Whitey takes quite a beating in these two movies running concurrently in our cineplex. One is the rebirth of "blaxploitation," and the other is the comeuppance of a defiant dad hell bent on not paying bills or following laws. Neither tale ends well for the usual perps.
'40 Acres' is about a black and Native Canadian couple living on land founded by their former runaway slave family in 1858. Now, the world is starving, diseased, and overrun with murderous, thieving, low-life white men who are also "cannibals". That's all the excuse the story needs to wage war on the intruders. There are small doses of character-building between killings, but keeping from being eaten is the prime directive of the day. It was amusing in its way, but so thinly veiled it was difficult to take seriously.
'Sovereign' allows Nick Offerman to shine as a thoroughly indoctrinated sovereign-citizen who is brainwashing his son to follow in his footsteps. There is no need to pay bills or obey laws, as nothing is real and all institutions are a scam. So well done, it may make you a believer. But, it all leads to naught. He and his son lose their home (no payments made in a very long while) and resort to the family van as they crisscross the region giving seminars on the "sovereign life" and how to achieve it. Offerman starts losing it near the end, and it all unwinds in tragedy. This is the one to see as Offerman and Trembly (son) begin to break down into panic and self-destruction in this reality-based drama.
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Topic - '40 Acres' vs. 'Sovereign' - Billy Wonka 18:31:28 07/13/25 (0)