Antebellum was made to be experienced as a community in a theater. But after its release date was moved a few times due to the lockdown, the Janelle Monáe starrer that draws a line from America’s racist beginnings to the present, dropped on streaming September 18 amid a national conversation about police brutality against Black people and systemic racism.
A film with a mysterious timeline, it has part of the story occurring in the antebellum South and a middle section that centers on Monáe’s Veronica, a Black empowerment author going about her day without realizing she’s being watched by a white woman, Jena Malone’s Elizabeth, who arrives with a terrifying racist agenda.Meanwhile, Kiersey Clemons plays a woman who arrives at the antebellum.