Mudbound

With Mudbound, a tale of two families in good(terrible) ol' Mississippi in the 1940s and the daily struggles for the men and women getting by in the most rural elements imaginable, I wanted to like it more, even love it. The period feel and authenticity Rees and her team have makes an impression and it's all surely lived in to where you feel the pain and literal dirt for white and blacks (so, in other words, a brief mention of 'A Tale of Two Cities' has textual resonance).

But the first half is rough going with way overdone narration, with too much that gives more information and dictating character beats than near necessary, robbing moments of poetry and grace. It almost gives the impression of a tougher/rougher shot yet far less eloquent version of The Southerner by Renoir. Not bad but not... Cinematic enough. It feels too literal a translation of a book (and it is an adaptation of one, unread by me).

Yet, once Hedlund and Mitchell, who don't get too developed before they go off to war and only get some in the scenes when they're in battle (all done in brutal and brief bites), come home from the war, the drama all around gets intensified. The narration gives way to emotional scenes between characters - or just conversations showing an understanding that wouldn't have happened if not ironically for the horrors of war- and all the acting by everyone goes to 100 (Jonathan Banks shows a much... "Poppy" kind of side to his talents).

It may be more of a history lesson than anything else, but the intimacy Rees has with her performers gets the material to its peak too. If you aren't sure of where it's going, or want Rees to stick to the farm scenes and not cut back to the war, just wait and the patience will pay off.

I felt the film dragged in the first hour, but once the two boys came back from WWII, one from a white family and the other from a black family, the story was rolling. Very sick how young men who served in the war had to return to disgusting racism. A whole new fresh horror awaited them. After the ending, I felt I needed to watch Mississippi Burning just to get a feeling of justice. What a lawless hole the south was. After seeing all the black children murdered in recent years, Roy Moore's base comments in Alabama, and juvenile actions of Trump, I ask myself where is the leadership in America to finally address the over incarceration of black men, lax gun laws, police brutality, white privilege in the justice system, etc??

This film did not leave me with a sense of hope. After WWII, many black men moved to Europe where they were treated as equals. I realize the Mudbound story takes place in 1940s but do people actually think America is the land of the free today? I don't think so. And seeing Americans vote someone like Trump into power only makes those of us on the outside wonder ... what is the fate of this country? .

A good and extremely well acted film. It is really the netflix film that could make the difference in terms of awards recognition. It is not your typical racism film as it tells another side of it. It is about two young men who would never be in any way friends if it wasn't for one thing they have in common. Both are war veterans and return home with a trauma. One is the son of a farm aid, the other is the brother of the owner of the farm. But it is not the only story this ensemble piece tells. The acting is the best reason to see the film. Rob Morgan was the MVP for me. It was a performance that worked way beneath his dialogue. A very deep and moving character and he managed it absolutely realistic. Jason Mitchell was great as well, especially towards the end. He has for sure the battiest role. Garrett Hedlund comes right after with a very controlled and intense turn. He surely is underrated for his acting, I also liked Mary J. Blige who had some great small moments, but after all the buzz I expected something more intense. Much of her performance works through her expressions which were great and real. Carey Mulligan and Jonathan Banks were great as well. Jason Clarke had his moments but was possibly the weakest of the bunch, but that was mostly because of his pale character, The film was extremely well shot, nicely directed and had a great screenplay. At the beginning it dragged a little bit but it is definitely worth to see and the ending is extremely intense, shocking and memorable. And the final scene has to be one of the most beautiful scenes of the year.

If there were ever a film that sums up the phrase 'mixed bag', then Mudbound is surely it. Ranging from emotionally devastating and harrowing drama to downright tedious periods of nothingness, this is one of the most inconsistent films you'll ever see, and although its highest points prove utterly enthralling and truly memorable, its lowest offer next to nothing in terms of riveting drama. Its performances are strong and its directing confident, but that doesn't escape the fact that this film is just a real mixed bag.

Let's start with the film's opening act, which is one of the most boring and frustrating hours I've spent watching a film. Starting off with a confusing and poorly executed opening scene, the film really fails to pick itself up over the course of its whole first hour, doing little more than to establish some of the main characters and the hardships of the muddy, isolated rural community, things that could have surely been done just as effectively in a good ten minutes.

For the duration of the whole first act, it's pretty difficult to tell what the end game of the movie actually is. For one, you've got the story of a young woman whose marriage allowed her to escape her dull family, and who also is deeply frustrated with the muddiness and poverty-stricken nature of her current life. Then there's some detailing of the horrific levels of racism in 1940s Mississippi, with the family's grandfather being the main example for some nasty remarks throughout. There's also a young black man who goes off to war, who we occasionally check in with during his battles in Europe, while we also see the brother of the central white family flying in the Air Force during the war.

As you can tell by that very bungled description, the film's first act is an absolute mess. There's very little way to tell what the main story is, and what you should really be focusing on for the biggest emotional intrigue, and that, coupled with the fact that it moves at a deathly slow pace, makes it a very frustrating and extremely tedious first hour.

However, things really do pick up come the second act. Upon seeing the two men return to Mississippi from the war, the film's central focus finally comes to the forefront, and we immediately get a very tense exchange between the racist grandfather and the African-American war veteran. That's undoubtedly one of the film's highest points, and sets up the atmosphere of deep racial tensions well, finally giving the film at least a continuing and consistent tension under the surface, something that was completely absent from its first act.

The second act then goes into looking at how different generations respond to the institutionalised racism, while also shedding light on how horrifically unjust some of the hardships suffered by so many hard-working African-Americans were at the time, which proves for an interesting, albeit never quite powerful watch. The film's middle portion is a great insight into the time period, and holds your attention throughout, but it never quite manages to hit you hard enough as a film telling such a story should do.

And then comes the film's final act, which is exceptional. For the final thirty minutes or so, the devastating reality of racism in the past is brought brutally into focus, and it makes for a deeply disturbing and uncomfortable but powerfully moving watch. With the film's tension at its height, it doesn't hold back in displaying some truly horrifying scenes, some of which are easily the most intense and powerful I have ever seen in a film dealing with the topic.

The final act is directed brilliantly, being frank and brutally realistic in its depiction of injustice, and moving along at a slow but tense pace to emphasise some truly horrible acts, all the while maintaining a strong dignity that allows the deeper, emotional side of the sequences to shine through too, all of which makes it simply astonishing to see.

It's fair to say then, given the huge range of comments I have for this film, ranging from total boredom to transfixing and hard-hitting emotion, that Mudbound is a very inconsistent mixed bag, however there is one element to it that works well from start to finish: the performances.

The wide range of characters in the first act does make its story somewhat muddled, but each of the actors really shines in bringing their own character to life. Carey Mulligan is very strong and convincing as a young mother frustrated with her life in poverty, Garrett Hedlund and Jason Mitchell are both charismatic young men, meaning that their relationship really shines when it's on display, while Jonathan Banks is excellent as the terrifyingly racist old man, bringing a powerful tension into the film every time he walks into a room.

Overall, then, it's pretty clear that Mudbound isn't a resoundingly successful movie. At times an interesting insight into racism and injustice in the Deep South in the 40s, at others a tedious slog of randomly muddled drama and characters, and at others an astonishingly powerful, hard-hitting and truly memorable (dare I say it, even Oscar- worthy) drama, it's a very inconsistent and overall frustrating film. However, with its strong performances all the way through and exceptional drama at points, it is a memorable watch.

There are alot of positive things to write about Mudbound. First of all the acting, that was by far the best part of this movie. It's what made this movie entertaining to watch, because in my eyes the duration of the movie was too long, but the good acting made up for that. The story itself is easy to follow, easy in the way it's not complicated, not in the way of hearing and seeing racist abuse. Because that's what's the movie about, awful racist southern people against a normal family that tries to survive in their own way. It's a message that depending on where you live, on how you were raised, you treat people differently. A movie with not a new story, but worth watching.