All I’m going to come back to this in a bit.). Interview with The Devil All the Time Scribe Paulo Campos!! To have a coping persona means that one is hiding from the truth. I think I just spoiled the movie’s trick. The Civil War is apparently raging. So, if you haven’t seen the film…as always, here’s a trailer, but then after that? I mean, whether their intent is good, or bad, it doesn’t matter. It means that, though wronged, the person wronged is minimizing the attack, or the wrong, in order to psychologically deal in a normal world. Obviously she doesn’t want to go because that means saying goodbye to her daughter and her husband Nick. Two different times. Here’s something most of us can relate to. Eli ends up dying after the fight with the General. Many little Indie films have carried the tension between two worlds in a better way than Antebellum handled it. Successful author Veronica Henley finds herself trapped in a horrifying reality and must uncover the mind-bending mystery before it's too late. But as the movie starts, we get hints that an escape has just been attempted and it has cruelly been put down. Should we talk about this futuristic dream state for a moment? And it was the General who owned the park, and created it, which we learn from the sign on her way out “Blake Denton.” Veronica is able to make it to the police, which then come and free the other entrapped people inside the park. The mechanics fail to match the details of … Your email address will not be published. But eventually, Veronica knocks Elizabeth off her horse, slips a rope around her neck, and drags her at speed into a Robert E. Lee statue, that kills her instantly. But I know nothing about this situation – or this problem. Antebellum is the kind of film that requires true storytelling daring to pull off. Veronica steals the General’s phone, but then drops it when they are running for cover. One of them, Amara (Achok Majak), runs away again in terror after watching the other men strap a device to another slave, Eli (Tongayi Chirisa). Can anything be worse than infinitely bad?!? So if you’re up for a good rewatch, check out all the little eggs you might’ve missed: ESSENCE.com is part of ESSENCE Communications, Inc. The actors were all fantastic but I can’t imagine why anyone on their right mind would even want to make this film. Or the episode of Black Mirror entitled Playtest. Overt racism? Veronica Hints At Her Strategy To Escape Antebellum In Speech, “In her speech [about her book], without Veronica realizing it, she’s actually creating the roadmap for how she’s going to [escape Antebellum]. Seems really important somehow. Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz’s Antebellum begins where you can rightly expect a film with a title this brash to begin: on a plantation. Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz admitted that when they recently watched the film with historians and professors, who didn’t see the twist coming, initially they were perplexed. Alright, let’s get to it: Antebellum Movie Discussed and Explained. Well, because overt racism, yeah, maybe? Well, after some high jinks…Veronica gets in the wrong Uber, and is quickly kidnapped. The subtitle of this book is, “the metamorphosis of a revolution…or a roadmap to revolution for historically marginalized people.” And if that isn’t a clearer description of what this movie is 100% all about, I don’t know what is. That in turn causes her to commit suicide by hanging herself in her sleeping quarters. So when she says, ‘I know you. This would be completely different on a second watch,'” Bush recalled. And I hope that even though it missed the target, it will cause good conversations about the issues of race and racism here in this country. Instead of selling the cotton that these poor people were creating, and cultivating with their sweat and tears, they are props in a reenactment park. You’ll need to move along because there are really cool spoilers here that we will be discussing in detail. But the screenplay needed crazy levels of … But when Julia lets him know that she knows he’s different, that he doesn’t have to do this, he beats her… causing her to miscarry her child the next day. But the funny thing to me is that some people would prefer to say that racism doesn’t exist anymore. Did the film make me think though? “The little girl is trying to demonstrate how Veronica is raising her daughter versus how Elizabeth is raising her daughter to hate. It’s more like an episode of Black Mirror than it is a proper movie. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. “COME HELP, THE GENERAL IS HURT” and then she locks the door from the outside. I’d be like, nope, not getting out of bed, SLAVERY. Got it. Nothing. Similarly for us white folks, we may not see how well you are treated when you walk into a store, why? “Antebellum” follows Monáe’s character Veronica as she’s kidnapped on a business trip and brought against her will to a Civil War reenactment park. Heck, yes. Was it just one big screw you to black people for being smart, successful, and resilient? Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. And in the middle of this miasma of pain and suffering walks Antebellum. Antebellum is an unrepentantly violent film, and this entire sequence shows how it falsely equates shock value with empathy. ESSENCE spoke to the writer-director duo behind the film, Bush and Renz, who so graciously broke down what you might’ve missed about the film that centers on Monáe’s Veronica Henley, a scholar with a book titled Shedding The Coping Persona. Not to spoil a totally different movie for you (all those of you who haven’t seen the 2004 movie The Village, should probably avert your eyes now) but have you seen M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village? Her name is Veronica Henley. Today. And yet, I can watch as a drop dead gorgeous person is fawned over. Learn how your comment data is processed. I watched as a man shod a horse in an authentic 1700’s fashion. She’s trying to raise her daughter as if the antebellum South still exists.” The little girl is also holding a racist toy. It implies that society today expects you to cope. I’ve seen the looks. Warning: spoilers ahead! Finally discover ANTEBELLUM, the ultimate movie event – NOW AVAILABLE - Everywhere At Home | On Demand. Movie Info Successful author Veronica Henley is finishing a book tour before she returns home to her husband and daughter. What if you were to take an average looking white male, black male, white female, and black female and send them all into a car dealer? And at the time, I took to mean, Virginia was a less strict state on slaves than Louisiana, which, was historically true. Grabbing the General’s horse, she rides as fast as she can in an attempt to flee the park. Was her previous situation better? Required fields are marked *. And outside of actively divesting control to others, white people will always control how this conversation will go down. So the big twist of Antebellum is, in some ways, very much a riff on the one that writer/director M. Night Shyamalan executed in his 2004 film The Village. At this point in the film we really don’t know, except she mentions that she comes from North Carolina, and Eden came from Virginia? That the impacts were resolved years ago, and now we are just all learning how to get along together. Heather Hammers’ New I Still Love You Rendition, King Kong and Godzilla Visit Flat Iron Building, Must-See Artworks in Macau You Have to Visit, 2018 Christmas Gifts for Geeks and the Like, The Winding Reiterative Path of Artistic Invention, Infinity Chamber Is a Fantastic Closed Box Mindjob, High Recommendation for The Maus and Discussion Explanation, Synchronicity Time Travel Movie Reviewed and Explained, Synchronic Movie Recommendation and Whine Fest. (Seriously, we’re about to spoil the entire movie so don’t continue reading if you haven’t watched Antebellum.). And they were like, ‘Oh, my God. Antebellum, the Janelle Monáe-led psychological thriller from the producers of Get Out and Us, hit streaming services this weekend, causing muuuuch discussion online. The dictionary definition of antebellum literally means "before the war," coming from the Latin phrase, ante bellum. And as she continues fleeing, she realizes she was part of a reenactment “amusement park” of sorts. Which is when we are introduced to the 1940’s Hitler-era crematorium, which is central to the story, the plot, and the conclusion actually, now that I think about it. have dealt with all these same issues, and have done it for a mere FRACTION of Antebellum’s 14.6 million budget. And knowing what we know at the end, this is especially tragic. Fascinating. Was it because she would be a prize? Think about it. Janelle Monáe‘s new horror movie, Antebellum, does not hold back on the “horror” aspect of it all. Or something like that. Shyamalan created an Amish-like world so full tilt in its reclusiveness that the inhabitants weren’t even aware of the modern world. Antebellum is an interesting cinematic problem. Instead, Antebellum goes for a third-act twist of M. Night Shyamalan proportions that threatens to swallow the movie whole, devouring any sense of subtlety and shading in … I mean, heck, all life is precious. I understand that my perspective on a movie like Antebellum is jaded. The psychological coping mechanisms are commonly termed coping strategies or coping skills.” But in this context, it’s a highly negative thing. (More on this topic here and here if you are interested in the studies and the debate.) Why is this happening? Because it really wasn’t that big of a twist. And then towards the end, they completely got it. But while “Antebellum” is dazzling to the eyes, it also leaves an icky taste in your mouth in its leering, exploitative depiction of violent, slavery movie tropes. She took that into her own hands that these people need to be punished. Antebellum was only made because it is telling us a story about ourselves today. Yes, there were some sections of the film that were very difficult to watch. This is a certifiable fact. And this is an interesting corollary in that it too is abusing humans into profits, but in different ways. The Antebellum South is the era in the southern United States (the old Confederacy) that existed from the late 18th century until 1861. Let’s just keep going. I’m assuming that this is an indication of their acceptance of a new situation, acceptance of their (new?) Some of these films begin in the Antebellum period and continue afterward, however all of them spend a considerable portion of the film in the period. Male or female, doesn’t matter. Nobody Movie Recommendation Because YEAH! I say all that to say I did in fact feel like it was black trauma porn badly disguised as a Jordan Peele horror movie. You’re the one who can get us out of here. Which, to be frank, is literally unjustifiable…but I can see how day in, and day out living, would require people of color to minimize the impact of slavery in their past. Why? Hearing the chaos going on at the crematorium, Elizabeth joins the chase for ‘Eden.’ And as she does, we learn that Elizabeth has been responsible for the hand picking of each of the people brought to the park in order to enslave them. You can also subscribe without commenting. Just brilliantly done, top to bottom. After waking in the morning after Julia’s suicide, and her memory/dream, she lets Eli know that she is going to make a try for an escape. Ok I just finished watching this and I knew zero about it and have avoided reading the reviews and comments and all I have to say is WHY? You might not dig it. When you see her in the elevator with Veronica (Monáe), because she’s in that garb, you think of her as ghostly,” Bush said. Not yesterday. Regardless, with that said, I totally get many will see this film and think that it is exploitative. The sins of the father, and all of that. It’s gorgeously shot. It’s a really complicated situation – that I literally know 0% about. Which is a really sad reality. Because it just is what it is. It's an empty twist in search of grander meaning. In its second weekend the film topped the Amazon Prime Video, FandangoNow and Spectrumfilm charts, while finishing second at Google Play and sixth at Apple TV, and remained in the top three acros… With Janelle Monáe, Eric Lange, Jena Malone, Jack Huston. I watched this movie without looking into it what it was about or seeing any previews and about 35 minutes in, I said it felt like a some kind of bad imitation of a “Jordan Peele” type movie. Having people run to grab you that orange juice you don’t necessarily want, well, that’s just how life has been your whole gorgeous life. Finally discover ANTEBELLUM, the ultimate movie event – NOW AVAILABLE - Everywhere At Home | On Demand. Stowaway Netflix Movie Philosophy Lifeboat 101. So she’s basically giving you, giving the audience, a roadmap as to how she is strategizing when you think that she’s being silent.”. I watched civil war reenactment battles. Literally, this is a much edgier remake of that same movie…but literally, the twist of both these movies are in the same headspace. The evil woman incarnate? Think about it a second – if you are white, does the phrase, “white privilege” offend you? Although Antebellum is a movie about slavery in the present day, it also depicts the current social and political issues plaguing our country today. And maybe all we would need to do is to point them to a couple of other similar films that figured out how to do the drop in a more intriguing fashion. “These outcomes for Black women in motherhood, they’re really, really poor outcomes,” he added, “and we were combining that with Sandra Bland, and also the historic context of enslaved women who would hang themselves rather than see their children born into slavery.”, “You remember when she says to her daughter, ‘When you look up in the sky and you see that big airplane, you’ll know that that’s Mommy coming home to you?’ So when she escapes and she crosses the Antebellum sign, and Vagabon’s ‘Home Soon’ is playing, when the plane goes overhead, that is representing metaphorically that she’s made it home.”. It ground humans into nubs by abusing them into profits. Gorgeously acted. Confederate troops led by a man named Jasper (Jack Huston) bring in a few runaway slaves. Regardless of what the twist is about at this point – we can already see that we are dealing with a historical Antebellum south, while simultaneously dealing with a modern context. We need to burn the whole thing down and build something new in its place.”. When Eli or Professor Tarasai begins to whistle and then the others captured start to whistle, they’re whistling “Lift Every Voice And Sing.” The song, which originated as a poem by James Weldon Johnson, wasn’t created until after the antebellum era was over. I thought the film attempted to show how perfectly smart, and successful black individuals could be abused by others that is well beyond their control. (Breonna Taylor? And so she’s memorizing the boards, which ones creak and which ones don’t so that she can get out. It was her father’s express insistence that brought Veronica here. Maybe that’ll be a significant detail here in a bit. But at the end of the day, the screenplay, while being really fearless, and courageous…was a flop. Who knows. It’s horrific that this was ever historically a thing. AH! For them, they don’t have to think that they have “Gorgeous Privilege” it’s just the way life is. But again, my opinion is really not valid on that question. It’s really really sickening. A woman runs for her life across the fields of a plantation, Confederate soldiers on horseback galloping furiously after her. But let’s be clear here… the reveal definitely could have been handled more adroitly. It is telling us that the inequalities of the past are alive and well and kicking today. This egg might seem obvious, but it was because everyone there was reenacting the antebellum period. Because this may just be a metaphor for MAGA and some bigger topic that is eating its way out of our collective insides. Wha? “It was interesting speaking to them afterward because they found themselves just so angry in the first act about all of the ‘mistakes’ that we made. Antebellum has neither enough ideas for an op-ed nor enough scares for a horror movie. Daniel finds it, and as they need it, Eli attacks Daniel, and kills him to get it. But this podcast points out just how untrue this idea really is. Don't subscribe The truth still remains…white people will actively control any and all situations they are even adjacent to in this world of schooling. Antebellum opens with a William Faulkner quote that serves as the overarching theme to the film: " The past is never dead. But there we see Elizabeth again, you know, the lady of the plantation? She’s here at the hotel! Wait, here we go. Especially in a year when Trump is insensitively (best case) working hard to divide the country by race. Right? She says that their arrogance is their greatest vulnerability, and that they’re not paying attention. Ending Explained is a recurring series in which we explore the finales, secrets, and themes of interesting movies and shows, both new and old. I watched as a woman made corn bread. The movie opens in the Antebellum south – otherwise known as the plantation era – at a Louisiana plantation that is specifically run by the armed forces of the south’s military. And yet, at this park, they have used it as a cover for the systematic abuse, rape, and pillaging of black people. And yet, I learned so much from this film and think there is plenty here to discuss and grapple with, IFFFFF you are open to doing so. To minimize the impact or harm of your past. Liked it? Filmmakers Bush and Renz break down the Easter eggs in their new flick, streaming now. Antebellum is a similar type experience that shields the viewer from the truth that Veronica is actually a modern day, celebrated black author, shackled in some sort of retrospective horror show. 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