“Free State of Jones” (2016)

This is an interesting story and one that I am glad to see was given the cinematic treatment. Unfortunately, the end result’s just so dull and overlong. There’s just something about the direction that really doesn’t work. This film is also proof that you need more than an interesting story to make an interesting historical film. Still, it’s not awful. The acting is fine. There are solid scenes. And like I said, this is interesting history (although a straightforward documentary would’ve probably been more engaging than this film). There’s nothing that’s more tragic to me than wasted potential, which this film most certainly is. Maybe another filmmaker will give this story a go some time down the road.

Rating: 3/5