40 Acres

Screen Unseen for June 16th was 40 Acres, and AMC advertised this film for Juneteenth. I was debating whether I wanted to see it or not, and then I received the open time frame to watch this movie.

The engagement was compelling enough to keep my attention. Still, my reason for engagement was trying to understand the world-building and consequential behaviors through the protagonist continued to be mind-blowing. In her motherly role, she should have soft elements, especially with the exposition of history in the flashback scenes. By the time we view the ending scenes, the emotional finale did not leave a heart-warming impact or a specific message of family.

40 Acres is advanced in how it treats familial, racial, and interpersonal traumas. One could look at this film as an allegorical reflection on the devastation ravaged by North American colonists towards multiple communities (i.e. Indigenous Canadians and enslaved Africans) and, while this is necessary to feel the full weight of these survivors' journeys, the genre bending and fast-paced sequences are so well-tailored that the thrills alone can carry the film.

These are survivors in the truest sense of the word, and it's not killing or laboring in the fields that gives them a hard time, it's learning how to build the trust to let others in.

40 Acres is a new Canadian, post apocalyptic......farm thriller?

The basic plot follows a family living on an isolated farm in the middle of rural Canada, several years after a mushroom pandemic, civil war and other weird stuff.

Society has fallen, and there are cannibals and raiders everywhere. A family of mixed ethnicity are now surviving, growing food on their farm, which is super important, all animals are now wiped out and farmland is a super hot commodity.

The movie is handsomely shot but it bounces around from dark humour, horror, a military movie, a family religious movie and a coming of age movie, oh and kidnapping movie.

It's almost like the director said to the writers "Hey you have all of this stuff in here. What kind of movie should this actually be?" And then they all said "Yes."

This is a textbook example of throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the wall, but what sticks actually does kind of work.

The movie is unique in that when it's the turn...things get worse for the characters....and then it gets worse......and then it gets worse...before being tied up in a nice little bow at the end.

At the end of the day, if you gave me this film's budget and actors and told me to go with god, this isn't the movie that I would necessarily come up with, but I'm glad that someone took a stab at it. The result is a low to mid budget thriller that actually pulls it off. I saw this movie at a surprise screening, but I'm glad that I did.

The only thing I do not understand is the reason this movie is listed under science fiction. This is exactly how people will act when the food shortage hits the world, and it will hit us. Forget about viruses killing all animals, by 2050, we are guaranteed to have food shortages around the world due to the increased population, deforestation, decreasing soil fertility, climate change, unsustainable farming practices, and other factors. And just like this movie portrays, humans will lose their humanity and behave worse than animals (at least those are cruel unintentionally; they have no consciousness to comprehend their actions). So it is more of an action-drama than Sci-Fi.

A bit slow in the beginning. Could have been editted and cut for a shorter runtime. But overall, pretty good. Well shot with good acting and nice action. Gory at times but that is just to illustrate the point.

You've read the plot already, you know what the story is. So if you like Mad Max on a budget, feel free to give this a try.

I saw a preview for this movie a couple of months ago and made a point of making sure I saw it when it released. I'm so glad I did because this movie is easily one of the best Canadian productions I've ever seen.

R. T. Thorne really nailed this one, and left me leaving the theatre with a sense of pride that a Canadian filmmaker, and an almost all Canadian cast could make something so entertaining.

The casting was excellent! Everyone brought their own touches to an already excellent script. It was easy to care for every member of the family. Danielle Deadwyler is quickly becoming one of my favorite actresses and she nails it here as the overprotective Mom.

The cinematography was great, the title cards between the different sections of the film was a nice touch. All in all, this movie is worth the price of admission.

Bravo to everyone in the cast. I can't wait to see more from each and every one of them.