Alice

Based on the wild true story of Black Americans who were still enslaved as late as 1963, this is a surprisingly good film. On the surface, Alice seems like another Antebellum, a film that glorified Black pain without a true investigation into the horrors of slavery. In short, for many viewers, it felt like trauma porn. But while Alice does feature racist violence, it doesn't bathe in misery like Antebellum did. Instead, it focuses more on Black progress, liberation, and what it means to be free. Palmer does a great job playing the title character, providing the film with gravitas and grounding through her compassionate performance. And Miller is exceptionally evil as Paul, the enslaver/cult-like leader who lords over captive Black Georgians. Alicia Witt is effective as Paul's wife, Rachel, who illustrates what some White women have gained from abetting White supremacy. And the film touches on how Black Americans are at risk of perpetuating the stereotypes they've endured onto other underrepresented communities -- here, Latino workers.

However, the film inaccurately presents racism as an aberration that occurs only in the most extreme communities. Also, for Alice to work as a story, it has to ignore certain realities for Black Georgians in 1973: For Alice to get away with some of her actions, the world around her must function more like 2022 rather than the early '70s, when Black people in the South were far too often assumed guilty or scapegoated. Overall, however, Alice acts as part fairy tale, part wish fulfillment. Everyone who's against racism and bigotry wants the villain to get what's coming to him, and Alice offers the cathartic release of seeing a Black woman exhibit righteous anger toward those who abused her.