Since the critical and commercial success of 2017’s Get Out, there’s been a constant push for the next race-based film to move race into the national conscience. Next up to bat is Antebellum. Starring Janelle Monae, Antebellum is the story of a successful Black author who finds herself in a reality that places her as a slave on a plantation that she must escape to save herself and her family present day. It’s a slightly different take on the role of slavery in film, but does Antebellum insert itself into our nation’s conscience like Get Out or is it simply an attempt to cash in on the business of the race conversation?
In her first lead film role, Monae proves she can be the star of a movie. She does an adequate job striking a balance playing what amounts to a dual role as her character exists as a slave during the Civil War and a successful activist/author in modern-day. She smoothly balances subservient and unyieldingly strong as needed with ease.
Despite that fact, Monae’s performance feels middling. Being adequate is generally a good thing, but it is a little disappointing in this case. In a role where all eyes are finally on her, Monae plays it a bit too safe. The part had the room on both sides to make it her own, but it felt as if she stayed too close to the script and abandoned any opportunities to make the role more endearing.
Outside of Monae, the cast is useless. Eric Lange and Jack Huston’s performances are so “paint Confederate soldiers by number” that you would have the same film if you removed them from the picture and used either them or Foghorn Leghorn as voice overs. Gabourey Sidibe joins them in adding nothing to film. Sidibe tries to provide comic relief but ends up being part flawed Madea impression and part hipster who just discovered Black Twitter.
The lone potential bright spot acting-wise outside Monae is Jenna Malone’s Elizabeth as she is the most sinister of all the villains in the film. That’s promising until we learn she’s in the movie about a minute longer than the people watching it.
The parties behind the camera are responsible for even greater cinematic sins. In their feature film writing and directorial debuts, Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start.
Bush’s and Renz’s script is underdeveloped. It may be due to the bulk of their pre-Antebellum work being music videos and other short-form videos, but their writing lacks what is needed to tell the story their premise sets up. It’s chock-full of every slavery movie cliché imaginable and does not make a real point despite having the subject matter to accomplish that. This issue robs Antebellum of the social commentary needed to make its abstract premise work.
The directing is equally as bad. Bush and Renz fail to craft a single scene that elicits any empathy, compassion, or horror. This might be the first time an R-rated horror film centered around the horrors of slavery muted the horrors of slavery.
They further damaged Antebellum by making a primarily one-act movie when the script indicates more to it than that. They spend far too much time shallowly focusing on Antebellum’s slavery aspects and not nearly enough time on its modern-day connections. This error not only makes the time skips feel abrupt but almost out of place.
Ultimately, Antebellum is a contrived attempt to capitalize on the much-needed dialogue about slavery, race, and how both have shaped this country. It doesn’t have a trace of anything that would spark a discussion about race or move it forward. Monae delivers a sound performance, but it’s not worth everything else you go through to see it. While Get Out will be a comparison, Antebellum should only be mentioned with those words when you get out and spend your money and time elsewhere instead of watching it.
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