Review of Mudbound (2017) by Ben T — 18 Feb 2018

Mudbound's trailer didn't particularly excite me. It didn't look to be charting any new territory and frankly, it looked painfully depressing. Both of these things proved to be true of the movie upon viewing.

However, I actually liked Mudbound. Sure, it is easily 25 minutes too long and sure, it can be excruciatingly slow in parts. But, it's a surprising little movie. While Mary J. Blige nabbed a nomination, I felt that the strongest scenes and overall performances were delivered by Rob Morgan, Garrett Hedlund, and especially Jason Clarke.

Even still, I don't believe any performance in this was good enough to earn a nod in this tough year (Sorry, Mary). But all portrayals were plenty good and some scenes in this film made you want to jump out your skin.

That's whether because of their unexpected violence or because of how accurately they convey the tension of subservient, yet "free" black characters having to suck up their pride out of self-preservation.

In these scenes, it's the acting, not the somewhat trite screenplay, that elevates the emotion. These handful of sections of the film make the entire experience worth having, as well as the not-surprising chemistry between the beautiful Garrett Hedlund and even more beautiful Carey Mulligan.

Mudbound would be a front-runner for Best Picture in about any year in the 90s, but by now we've seen this movie before. Still, it should absolutely be seen.