Eve's Bayou

A small story with heavy consequences and a very interesting exploration of secrets and memory. Jurnee Smollett-Bell gives a performance that doesn't seem possible for someone so young. The film is shot beautifully with a final shot that won't be soon forgotten.

Evocative art direction, delectably mystical performances, and a clever story make this a memorable gothic drama.

Rashomon in 60s Louisiana, with a little more uncomfortable incest and a lot more X-Men powers. Looks and sounds fantastic.

Kudos to writer-director Kasi Lemons for avoiding standard coming-of-age tropes on children witnessing adult darkness. This is akin to a repeated family story: with a vibrant community, larger-than-life characters, and supernatural abilities. As an actress turned filmmaker she's skilled with music and photography. The only misstep is a monologue that highlights the actor rather than drive the story. Still, this is a great film on childhood trauma & memory. Highly recommended & vastly overlooked.

A heartfelt family portrait with brilliant acting and a script that oozes the dog days of southern summer. This is a highly watchable piece of southern gothic. It also boasts an interesting alternative interpretation to oracles--can they really see the future or do they have a perpspicacous insight into all too common patterns of human nature? Just an understanding of the inescapable consequences of the behaviors they see all around them. Wordly wisdom can easily be misconstrued as magical.

Heavy

Interesting tale of familial relationships and secrets.

Jurnee Smollett gives a grate performance in this film. The script is good with only a couple of slow spots. The script has a couple of surprises. Overall I would recommend this film.

Sports a great cast, and serves as a haunting full length flashback to a long gone period in history, someone's memory that hasn't faded even with time.

I know I am in the minority, but I really did not care for this one. In particular, I didn't really like Jurnee Smollett's performance. It's okay for a child performance, but it's largely all in a single register and so much of the plot rests on her shoulders.

A tremendously powerful slow burn towards a tragic and extremely foreseeable conclusion. The filmmaking and sense of time and place is amazing - this belongs in any list of the best debut features - while the performances are heart-wrenching, with SLJ putting in a remarkable performance of the kind we don’t usually see from him. Mysticism elements were handled perfectly. The fuck this is so underrated