A's

Alpha  2018
Kodi Smit-McPhee

A teenage boy named Keda goes on a buffalo hunt with his father and small tribe.  During the hunt Keda gets thrown off a cliff and presumed dead.  Badly injured, Keda tries to find his way back home, meets a wolf where they care for one another and form a friendship.  Although this film wasn't English speaking, the subtitles were small one line sentences or few words, very easy to follow.  I thought that aspect of this film was smart because it kept the feeling of the story instead of getting lost in words.  Animals and humans do not understand each other's language but feelings and emotion seem to radiate and be universal.  This film was very sweet and moved quickly. 

Antebellum 2020

Janelle Monae 

The opening scene to this film is gripping and heart wrenching.  It is set in old south where a male slave is running after his wife who have been busted for being together.  The woman runs for her life through the field only to meet her death by being roped around her neck and strangled.  I was blown away and thought this film is going to leave a mark. The beginning was memorable, but the film as a whole tried to be on trend and it flip flopped back and forth between old time and present day.  Which as you will slowly uncover, the "old time" is actually a racist camp.  Eden played by the beautiful Janelle Monae, is an author who becomes enslaved at a racist camp mimicking the old south playing by slave trading rules.  She learns that she isn't crazy and the camp is a modern front, she compiles a plan for escape and exposes this horrible place to the public freeing many of missing black people.  I personally felt if this film would haven't jumped back and forth it probably would have flowed better.  The choppiness was distracting, even though I liked the twist of this camp being a modern day, it was easy for me to lose interest. Overall, not bad though, looking at the creamy skin Goddess as the lead was definitely the right choice.