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ALICE MOVIE REVIEW
Sara Jane, Jordan, Lewayne, and T.C. sit down to discuss this new Blacksploitation thriller, Alice, the debut feature from writer/director Krystin Ver Linden. The film is the tale of Alice (played by Keke Palmer of Akeelah and the Bee fame), a young woman and slave on a Georgian plantation, seemingly deep in the Pre-Emancipation Proclamation era. She yearns for freedom and a life with her beloved husband, but she is trapped — as her ancestors and every one of her family were before her — by her owner, the brutal and disturbed Paul (Jonny Lee Miller of Elementary). After a violent clash with Paul, Alice flees through the neighboring woods and stumbles onto a very unfamiliar sight: a concrete highway. In a twist out of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village, she soon discovers that the year is actually 1973 and slaves have been free for nearly a century. Rescued on the roadside by a disillusioned political activist named Frank (Common), Alice quickly comprehends the lies that have kept her in bondage and the promise of Black liberation. Inspired by true events, Alice is a modern empowerment story tracing Alice’s journey through the post-Civil Rights Era American South. It shines a light on the very real-life history of Black Americans who remained enslaved after the Emancipation Proclamation. And while the opinions and critiques of the film are both overlapping and conflicting, the one thing the squad does agree on is that it’s very amusing to watch T.C. squirm his way through speaking about the Black experience.
DIRECTED BY: Krystin Ver Linden
STARRING: Keke Palmer, Jonny Lee Miller, Common, Gaius Charles, Alicia Witt
YOUR REVIEWERS
T.C. De Witt (Screener Squad)
T.C. De Witt is a multi-awarded writer/director originally from Wisconsin and now based in Los Angeles. His life has been devoted to the arts since he was a child. He’s been a stage performer, playwright, stand-up comic, film and television actor, radio DJ, podcaster published author, recorded musician, and comic writer/illustrator. He is now a professional screenwriter and has been thriving for the past decade, regularly offering his talents to production studios in LA, Chicago, Milwaukee, and internationally in Sydney and Poland. He’s provided content for Amazon Prime, Netflix, and several YouTube partners. His films have screened internationally, and his stageplays have been performed across the country. In the last ten years, he has directed 57 films, 23 episodes of his series The One Minute Rewatch, 300+ episodes of podcasts, and his multi-award-winning short film Screen: Righter screened at the Festival de Cannes in 2016. He has released two feature films, The Princess Knight and A Christmas Sunset. He thrives on collaboration and the thrill of sharing stories in all forms.
Sarah Jane (Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad)
Sarah Jane was born and raised in Southern California but currently calls Austin, TX her home. She’s seen over 5,700 movies so far with zero plans on stopping. She has a penchant for all things exploitation, and she loves Godzilla with all her heart. Her favorite films are Deep Red, Le Samourai, and Miller’s Crossing. When she isn’t watching movies, she’s busy herding her four cats, her husband, and her 11-year-old kiddo. She’s been a contributor to TalkFilmSociety, Daily Grindhouse, FThisMovie!, Looper, and the Austin Chronicle. You can find her on Twitter and Letterboxd at @fookthis.
Jordan Cobb (Screener Squad)
Born with a comic book in one hand, a camera in the other, and in front of the television as WrestleMania played out, Jordan Worth Cobb was thus birthed into this crazy world. A Digital Filmmaking major from the University of Central Arkansas, Jordan has done it all in film from directing, writing, editing, and producing in addition to skills involved in film and TV criticism, journalism, and years of podcasting experience. On any given day, her ADHD riddled brain bounces focus from film to pro wrestling to TV to superheroes to noir to video games to espionage and yes, even to sports. She played little league you know. For more of this eccentric nerd, you can follow her on Twitter here and read her original writings on Deepest Corners of My Notebook.
Lewayne White (Screener Squad)
Lewayne’s earliest memories are of watching movies and reading comics, which instilled in him a sense of wonder, a vivid imagination, and unrealistic expectations. It also means he spends a lot of time watching movies, writing scripts for them, and trying to get them made. He lives in the middle of middle America after landing there as a child, and has remained there mainly because he hates packing.
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