Antebellum
Antebellum (film)
| Antebellum | |
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| Cinematography | Pedro Luque |
| Edited by | John Axelrad |
Production company |
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| Distributed by | Lionsgate Films |
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Running time | 106 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $10 million[2] |
| Box office | $6.9 million[3][4] |
Antebellum is a 2020 American thriller film[5][6] written and directed by Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz in their feature directorial debuts. The film stars Janelle Monáe, Eric Lange, Jena Malone, Jack Huston, Kiersey Clemons, and Gabourey Sidibe, and follows a modern-day African-American woman who finds herself in a Southern slave plantation and must escape.
Antebellum was released in the United States through Premium video on demand on September 18, 2020, and theatrically in several other countries. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who felt it did not live up to the premise's full potential.
Plot[edit]
In a Louisiana slave plantation run by Confederate soldiers, slaves are treated harshly and not allowed to speak without permission. Those who attempt to escape are killed and their bodies burned in a crematorium. After a failed escape attempt, a black man named Eli watches as his wife is murdered and her body placed in the crematorium. A woman who had been assisting them is later brutally beaten and branded until she submits to being called Eden.
A group of new slaves are brought to the plantation. Among them is a pregnant woman whom the daughter of the plantation owner, Elizabeth, names Julia and places in the care of Eden. Julia asks Eden to plan an escape while Eden urges her to keep her head down. That evening, during a dinner where Julia and Eden are forced to wait on soldiers in the army, a shy Confederate soldier named Daniel is attracted to Julia and arranges to go to her cabin later. When Julia tries to play on his kindness and asks him to help her he beats her for speaking to him without permission, causing her to miscarry.
In her cabin, after being raped by the general, Eden hears a ringing cell phone. In the modern era a cell phone rings, awakening Eden, who is actually Veronica Henley, a renowned sociologist. She is preparing to take a trip to speak at a seminar and promote her book, which is particularly hard for her because she has to leave her loving husband, Nick, and her daughter, Kennedi. She has a bizarre online meeting with Elizabeth which leaves her uncomfortable but she dismisses her feelings and cuts the meeting short.
While in Louisiana on her promotional tour, she meets her friends and agrees to go to dinner with them. In the meantime Elizabeth sneaks into her hotel room and steals her lipstick. Intending to go back home early in the morning, Veronica leaves dinner in what she believes is her Uber ride but is actually a car driven by Elizabeth. Elizabeth's husband Jasper knocks Veronica out revealing that Veronica and "Eden" are the same person.
Veronica discovers that Julia has committed suicide by hanging herself. Enraged she tells Eli that they must once again try to escape. The following evening, after being raped by the general, she once again sneaks out of her cabin and steals the general's phone. Before she can call for help, she is interrupted by an intoxicated Daniel and his friend who find the phone but are not suspicious, believing it dropped out of the general's bag.
When he is alone, Eli kills Daniel with a hatchet and retrieves the cellphone. As the phone can only be unlocked with facial recognition, Veronica goes back to the cabin to find the general and is surprised to find he is awake; the general attacks both of them, and Eli is subsequently killed trying to protect Veronica. She stabs the general with his own bayonet and unlocks the phone, then uses GPS to send her location to her husband. Intending to hide the general in the crematorium, she is interrupted by Jasper. Veronica lures him and another guard into the crematorium and sets fire to it, leaving the three men to burn to death as she steals the general's horse and rides off.
Elizabeth then pursues on horseback and reveals that she handpicked every slave on the plantation except for Veronica, whom she kidnapped at her father's insistence. Veronica knocks Elizabeth off her horse and puts a rope around her neck, dragging her until she hits a base statue of Robert E. Lee, thereby breaking her neck.
Veronica flees the pursuing soldiers into the chaos of a battle, revealing that the so-called plantation is actually part of a Civil War reenactment park, Antebellum, owned by the general, Senator Blake Denton. Denton and his comrades intended to use the park to recreate an environment to bring back the slavery days using African victims. Veronica finally escapes as the police arrive to liberate her and the other captives. The park is later razed to the ground.
Cast[edit]
- Janelle Monáe as Veronica Henley/Eden
- Eric Lange as Blake Denton/Him
- Jena Malone as Elizabeth
- Jack Huston as Jasper
- Kiersey Clemons as Julia
- Gabourey Sidibe as Dawn
- Marque Richardson as Nick Henley
- Tongayi Chirisa as Eli/Professor Tarasai
- Robert Aramayo as Daniel
- Lily Cowles as Sarah
- London Boyce as Kennedi Henley
- Arabella Landrum as Little Blonde Girl
- Achok Majak as Ghianna Queen
- T.C. Matherne as Purcell
Production[edit]
In March 2019, it was announced Janelle Monáe had joined the cast of the film, with Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz directing from a screenplay they wrote. Ray Mansfield and Sean McKittrick serve as producers on the film under their QC Entertainment banner, and Lionsgate are distributors.[7] In April 2019, Eric Lange, Jena Malone, Jack Huston, Kiersey Clemons, Tongayi Chirisa, Gabourey Sidibe, Robert Aramayo and Lily Cowles joined the cast of the film.[8] In May 2019, Marque Richardson joined the cast of the film.[9]
Principal photography began in May 2019.[10]
Release[edit]
Antebellum was released through video on demand in the United States on September 18, 2020, while still playing in theaters in select countries.[11] This includes a theatrical release in Australia on October 1, 2020.[12] The film was originally scheduled to be released on April 24, 2020, but was delayed to August 21, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, before being pulled off the release schedule temporarily in July 2020.[13][14]
Reception[edit]
VOD rentals[edit]
In its debut weekend, Antebellum was the number one most rented title across film and television on Amazon Prime Video, and number one rented film on FandangoNow and Apple TV, and third on Google Play. IndieWire estimated that if about 500,000 homes rented the film, it would result in $8 million for the studio.[2] In its second weekend the film topped the Amazon Prime Video, FandangoNow and Spectrum film charts, while finishing second at Google Play and sixth at Apple TV, and remained in the top three across most platforms in its third weekend.[15][16] In October 2020, The Hollywood Reporter said the film was the sixth-most popular PVOD title amid the COVID-19 pandemic.[17]
Critical response[edit]
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 28% based on 168 reviews, with an average rating of 4.68/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Antebellum fails to connect its images with any meaning, making for a largely unpleasant experience lacking any substantial scares."[18] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 45 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews."[19]
Peter Debruge from Variety called it "A mind blowing thriller".[20] Stephanie Zacharek of Time wrote "Even if we didn't live in a country where a shockingly large fraction of people think Confederate monuments are A-O.K., Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz's Antebellum would resonate like the boom of a Union Army cannon".[21] David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film a "C+" and wrote, "An artful and provocative movie about the enduring horror of America's original sin, Antebellum can't follow through on its own concept."[22] Writing for The Hollywood Reporter, Jourdain Searles said the film was "more interested in making a point than digging deep" and "In the end, Antebellum is undone by a lack of empathy and emotion. It has no real perspective on the past and thus fails to make any real impact on the present."[23]
Peter Debruge included the film on his list of "Best films of 2020" for Variety, praising its cinematic quality, effective storytelling and social relevancy.[24]
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