‘Mudbound’ Trailer: Dee Rees Directs a Critically Acclaimed Tale of Racial Tension

Netflix has made headway at the Emmys, but it’s still trying to become a major player at the Oscars. Mudbound feels like the streaming service’s attempt to enter the awards season with a major contender – a period drama stacked with great actors and powered by a story that feels all-too-relevant.

But beyond that, it just looks like a fine film, pure and simple. You can see for yourself in the Mudbound trailer below.

Set in Mississippi in the years after World War II, the film tracks two families, one white and one black (and both home to army veterans), as they attempt to coexist. “Attempt” is the key word there – this is the American deep south in the ’40s and this trailer is full of the kind of startling and unsettling imagery that suggests things won’t go well.

Mudbound Trailer

There’s a lot going on here: the stunning but terrifying landscapes, the cast of actors you’re always happy to see (even Garrett Hedlund had managed to become an interesting performer!), and the sense of tension and drama built into the very fabric of this story. Mudbound looks like a serious priority for movie fans at the tail end of 2017.

While the trailer is big and bold and built to grab your eyes, former /Film-er Angie Han saw Mudbound at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and walked away impressed by the small moments, the dynamics between the characters, and the performances. She also found its message timely for 2017:

So many films about America’s past treat our sins as though they’ve all been washed away. Mudbound, like the best of its ilk, knows that’s not the case. It lingers on small indignities and tiny moments of grace, on the millions of little ways that people lift each other up or push each other down, and those still resonate today, even as we pat ourselves on the back for being past the days of Jim Crow. I watched Mudbound just two days after Donald Trump was inaugurated as president, having run on the promise to return America to the spit-shined, sparkling good ol’ days, when white men ruled and black people knew their place. Mudbound is a reminder that even in those days, the truth of daily existence was a lot, well, muddier.

Mudbound is directed by Dee Rees, the director of Pariah and Bessie, and stars Carey Mulligan, Jason Clarke, Garrett Hedlund, Jonathan Banks, Mary J. Blige, Jason Mitchell, and Rob Morgan. It is scheduled to hit select theaters and Netflix on November 17, 2017, where it should act as ideal counter-programming to the bombastic Justice League.

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