I sadly missed 40 ACRES both at the Toronto International Film Festival AND my local Victoria International Film Festival, so what better way to fix it by venturing all the way down to Austin and seeing it at this year’s South By Southwest Film Festival?
About: After a series of plagues and wars leaves society in ruins, the Freemans are surviving — even thriving — on a farm in the middle of nowhere… so long as they repel the occasional raiding party. Former soldier Hailey (Danielle Deadwyler) and her partner Galen (Michael Greyeyes) fled the collapse along with their children, training them to fight (and, yes, kill). But now Hailey’s eldest Emanuel (Kataem O’Connor) is a young man, and when he meets a young woman (Milcania Diaz-Rojas) in the forest beyond the fence, his need for human contact could place the whole family in jeopardy.
Reaction: I never felt like I needed a post-apocalyptic Canadian thriller in my life like this, but here we are with 40 ACRES, RT Thorne’s new feature that made quite the impression at last fall’s Toronto International Film Festival but of course, through so many scheduling hoops I never got to see it there. Though a very slow burn with the entire movie taking place on the farm, 40 ACRES mostly works for Danielle Deadwyler’s very intense performance, and surrounded by a really good group of colourful characters all with their own motives. It takes a BIT to get going and felt some of the earlier pacing could be tightened up a bit, but overall this is a powerful and timely subject, especially with threats of incoming woes with world issues (and I also feel this could be very accurate if things DO go down). This Canadian filmed feature from RT Thorne is quite solid in its depiction of a post-apocalypse society on small means, and I’m thankful I could finally catch up with it after missing it at so many festivals in the past year!
