The Deliverance

The newest feature film directed by Lee Daniels is now streaming on Netflix. The Deliverance stars Andra Day, Mo'Nique, and Glenn Close and is inspired by the real-life events of the Ammons family. The initial reviews of this movie have been pretty bad, and it seems to me more popular for its viral clip of Glenn Close delivering one very crude line, but I was intrigued by the concept of the film and am a fan of Daniels' previous works, so I decided to give it a watch anyways.

I was happily surprised that I enjoyed this movie due to all of the negative reviews that it has been receiving. I think this movie's downfall was its writing. Screenwriters David Coggeshall and Elijah Bynum did a good job of building up the suspense and keeping me captivated for the first two acts, but it seemed like they could not find a way to bring it home. Most of the movie is basically all build up with nothing to show for it until about 30 or so minutes left in the movie. Additionally, there is one scene later in the movie, the one involving the now viral clip featuring Glenn Close, that is so goofy that it actually took me completely out of the story because I was laughing so hard. Fortunately, Daniels' directing style and the performances by the 3 lead actresses were good enough to overshadow the poor writing. Andra Day in particular stole the show in my opinion in her portrayal of the mother, Ebony. 

The Deliverance is now streaming on Netflix, and it is a good movie to watch to kickstart spooky season. Unfortunately, the movie's poor writing shifts it from being a great movie, to just a pretty good movie. 

Thanks for reading!