Antebellum, 2020, USA, Dir. Gerard Bush & Christopher Renz
Well, we’re certainly not pro-bellum. This week Mick from Behold! pod joins us again to look at a film that seems to have everything going for it: a pair of hotly-tipped debuting directors, a provocative, mind-bending premise, and a quality cast. Even more promisingly, that quality cast is headed up by Janelle Monae, who Graham cites as the only musician capable of filling the void left by Prince and David Bowie.
And yet Antebellum received a tepid reaction on release, and Graham and Mick are here to figure out what went wrong. Among the suspects: its gorgeous but showy visual style, its absolute forehead-slapper of a twist and – the ultimate sin – not doing right by Janelle Monae, and what she means to the culture. Yet there’s also room to talk about the film’s positive elements, as well as an extended detour around the Wikipedia page for the short-lived 1970s band The Normal. For some reason.
We can’t possibly segue from that, so let’s cut to the chase: we’ve got a Patreon, and if you donate to that Patreon you get loads of stuff including a monthly bonus episode of this very podcast – this month’s is about Bubba Ho-Tep – our other movie podcast Director’s Lottery, Graham’s twice-weekly Doctor Who reviews, and more. For more information, follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
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