Emancipation

Available on: Apple TV+

Will Smith’s post Oscars comeback sees him deliver a physically committed performance as a slave desperately seeking to reunite with his estranged family but has an air of cynicism befitting of a character from Tropic Thunder.

Contrary to the assumed opinion of Smith and director Antoine Fuqua, it is possible to make an insincere film about slavery and Emancipation is proof of this. Loosely based on the true story of an enslaved man whose photograph, taken in 1863, became world-renown, it is a preposterously far-fetched action flick that merely attempts to present itself as something more profound.

Unsubtle at every turn, the film sees Smith’s emaciated protagonist navigate the perilous swamps of Louisiana, successfully take on an alligator bare-handed (yes, you read that right) and eventually take up arms in the Civil War. Put simply, it is so silly it is nigh on impossible to take seriously.

While Robert Richardson’s cinematography offers an occasional moment of monochrome beauty, it cannot dispel the clumsiness of the film’s narrative or the disservice it does to those that actually suffered the abhorrence of slavery.