ANTEBELLUM

I applauded the trailer for this film as it doesn't give away too much of the movie (nowadays I feel like I've seen 75% of movies in their 2-minute trailers). So there was a bit of unknown heading in to this. From what I saw, it seemed like an interesting concept and piqued my curiosity. In doing so, for the better part of the movie you're glued to the story, trying to decipher the time period exactly and it was quite entertaining. I applaud the writers and directors (both Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz), on their originality in developing this story. Once the time period is revealed, however, the film becomes too preachy. Save the performances of leading star Janelle Monae and villain Jena Malone, the film is WAY too heavy handed with it's virtue signaling. The third act is nothing more than an anti-white, I mean anti-right, propaganda piece. I'm surprised more critics are lauding this more as a "timely" film. My biggest grip with the film however, was with Gabourey Sidibe, who plays Dawn and is the best friend of Monae's character of Veronica. I'm sure some will find her performance strong and empowering. Whereas I found her to be nothing more than rude and ill-mannered, displaying her toxic femininity. 5/10