Note: I have watched/reviewed all of the standard horror movies available on Mubi just now, which is why there may be a few non-horror blog entries this month. Mubi is great for many reasons, but it is not exactly overflowing with lesser-known horror options. Although some would argue that this has enough interesting elements to count, at least as a supernatural thriller.
I find myself, once again, in the position of finally getting around to a film that many people had been telling me to watch for years. Which wouldn’t necessarily be so bad if the films didn’t live up to the hype, but they so often do. This one certainly does.
A tale of memories, community, love, and lore, Eve’s Bayou shows us family life through the eyes of young Eve (Jurnee Smollett). Living in a busy home with her siblings, her parents, and one or two others (it is hard to keep track, considering how busy the house seems and which version of the film you watch, as the director’s cut has a whole extra character in there), Eve absorbs everything around her, for better or worse. She knows that her parents, played by Samuel L. Jackson and Lynn Whitfield, love one another, but she also knows that her father is a philandering scoundrel. He is also charming, and beloved by many due to his work as a local doctor, but philandering doesn’t lead to a consistently happy home life. Eve learns to compartmentalise her concerns, but that becomes more difficult as her father’s behaviour seems to get worse and worse.
Written and directed by Kasi Lemmons, her feature debut in a directorial role, Eve’s Bayou is undoubtedly a bit of a modern classic, as well as being a beautiful and complex look at memory, manipulation, family, and the power of visualization and belief.
Set in Louisiana in the 1960s, the atmosphere and specificity of the setting are essential to the tale being told, and somehow help to soften the edges of something that could otherwise have been too hard to stomach, but the central themes explored will be sadly familiar to many (particularly women) around the world.
All of the cast do great work, with a consistency that makes me reticent to name some while missing out others (simply to avoid regurgitating the entire cast list). Jackson is the dark heart of the film, a thundercloud that also helps to create rainbows, and he gives what could be considered one of his very best performances. Smollett effortlessly carries the weight of the film on her young shoulders, a delight for every minute of her screentime and the best filter/buffer between the reality of the situation and the way viewers are shown things playing out. Whitfield is very good, although given one of the more thankless roles, Debbi Morgan excels as an auntie who may be gifted or cursed, or may just live a life full of timely coincidences, and Meagan Goode does a great job of portraying Eve’s older sister, Cisely, a young woman who eventually confides in Eve something that will change all their lives.
Lemmons has enjoyed a solid acting career for a number of years, but nothing she has done in front of the camera comes close to rivaling her work here. This is an astoundingly assured directorial feature debut, put together with great care (from the script to the cast, from the pacing to the score), and it is a film I am already looking forward to rewatching. The more I think about it, the more I think this might have just rocketed in to become one of my favourite films of all time.
10/10
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