McConaugheMay Day 14: Free State of Jones
Weird pacing abounds in today’s installment of McConaugheMay: Free State of Jones. Ostensibly an overview of the real life freedom fighter Newton Knight, the film tries to cram in nearly the entire life story of the man which leads the film to feel extremely lopsided as a result. As with his other period pieces, this is a largely forgotten work of Matthew McConaughey’s, landing in 2016 alongside both Sing (not really considered a beloved film of his) and Gold, a film that I can’t imagine many people not doing an annual completionist challenge have seen. As with many of his films, McConaughey is not particularly bad in the role, offering some level of depth and compassion, but he is an actor oft deeply affected by a script’s quality, and he is ill-served here.
The pacing is so off that it feels like important scenes are simply missing in the first half where McConaughey earns his role of leader of a group of escaped slaves living in a swamp. Other moments feel like they should be given more time to breathe, as the film completely glosses over how former confederates might feel about joining up with former slaves or even them joining the union army. These shortcuts make it seem as if half the movie takes place in deleted scenes, which is a shocking choice for a film clocking in at two-and-a-half hours. Another notably strange choice is to intersperse McConaughey’s historical battle with scenes of a court case concerning anti-miscegenation laws and the twist revelation that Knight’s great-great-grandson is 1/8th Black. Knight himself mostly exists onscreen as a deeply broken and stubborn man, which makes it strangely compelling when the film showcases the character as explicitly beloved and upstanding, but McConaughey plays him as someone who loves the romantic tragedy of an unwinnable fight.
Despite being about a slave uprising and freedom fighter, Free State of Jones isn’t really about racism at all until the back half when the movie seems to suddenly remember that it exists, and then the movie doesn't seem to know what to say beyond it being bad. Worse things to say about it, I suppose, but with such a long runtime, one would image that writer and director Gary Ross might have come to a more nuanced conclusion. Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Mahershala Ali also appear in the film, and easily steal the show from McConaughey, injecting more emotion and depth in their characters than anything that was originally on the page. I don't know if I'm allowed to say this as a guy with mediocre-at-best facial hair, but some truly atrocious beards in this movie. Looked like they just glued gorilla fur onto their faces.
Mostly just very boring and I almost fell asleep a few times. The kind of movie made to be played during a middle school history class by a very hungover and incurious teacher.