Saw 40 Acres tonight! Considering the title and the main cast being a Black and Indigenous blended family headed by former soldiers, I was expecting a more direct political critique. It ended up being pretty subtle, though. Still trying to decide how I feel about its approach, tbh. The racial and community politics are very much there-- there are a couple direct references to the way the government has treated BIPOC people and the family explicitly engages with Black Marxist theory as part of their educational curriculum. But I felt like more could've been explored, especially as regards community and how the parents' approach might've been shaped by their military experience. Then again, the racial makeup of the cast is a conversation in itself, so maybe the creative team wanted to let the setup speak its own piece so the story could focus elsewhere.

The movie is a dystopian thriller set after a fungal plague has wiped out most animal life on Earth. Food is scarce and good farmland is the hottest commodity. The matriarch of the Freemans took her family isolationist during the fallout, surrounding their farm with an electric fence, and has raised her children to survive and to kill. The plot kicks off with word through the Network that other homesteads have been attacked and is driven by the oldest son's growing desire for human contact outside his family.

All the actors put in great performances and the family dynamics feel genuine and lived in. Everyone has their own voice and you really get the sense that this family is a community unto itself. I found the juxtaposition of the horror inherent to the way they've been raised with the sweeter and the simply more mundane moments they share to be highly effective for making the premise believable.

There's a good sense of not only the family's isolation but of their vulnerability throughout the movie. It's there in the characters' behavior, of course, but also in the way their land is set up and what we see of the way they live. There's a visceral sense of the rising threat through the comm chatter we overhear-- probably my favorite little touch in the movie. And the cinematography and sound design really bring it all home. There are some incredible shots and sequences in this movie, especially once we get into the thick of the action. The fight scenes straddle the line between gritty and typical action movie nonsense and they ride that line well.

I didn't find anything terribly special about the story itself. Though it definitely beats its own drum, its beats are familiar to the genre. The story plays out basically how you'd expect it to once everything is set up. This was hardly a disappointment for me, personally, since it let the performances and the action alike shine and left ample space to consider those subtle politics dynamics and to ponder over what little we learn about the backstory of this world.

So, yeah, would recommend!

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