UPDATE: “Emancipation” has a 59 on Metacritic (based on 11 reviews). It’s at 56% on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s DOA. Now, all that’s left to screen is “Avatar: The Way of Water” this coming Monday.
However, don’t be discouraged, Clayton Davis still believes it’s an “Oscar contender.” Davis, again, seems to have not gotten the memo that “Emancipation” sunk quicker than the Titanic last night. He’s calling the film “Fuqua’s Schindler’s List.” Also, he’s also decided to compare the film to “The Tree of Life, on top of comparing Smith to Trump. Another day at the office for good ol’ Clayton.
As mentioned in the past few articles about this film, “Emancipation” is directed by Antoine Fuqua so it’s not like we necessarily expected something great. The hopes were that a great performance by Will Smith would carry this one, but that’s clearly not the case. Fuqua’s filmmaking tends to usually embrace cliches and his latest one seems to go along those lines.
EARLIER: I’ll be updating this one shortly. Will Smith and Antoine Fuqua’s “Emancipation” screened this afternoon in L.A. and New York City. The film gets released on Friday. Embargo is going to be lifted in a few hours.
Here’s a quick post-screening reaction that was sent to me via someone who attended the NYC screening this afternoon. They did not like the movie.
SPOILER ALERT.
I didn’t feel too much hurt from “Emancipation.” Some…okay, a fair amount of it was believable as far as it went. Will’s performance is strong — right down inside of it. I just wish that something unexpected had happened. It was all so schematic, cliched, predictable. You know what would’ve been great? If Ben Foster had been killed by an alligator. Or bitten by a cottonmouth. Each & every white bastard had to double down on the ugliness. Lots of white hate, but how can you say it’s not justified?? It might be justified, but it’s not interesting. I didn’t even RECOGNIZE poor Tim Hutton. The “Spartacus” revolt moment is good; ditto the “Django” moment when Will shoots the black collaborator.