaves arrive on the plantation, Eden makes sure they understand the code of conduct especially a pregnant woman named Julia (Kiersey Clemons, ?Dope? and TV?s ?BoJack Horseman?).
No sooner than that scene plays out, the movie shifts to present day. Eden is at her upscale home in Washington D.C. and is now known as professor Veronica Henley, an accomplished author whose supportive husband Nick (Marque Richardson, ?Inheritance? and TV?s ?Dear White People?) and precious, young daughter (London Boyce) are her world.
Is this all some crazy dream? Not quite. Just remember, things aren?t always what they appear to be in ?Antebellum.?
When Veronica leaves her family for New Orleans to promote her latest book and meets a racist woman named Elizabeth (Jena Malone, ?Nocturnal Animals?), her life abruptly changes.
At first blush ?Antebellum? probably seemed like a clever, progressive take on slavery/racism and the grip it still has on society today. However, that message, is muddled and the film?s big reveal fizzles in the end.
There is also a scene with Veronica?s friends Sarah (Lily Cowles, TV?s ?Rosewell, New Mexico?) and Dawn (Gabourey Sidibe, TV?s ?Empire?) that just seemed thrown together. It?s obviously meant to bring some humor to the film, but it?s more embarrassing than anything else.
I had high hopes for ?Antebellum.? Unfortunately, it?s a bit of a letdown.
Editor's Note: Be sure to catch my N2Entertainment.net movie talk segment on the Kitty O'Neal Show Fridays now at 6:20 p.m. on radio station KFBK 1530 AM and 93.1 FM.
Look At This Trailer For
"ANTEBELLUM"
Lana K. Wilson-Combs is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics? Association (BFCA), The Black Film Critics Circle (BFCC) and a Nominating Committee Voting Member for the NAACP Image Awards.
