40 Acres

40 Acres is a new Canadian, post apocalyptic......farm thriller?

The basic plot follows a family living on an isolated farm in the middle of rural Canada, several years after a mushroom pandemic, civil war and other weird stuff.

Society has fallen, and there are cannibals and raiders everywhere. A family of mixed ethnicity are now surviving, growing food on their farm, which is super important, all animals are now wiped out and farmland is a super hot commodity.

The movie is handsomely shot but it bounces around from dark humour, horror, a military movie, a family religious movie and a coming of age movie, oh and kidnapping movie.

It's almost like the director said to the writers "Hey you have all of this stuff in here. What kind of movie should this actually be?" And then they all said "Yes."

This is a textbook example of throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the wall, but what sticks actually does kind of work.

The movie is unique in that when it's the turn...things get worse for the characters....and then it gets worse......and then it gets worse...before being tied up in a nice little bow at the end.

At the end of the day, if you gave me this film's budget and actors and told me to go with god, this isn't the movie that I would necessarily come up with, but I'm glad that someone took a stab at it. The result is a low to mid budget thriller that actually pulls it off. I saw this movie at a surprise screening, but I'm glad that I did.

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.

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.

Films about dystopian futures are getting more popular these days (are they trying to tell us something?), but they're not all created equal, and this debut feature from writer-director R. T. Thorne is one of those that doesn't quite cut it. The picture's intriguing premise starts off with considerable potential but, regrettably, as it unfolds, it loses traction, meanders, repeats itself, and unsuccessfully tries to fuse changes in tone and direction that don't mesh. In a world ravaged by a deadly fungal pandemic, civil war and famine, humanity's remnants struggle to stay alive, with farmland having become the most precious and priceless commodity. But holding on to this resource has become challenging given the rise of roaming bands of marauders seeking to steal it from its owners at any cost. Such is the experience of the Freemans, a family of African-Americans descended from Civil War survivors who migrated north to Canada after the conflict and settled on a lush parcel of land that has been in their possession for generations. Under present conditions, however, they must fight to retain it, combatting the invasively cunning intruders with same the same forcefulness and guile used by the would-be thieves. Leading these preventive efforts are parents Hailey (Danielle Deadwyler) and Galen (Michael Greyeyes) and their four children. They've trained the youngsters to be diligent and disciplined, which has helped to keep the farm productive and protected. But now, with the growing outside menace threatening them, they must be more vigilant than ever, a challenge considering the growing independence and unreliability of their eldest, Manny (Kataem O'Connor). As he comes of age, Manny has been increasingly looking to find his own path, one that frequently distracts him and doesn't always align with the family's objectives. And, as matters intensify, the Freemans are thus placed in ever greater peril. The depiction of that peril, however, becomes redundant, tedious and dubiously graphic after a time. The narrative also grows somewhat incongruent from the material that launches the film, namely, through the introduction of a far-fetched cannibalism storyline involving characters who more closely resemble zombies than their prototypical flesh-eating counterparts, who usually have the good sense to at least cook their food before consuming it. The film also has some of the worst sound quality I've seen in quite a while, its dialogue often coming across as garbled and barely intelligible (an increasingly annoying quality in many movie releases these days). To its credit, this offering features some gorgeous cinematography, an eclectic soundtrack and score, several engaging and unexpected (but underdeveloped) narrative themes and generally capable performances by the cast (despite not having a better script to work with). Ultimately, though, it's unfortunate that the execution here doesn't match the concept behind the story, coming across like an awkwardly conceived cross between the "Mad Max," "Rambo" and "Walking Dead" franchises. Judicious retooling might have improved the finished product, but, sadly, in its present state, those behind this effort could sadly be said to have bought the farm.

I saw a preview for this movie a couple of months ago and made a point of making sure I saw it when it released. I'm so glad I did because this movie is easily one of the best Canadian productions I've ever seen.

R. T. Thorne really nailed this one, and left me leaving the theatre with a sense of pride that a Canadian filmmaker, and an almost all Canadian cast could make something so entertaining.

The casting was excellent! Everyone brought their own touches to an already excellent script. It was easy to care for every member of the family. Danielle Deadwyler is quickly becoming one of my favorite actresses and she nails it here as the overprotective Mom.

The cinematography was great, the title cards between the different sections of the film was a nice touch. All in all, this movie is worth the price of admission.

Bravo to everyone in the cast. I can't wait to see more from each and every one of them.