40 Acres

A good movie that could have been a great series with more characters. This is a post-apocalyptic film about a plague that forced humans to fight over farm land due to starvation and famine. A solid plot with great acting and lots of action.

This could have been a whole series or a limited series. The concept is very deep and I think the movie kind of limited the writing. I would have liked to see this in episode format. I mean the movie is so good that a series would have worked just as well or even better. Regardless, the family portrayed in this film is very diverse. The atmosphere is dark and the main character has a unique outlook on the situation. She treats her family like an army platoon. It's like they've gotten so accustomed to the despair and violence in the world they've learned to live with it by treating life like a mission. Even the kids have become soldiers.

Bare bones dystopian sci-fi future thriller without AI, robots, cell phones, nuclear fallout or helicopters. Just farm living. And only crops are involved. Not even a smart pig. "40 Acres" works as a minimalist thriller because everything is very simple. A family defends their land from the bad guys. There you go.

A simple premise with plenty of layers to chew on. Technology is useless, except for radios and guns. Seeds are gold because livestock is deadstock, or just disappeared stock. No stock. Farms are the new countries, barb-wire bordered and defended to the death.

The defenders here just happen to be of a mix of Native and Black North Americans, coexisting as a well-oiled military machine, thriving in a survivalist bootcamp scenario. Community, culture, education, loyalty, tradition, family, survival, greed, coming of age, life lessons, it is all here. Albeit a bit formulaic and predictable, the film is lively enough to pull the scenario off.

"40 Acres" is a very good-looking film, brimming with excellent performances, that never strays far from the action. The secret to succeeding in this genre: never slow down so the audience can question the sketchy logic. Go go go!

• hipCRANK.

Just saw the movie. First the movie is too long by probably a half hour. There is lots that could be cut to save time and make the movies pace better. I would have also appreciated more world building. There was a small blurb at the beginning but thats pretty much it. The mother is unlikable which I think is the point but it's too much for too little payoff. The step dad and his daughter are a breath of fresh air for the characters. The movie takes forever building up to the action which is at least good. There was a very cool dark action scene that I would have loved to have more of.

Overall it's too long too slow tells too much about stuff that doesn't matter and not enough about what does.

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.