Movie of the Week: Mudbound

Alexa:  “Mudbound” deserves plenty of praise, but by far its greatest asset is its incredible cast. I can’t speak highly enough about the superb performances in this movie. We’re barely into awards season and “Mudbound” has already garnered two special prizes for its ensemble, which includes Jonathan Banks, Mary J. Blige, Jason Clarke, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Mitchell, Rob Morgan and Carey Mulligan. I was most blown away by Hedlund, who I primarily know from “Tron: Legacy,” and Mitchell, who I’ve never seen in anything. But this is a true ensemble film and the entire cast pulls their weight, which is crucial for a story as character-driven as “Mudbound.” I wasn’t surprised to see the movie is based on a book. Its use of multiple narrators felt like a device from a novel brought to life, and for the most part I thought that choice translated well on screen.

The movie is essentially divided into three acts: one about the white McAllan family, one about the black Jackson family and one about the friendship that develops between a member of each family after they return home from serving in World War II. As a result, some characters fade into the background for long stretches of time, which can make the structure feel a bit uneven, but that and a runtime that’s about 15 minutes too long are really my only complaints. Dee Rees’ direction is expertly executed. The cinematography is gorgeous. Rees and Virgil Williams’ script is incredibly thoughtful and compelling. And unfortunately, it feels as relevant today as the time period it depicts. The film includes an unapologetically brutal scene involving the KKK that refuses to sugarcoat the terror they inflicted back then and serves as a painful reminder that white supremacist hate groups are still out there today, posing a threat to minority groups that goes way beyond tiki torches and hate speech. “Mudbound” is difficult to swallow, but it’s a powerful and important film rooted in a beautiful friendship.

Joel: This was a very bleak movie. It tackles a heavy subject and does so in a way that’s somber and often times grim. The cinematography echoes the feel of the movie, with a muted tone that seems to weigh heavily on the entire movie. But none of this is a bad thing. The feel of that exists throughout the movie is able to give the film as a whole a lot of weight. The movie has staying power and because of that, it resonates with you long after the movie is over.

Mudbound comes in at 2 hours and 15 minutes, and it’s a movie that makes you feel every single minute of runtime. It makes those 2.25 hours feel like they’re passing the three hour mark, but again, this isn’t necessarily meant to be a criticism. The movie moves at a slow, deliberate pace, one that helps to set the tone of the movie. You feel the days drag on for the characters as they struggle day by day to go about their lives. You feel the isolation of living on a farm in Mississippi compared to earlier scenes in the movie that were set in a city. You feel the frustration, the pain, the despair, the loneliness, the depression that these characters go through throughout the movie. It’s a incredibly well directed movie. There are two different families with about seven or so characters that could all be considered main characters. At least three of them provide different narration at different points in the movie as we shift from story to story. As a setup, these interweaving stories are a balancing act of trying to tell each story simultaneously, giving each one it’s proper time without forsaking the other stories. Mudbound pulls it off wonderfully. While there are points where we can go long stretches without one story or the other being addressed, it doesn’t feel like the story thread has been abandoned or forgotten outright. Instead, more often than not, it adds to the slow, isolated feel that the movie is aiming for.

We’ve seen a good number of “Netflix Original” movies in this series this year. They’ve usually fallen somewhere on the range of “problematic at times but good enough overall” to downright terrible. This feels like the first time that Netflix has managed to secure a truly great film. One that has high ambitions and then reaches them. That’s not to say that no other Netflix Original is worth watching (I can only comment on the one’s I’ve seen and I haven’t seen even close to them all yet), but with this movie, it looks like Netflix is taking a very solid step in the right direction when it comes to their Original film division.

Chris: Don't be surprised when award season comes around and you see Mudbound nominations start popping up. I won't go as far to say that Mudbound is going to run away with all the awards but this movie would deserve it if that were the case.It's not an easy movie to watch, it covers the ugly truths of American history but that makes Mudbound that much more important for people to not only ingest but to incite thought and conversation as these similar racial hate issues come crawling out of the shadows today. Not enough can be said about the cast but the driving force is the direction of Dee Rees. It's a visually striking film but Rees never allows that to get in the way of her actors' performances, specifically both scenes in which Ronsel returns to his family both in America as well as in Germany at the end of the movie.

Jason: Movies like this one are hard to watch. They show you a difficult situation, add on some heartache, throw in a dash of misery, a sprinkling of hopelessness, and finally smack you in the face with unadulterated terror. But then at the end, they give a tiny glimmer of happiness through it all. It leaves a bittersweet taste in the mouth that is hard to ignore. Everything these characters go through is so raw and so real and so undeniably relevant that it makes us take a step back and realize that this stuff happened to so many families and continues to happen to this day. Maybe not with the exact same imagery but it is happening nonetheless. I was drawn into these stories in a visceral way that most of the movies we watch here don’t. That said, the issues that are brought up here have been talked about many times over and as such, the progression felt somewhat predictable at times. The two war veterans become buddies despite their differences. The unhappy housewife hooks up with her unhappy brother-in-law. The racism gets out of hand and one of the characters we have grown to love is attacked. I was able to call all of these events before they happened. It wasn’t the whole thing, just bits here and there that felt like I had heard this one before.

Holding up the story of this film is the production. There were parts I liked and some I didn’t like. The muted, earthy color palette makes it feel grounded and dirty. It was a distracting at times having to follow someone around the screen even though they were standing still. The shaky cam is a trend I hope isn’t too long lived in the film industry. But each individual shot was lovely to look at. (With one exception: the very beginning when Jamie and Henry are digging in the storm and the whole screen was black.) I dunno, I guess what I’m saying is that this movie was pretty hit and miss for me. If I think about it one way, I found it to be a good and important film. But another leads me to conclude that it was derivative and difficult to watch. Man, when you guys find a depressing one, it really hits hard!