{"id":400329,"date":"2022-01-28T02:17:17","date_gmt":"2022-01-27T23:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/a-bold-reckoning-with-americas-grotesque-history\/"},"modified":"2022-01-28T02:17:17","modified_gmt":"2022-01-27T23:17:17","slug":"a-bold-reckoning-with-americas-grotesque-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/a-bold-reckoning-with-americas-grotesque-history\/","title":{"rendered":"#A Bold Reckoning with America’s Grotesque “History”"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#A Bold Reckoning with America’s Grotesque “History”<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

     <span class=\"mx-1\">The less you know about it, the better, but it\u2019s probably already too late for you.<\/span>\n<\/p><div id=\"\">\n\n\n\n                <figure class=\"sf-entry-featured-media<\/a> \">\n            <img width=\"800\" height=\"445\" src=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Alice-Sundance-Review.jpg\" class=\"articlethumb wp-post-image\" alt=\"Alice Movie Sundance Review\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Alice-Sundance-Review.jpg 800w, https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Alice-Sundance-Review-768x427.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\"\/>                                    <p>\n                    <span class=\"sf-entry-flag sf-entry-flag-creditline\">Vertical Entertainment \/ Roadside Attractions<\/span>\n\n                        <\/figure>\n\n    <!-- START BYLINE -->\n    <div class=\"row align-items-center justify-content-center my-4 text-center medium dark-gray\">\n        By\u00a0Brad Gullickson\u00a0\u00b7 Published on January 27th, 2022 \n        <\/div>\n    <!-- END BYLINE -->\n\n    <em>This review of Krystin Ver Linden\u2019s Alice is part of our 2022 Sundance Film Festival coverage. For more reviews and essays, visit our Sundance tab.<\/em>\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n
A joy of attending film festivals is that you enter most movies<\/a> knowing almost nothing about them. Trailers have not been cut. Descript<\/a>ions are frequently vague or misleading. Online reaction hasn\u2019t rendered its final judgment on the subject matter. The movie begins, and it just is, and you have to compute it in real-time without any preconceived notions to retreat upon. It\u2019s all surprise, and surprise is often the most important weapon robbed from a filmmaker.<\/p>\n
I wish I went into the movie Alice<\/em><\/strong> carrying only this logline found on IMDb<\/a>: \u201cA slave in the antebellum South who escapes from her secluded plantation only to discover a shocking reality that lies beyond the tree line.\u201d Maybe if the details around that \u201cshocking reality\u201d were kept hidden from me, and I were allowed to get smacked by them, the surprise would have been enough to carry me through its weaker elements. Writer-director Krystin Ver Linden<\/strong> has concocted a big-swing movie, and the attempt is magnificent in its own right.<\/p>\n
So, if you want that unsullied experience, stop reading, but even the photo above probably reveals too much, and now it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n
Frustratingly, the Sundance description puts it all out there. Alice (Keke Palmer<\/strong>) indeed appears to be a slave in the antebellum South. She toils on a Georgia plantation operated by Paul (Johnny Lee Miller<\/strong>). For the movie\u2019s first half, we\u2019re trapped in her horrific experience, watching her and her family brutalized in graphic detail. Strange anachronisms begin to occur, and when Alice flees after a particularly violent encounter, she charges into the woods. In the clearing, she finds 1973.<\/p>\n
When a semi nearly crushes her, Alice faints on the freeway asphalt. Frank (Common<\/strong>), the driver, pulls Alice into his cab and rushes her to the hospital. From there, she wanders into a history lesson explaining her alien present. Amidst her wonder and astonishment, she confronts the promise of the Civil Rights Movement and the disillusionment that\u2019s grown inside her new friend. And, maybe most significantly, she watches Pam Grier reign supreme in the Blaxploitation classic Coffy<\/em>.<\/p>\n
The hard switch from the plantation to modern Savannah is uncomfortably jolting. Alice<\/em>\u2018s first section is frightfully familiar, pushing its audience into America\u2019s unforgivable foundation. We\u2019ve seen these grotesque depictions before, but that\u2019s no reason to ignore them. These monstrous sins are in our DNA, and they should forever live in our imagination.<\/p>\n
In the jump to the 1970s, what\u2019s weird is how everyone in the script takes it with ease and how quickly horror makes way for comedy. Alice\u2019s initial questions cause Frank concern, but he\u2019s not ready to immediately dump her in an institution. He takes her back to his place, and Alice rapidly adjusts to magical telephones, record players, and television sets. You\u2019re waiting for the incongruity to reiterate the previous half\u2019s atrocity, but the movie prefers to springboard into action retribution, which is really just another gateway into more absurdity, and it muddies the wretched ugliness implied in Alice<\/em>\u2018s final revelation.<\/p>\n
Palmer goes a long way in threading the script\u2019s loose logic. Her Alice is a sponge. On her face, we watch her quietly process a torrent of information. The movie won\u2019t let us know what\u2019s going on inside, but the actress controls our curiosity. She gets us to ask the question and want the answer, but we must be satisfied with the leaps Ver Linden provides.<\/p>\n
Common is fun enough. He\u2019s mostly there to explain things to Alice and suggest a residual pain leftover from Frank\u2019s activism past. He and Palmer have strong chemistry amongst the exposition, and they thrive when celebrating their mutual admiration for Pam Grier. Watching them watch her is an extraordinary enchantment.<\/p>\n
The movie\u2019s most enthusiastic bits revolve around those climactic moments when it\u2019s time to tool up a la Coffy<\/em>. There is a satisfaction to be found in their vengeance, but Krystin Ver Linden doesn\u2019t even go as hard as the films that inspired her protagonist. The retribution Alice provides can\u2019t possibly match the heartless wickedness of her enemy, and the movie chooses not to try. It takes us right up to the edge and then backs off quizically, leaving us to ponder, why take this route at all?<\/p>\n
Alice<\/em> certainly keeps you on your toes. You never quite know what kind of movie you\u2019re watching. Is it a reckoning or a ride? Ver Linden doesn\u2019t let her audience settle, and there\u2019s pleasure somewhere in the unease, in the imbalance. You can\u2019t shake the movie, and you\u2019ll seek out others who\u2019ve gone through it as well. The conversation won\u2019t end at the credits.<\/p>\n
If the movie could have kept its twist secret, it could have recreated Alice\u2019s confusion in those watching. When she crosses through the woods and hits that freeway, it\u2019s such an awesome moment you\u2019re jealous you can\u2019t share it with her. The high-concept is out there to put butts in the seat, but it cheats the script. You\u2019re always two steps ahead of Alice, and that\u2019s disappointing.<\/p>\n
    Related Topics: Sundance\n    <!-- AUTHOR BOX -->\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
\n
\n
\n            \n        <\/div>\n
\n            Brad Gullickson is a Weekly Columnist for Film School Rejects and Senior Curator for One Perfect Shot. When not rambling about movies here, he’s rambling about comics as the co-host of Comic Book Couples Counseling. Hunt him down on Twitter: @MouthDork<\/a>. (He\/Him)        <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
    <!-- START RECOMMENDED READING 1 -->\n                                <section class=\"recommended py-5\">\n            <h3>Recommended Reading<\/h3>\n\n\n        <\/section>\n            <!-- END RECOMMENDED READING -->\n\n\n\n\n<\/div><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n
For forums sites go to Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n
If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our Social Media category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“#A Bold Reckoning with America’s Grotesque “History”” <span class=”mx-1″>The less you know about it, the better, but it\u2019s probably already too late for you.<\/span> <\/p><div id=””> <figure class=”sf-entry-featured-media “> <img width=”800″ height=”445″ src=”https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Alice-Sundance-Review.jpg” class=”articlethumb wp-post-image” alt=”Alice Movie Sundance Review” loading=”lazy” srcset=”https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Alice-Sundance-Review.jpg 800w, https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Alice-Sundance-Review-768×427.jpg 768w” sizes=”(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px”\/> <p> <span class=”sf-entry-flag sf-entry-flag-creditline”>Vertical Entertainment \/ Roadside…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":400330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/filmschoolrejects.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Alice-Sundance-Review.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-400329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}