‘Antebellum’ is a punishingly self-congratulatory, crystalline thriller with an egregious exploitation of the nation’s dehumanization of Nubian citizens to the point of non-minority prejudice (Jena Malone is defiantly overacting as Elizabeth, a Caucasian succubus who obviates eye contact with “inferior” ethnicities).
Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz immediately rankles the viewers’ kneejerk reactions to plantations, confederate soldiers in formation and African-American slaves laundering clothes. Much of the storyboarding must’ve been splurged on the voluptuous opening-credit sequence dolly across the property and onto the battlefield.
Unlike the allegorical puissance of ‘Tales from the Hood’, the filmmakers are merely retroactive to lynchings and systemic racism. The torso branding and subsequent rape of Eden (Janelle Monae) along with a miscarriage are too extortionate for a film which is ultimately a chicanery.
The M. Night Shyamalan twist around an anachronistic Civil War reenactment amusement park is tremendously hyaline and characters like the enceinte Julia (Kiersey Clemons) must be deliberately nebulous in colloquies in order to hoodwink the ostensibly gullible audience.
Also, the bombardment of cotton-pickers being savagely pummeled is a forfeiture to the ‘Black Mirror’ revelation’s fantasy contrivances.
Likewise, the dual directors are aphasic around the platform about how inequality hasn’t been quelled during the present- day scenes with sociological author Veronica Henley (also Monae). The scenario with Veronica is an orgy of abrasive zeitgeist terminology such as bikram yoga and non-vegan foodstuffs.