The greatest thing Netflix has so far produced

Rating: 9/10 (23 November 2017)

I see some of the criticisms of Mudbound saying that it's too slow, only ramps up near the end and lacks focus through much of its runtime. And it's true that for over the first hour, it's hard to know in which direction Mudbound is heading. It's also true that many of the scenes in its first half aren't necessary to the final product. But why is that a bad thing? It's nice to have a movie actually telling a story about people, exploring real, three-dimensional characters. Every scene tells you something about the characters it features, showing you why you should care about them, good or bad. Instead of rushing towards a conclusion, Mudbound actually takes care to absorb you in its world and empathise with characters suffering in realistic situations, facing realistic dilemmas and getting through them. This is what makes Mudbound's final scenes so much more powerful.
Instead of choosing just one theme to focus on, Mudbound focuses on many issues of the era, many of which are still relevant today. It's not just a racism film. It's about PTSD, family, ownership of land and relations between families. Even if you're sick of racism films, give this a watch. It also explores America's racist past in new ways: Ronsel, returning from the war, finds it hard to adapt back into America's racist system. He's just gone and fought for his country, and yet it still treats him as a second-class citizen because of his colour. Why didn't he stay in Europe, where racial equality exists, he must wonder.
Mudbound's major slip-up is that it waits too long to properly introduce its two main characters into the story. It gives small snippets of their time fighting in WW2 but little more than that. This makes it slightly jarring when the focus suddenly shifts to them about halfway through. And yet, it's hard to care about this flaw by the end. I was too swept away by the emotions to care.