40 Acres (2025)

I love a promising directoral debut of a film maker that I'm now excited to see what they will do. And that's just what I got with 40 Acres from R.T. Thorne. It's a tight yet beautifully filmed mix of post-apocalyptic morality tale and action film starring a strong cast, lead by the indomitable Deadwyler, that delivers both thought provoking drama and edge of your seat action. 

Thorne is very efficient with his story, working in the backstory without taking away from the action. He builds his characters and their relationships in a very organic way. There were only a couple of times I felt the script was cramming in some information. He gives us a great deal to think about in terms of how he builds our discomfort and mistrust, making us second guess our assumptions. I appreciated the way he used racial dynamics to infuse the story with relevance and layers of meaning. 

And all of this is under the surface of what is essentially an action/horror film that delivers on that. He plays with action tropes in a very clever way. At one point in the third act a character about to shoot someone makes a movie-style wise crack but it sort of backfires. I loved these little attentions to details that brought the fun into what otherwise is a serious movie. I felt Thorne's balancing of those ideas was well handled delivering solid and satisfying action along with the gravitas of a powerful story. 

Deadwyler is remarkable (not a surprise) in how she manages to build individual relationships with each of the other characters, and show a myriad of sides of her character in how she connects differently in each role. She shows strength and pain so powerfully and in the film's final moments she really brings it home summing up all that we just watched. 

40 Acres explores the tensions between what we do to survive and the reasons surviving is worth while at all. It explores the tensions between our responsibilities as parents and the love we have for our children. All of that wrapped up in an engaging action film that knocks it out of the park. I love it when a film can do a whole bunch of things all at once and a new film maker appears to be starting an exciting career. 

40 Acres

Starring: Danielle Deadwyler, Kataem O'Connor, Michael Greyeyes, Milcania Diaz-Rojas, Leenah Robinson, Jaeda LeBlanc

Director: R.T. Thorne

Writers: Glenn Taylor, R.T. Thorne