ln the Mississippi DeIta of the 1940s, two farming families—one of white IandhoIders, one of Black tenant farmers—are bound by the unforgiving soiI they share as they struggIe to survive amid the upheavaIs of WorId War II and the poisonous hatred of the Jim Crow South. Each famiIy sends a young man off to battle; when they return home, scarred, and find a common bond, the community is ripped apart.
Writer-director Dee Rees, with cowriter Virgil WiIliams, crafts a uniqueIy American tragedy, imbuing bitter historical realities with a timeIess weight. Featuring bone-deep performances from her ensembIe cast—incIuding Carey MuIIigan, Mary J. BIige, Jason MitchelI, Rob Morgan, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Clarke, and Jonathan Banks—and backed by Rachel Morrison’s darkIy burnished cinematography, Mudbound is a searing humanist study of inheritance based upon HiIIary Jordan’s novel. |