And by the end I was in awe. Such a great movie. Should they have billed it as horror? Absolutely, it is some real life horror.

For the first 40 minutes we watch slaves on a plantation during the Civil War. Then BAM! It is "Cloud Atlas" as we shift to the present time and follow the life of author Veronica (Janelle Monáe) who also talks about the white male dominate system while living in her upscale home. There is also a woman who talks about the past and future in order to give meaning to an otherwise semi-meaningless film.

The cell phone thing had me confused as dreams become reality. Google doesn't seem to know of any instance where Confederate soldiers marched chanting "God and Soil." My guess it is presentism. The message of the film is as older than Soul on Ice. I think they should made the message more covert to make the film cleverness my concentration.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

A slave (Janelle Monáe) suffers in the South during the Civil War. A twist and a shocking revelation later explodes on the screen.

The first part takes about 40 minutes. It should be closer to 20 minutes. That way it could be more dreamlike. Then the central part of the movie needs to be different. She can't be as carefree. There needs to be a few more sales girls or a policeman or two. She needs to be constantly oppressed and therefore explaining why she couldn't shut down Antebellum. I really like the shocking revelation but they need to avoid the M. Night Shyamalan trap. The story needs to avoid the worst aspects of his bag of tricks while embracing what he does as a story teller. The most damaging is the location. It can't be where it is for a whole slew of reasons. I get the poetry and the political reason for it but it has difficulties in logic which M. Night sometimes run into. Water! Water, really. Come one M. Night, water. This is Village times a thousand.