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Harriet Tubman’s incredible life story instantly screams cinematic. Yet somehow, the renowned icon, among the most celebrated freedom fighters of American history, has never been given a major movie to her name before; a fact that is all the more frustrating considering Hollywood’s insatiable appetite for biopics that feature important male figures. Through her assured feature “Harriet,” director Kasi Lemmons (“Eve’s Bayou”) thankfully rights this long-standing wrong with passion, putting forth an appealing retelling of Tubman’s rousing tale, while we still wait for the delayed issuing of the new $20 bill slated to honor her legacy. It’s one that involves peerless contributions to abolitionism with hundreds of lives saved, after Tubman, played by a stirring Cynthia Erivo here, escaped from the hands of her slaveholders in the Maryland of 1849 at great risk and steadily became a fearless, storied conductor on the Underground Railroad.

Before she fled her ill fate, Tubman was known as Araminta “Minty” Ross, working at the Brodess plantation alongside her family members that included her husband John ( Zackary Momoh ); a free man on paper but not quite in practice in the racist South. Embellishing it with brief and well-parsed flashbacks, the joint screenplay by Lemmons and Gregory Allen Howard diligently portrays the tail-end of Minty’s days down in the Dorchester County, swiftly introducing us to the plantation’s soon-to-be-departed patriarch, his ruthless son Gideon (a chilling Joe Alwyn ) and the countless horrors of life in bondage.

And Minty manages to escape from it all through a series of acts that often feels like divine mysteries guided by faith and the bright light of North Star. At first, she runs away on a whim after facing permanent separation from her loved ones and being told by the merciless Brodesses that her children, should she have any, can’t be born free regardless of a law (and a letter from a lawyer) that states otherwise. But despite eventually making it to the Pennsylvania border with the prospect of a new life and fresh start, Harriet—her self-chosen free name—can’t rest easy, knowing that her people continue to endure doomed lives as slaves. Ignoring the protests of William Still (Leslie Odom Jr. of “Hamilton”), who leads an organization that helps escaped slaves, and Marie Buchanon (a dazzling Janelle Monáe ), an entrepreneur who owns and runs the Philadelphia boarding house she moves into, Harriet embarks on an endless string of round-trip journeys down to the South, assuming a disguise and the nickname “Moses,” rescuing more and more slaves with each miraculous expedition.

For the most part, Lemmons keeps things straightforward and engaging as Harriet faces the perils of her nighttime, on-foot trips head-on, always under the threat of Gideon and the initially villainous yet later-on protective watchful eye of Walter ( Henry Hunter Hall , memorable and chameleon-esque), a slave hunter taken by Tubman’s determination and unique connection to God. Meanwhile zippy and truly moving montage sequences of various escape scenes mixed with occasional scares when Harriet gets stopped and searched by white officials elevate the pull of a package that is admittedly more standard issue than innovative. But given this is the first major film tackling such a vital figure of American civil rights history, that simplicity is not necessarily a bad thing. Neither is Lemmons’ choice to keep the bloody brutality in check on screen, prioritizing an inspirational and womanly character study. While the heartbreaking truths in “Harriet” feel somewhat glossed over in that sense (especially compared to that of Steve McQueen ’s unforgiving “12 Years A Slave”), the reach of Lemmons’ film might be demographically broader, speaking to even younger audiences thanks to this visual palliating.

But beyond these strategic storytelling decisions, Lemmons’ greatest asset here is undoubtedly the tough-as-nails performance at the heart of her film. Erivo captures Tubman’s shining spirit and courage with compassion, beautifully reflecting her bravery on a toughened face she wears with pride. It’s thanks to her reflective commitment that the occasional wooden dialogue of “Harriet” flows with grace and the sporadic visual misfortunes don’t linger in one’s mind for too long. This might not be the optimal film to tribute an American hero who’s long been neglected on our screens, but Erivo’s performance might very well become a definitive one, synonymous with Tubman. And that’s not a bad place to start by any measure.

Tomris Laffly

Tomris Laffly is a freelance film writer and critic based in New York. A member of the New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC), she regularly contributes to  RogerEbert.com , Variety and Time Out New York, with bylines in Filmmaker Magazine, Film Journal International, Vulture, The Playlist and The Wrap, among other outlets.

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Harriet (2019)

Rated PG-13

125 minutes

Cynthia Erivo as Harriet Tubman

Janelle Monáe as Marie

Leslie Odom Jr. as William Still

Joe Alwyn as Gideon Brodess

Jennifer Nettles as Eliza Brodess

Tim Guinee as Thomas Garrett

• Kasi Lemmons

Writer (story by)

• Gregory Allen Howard

Cinematographer

• Wyatt Smith
• Terence Blanchard

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‘Harriet’ Review: Becoming Moses

Cynthia Erivo and Kasi Lemmons bring Harriet Tubman to life onscreen.

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By A.O. Scott

When I first started out as a film critic, I used to get regular mail — actual written letters, in envelopes — from a reader who wanted to know why Hollywood hadn’t made an action movie about Harriet Tubman. I didn’t have a good answer ( other than the obvious answer ), but the question was a good one. Tubman’s remarkable biography has all the right elements: danger, surprise and the kind of against-all-odds heroism that brings people to the movies.

“Harriet,” directed by Kasi Lemmons ( “Eve’s Bayou,” “Black Nativity” ) and anchored by Cynthia Erivo ’s precise and passionate performance in the title role, might not be exactly what my correspondent had in mind, but it is a rousing and powerful drama, respectful of both the historical record and the cravings of modern audiences. The story of Tubman’s escape from enslavement on a Maryland farm and her subsequent leadership in the underground railroad is conveyed in bold, emphatic strokes. Villainy and virtue are clearly marked, and the evil that Tubman resisted is illuminated alongside her bravery.

Before she chose Harriet as her “freedom name,” and before she became the mysterious liberator known to slaves and their masters as Moses, Tubman is called Minty Ross (short for Araminta ). Like her mother and siblings, she is the property of the Brodess family, though both her father, Ben Ross (Clarke Peters ) and her husband, John Tubman (Zackary Momoh ), are free.

One of Lemmons’s achievements is to show that their freedom, rather than mitigating the horrors of chattel slavery, emphasizes its cruelty and also its moral dishonesty. It is more than Minty can bear, and so, with the encouragement of her father and the help of a free black minister ( Vondie Curtis-Hal l ), she runs.

Reaching Philadelphia, she is welcomed by William Still (Leslie Odom Jr. ) and taken in by Marie Buchanon ( Janelle Monáe ), antislavery activists whose ease and urbanity astonish her. “Harriet” pays tribute to their efforts while noting the tactical and temperamental differences between its heroine and her allies, many of whom had been born and raised in freedom. She is both part of a movement and something of a maverick within it, taking her instructions directly from God and setting out on missions that her colleagues often regard as irresponsibly risky.

These missions take her back into the land of her former owners, whose decadence and corruption are represented by Eliza , the Brodess matriarch ( Jennifer Nettles ), and her nasty son Gideon (Joe Alwyn ). Harriet is determined to liberate the members of her family, which means evading both white slave-catchers and an especially fearsome black bounty hunter named Bigger Long (Omar J. Dorsey ).

The chases are suspenseful, and the violence is fairly restrained. The pain of enslavement is written on Erivo’s face and on the scarred bodies of the people Harriet brings out of bondage, but the full brutality of the masters and their minions is more implied than shown.

“Harriet” isn’t an immersion in horror like Steve McQueen’s “Twelve Years a Slave,” and it doesn’t have the imaginative sweep and complexity of literary depictions of slavery like Edward P. Jones’s “The Known World,” Colson Whitehead’s “Underground Railroad” or Toni Morrison’s “Beloved.” It is more like one of those biographies of historical figures intended for young readers: accessible, emotionally direct and artfully simplified.

The exception — the aspect of the film that suggests some of the strangeness and intricacies of a reality that is both unimaginably distant and not even past — is Erivo herself. Perhaps as a result of an injury inflicted by her enslavers when she was a child, Harriet is subject to religious visions, “fits” that impart the gift of prophecy. (Joan of Arc’s name is invoked, in addition to Moses’s.) This is a kind of super power, but Erivo’s performance is grounded in the recognizable human emotions of grief, jealousy, anger and love. There is also a formidable intelligence at work, both tactical and political, and an elusive, almost mysterious quality as well. This is someone you want to know more about.

Rated PG-13. Cruelty and valor. Running time: 2 hours 5 minutes.

A.O. Scott is the co-chief film critic. He joined The Times in 2000 and has written for the Book Review and The New York Times Magazine. He is also the author of “Better Living Through Criticism.” More about A.O. Scott

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Hollywood's 12 live-action anime adaptations, ranked worst to best, sam elliott’s return to 35-year-old action franchise seems way more likely after confirmed sequel to $85m hit, although it's weighed down by its hackneyed biopic framework, harriet has a spirit and heart befitting of its daring namesake and her legacy..

Harriet Tubman's long overdue Hollywood biography has arrived, and it both is and isn't the film you're expecting. On one level, Harriet is exactly the type of respectful, yet formulaic testament to the incredible life of a historical figure that comes out every awards season and earns polite applause, but is mostly forgotten thereafter. But in the hands of writer-director Kasi Lemmons ( Eve's Bayou , The Caveman's Valentine ), the movie also plays out like a superhero origin story for Tubman, right down to her having super-abilities (more on that later). Heck, there's even an exchange where Tubman chooses her non-slave name as though she's a newbie costumed crime-fighter selecting her vigilante moniker. Though it's weighed down by its hackneyed biopic framework, Harriet has a spirit and heart befitting of its daring namesake and her legacy.

The film begins in Maryland circa 1849, as Harriet Tubman (Cynthia Erivo) - then still a slave born Araminta Ross - tries to escape to Philadelphia, leaving her family behind. Guided by her inner strength and the premonitions she's had since suffering a head injury in her youth, but believes are messages from God, Tubman miraculously makes it to freedom, 100 miles away. Soon after, she seeks help from the abolitionist William Still (Leslie Odom Jr.) and well to do proprietor Marie Buchanon (Janelle Monáe) in returning to Maryland and rescuing her loved ones. In doing so, Tubman goes on to become a member of the Underground Railroad and a legendary freedom fighter in her own right.

Harriet isn't the first memoir in recent memory to portray its subject like a real-life superhero (Reginald Hudlin's Marshall not only did that two years ago, it even cast T'Challa himself, Chadwick Boseman), but it goes further with that approach than other films have before it. Lemmons strives to deliver a stirring biodrama by way of historical adventure, serving up action-driven sequences with scenes that chart Tubman's evolution from inexperienced runaway slave to confident, gun-toting warrior. Combined with the stylized moments in which Tubman has her "spells", this is an effective way of making an otherwise cut and dry biographical feature more entertaining. At the same time, Lemmons never loses sight of the pain inflicted by slavery and often pauses the story to reflect on the trauma that freed slaves still carry with them. Harriet is similarly sensitive in its portrayal of those slaves who (for good reason) are too afraid to follow Tubman in her crusade and even calls out those who would judge them.

But in spite of Lemmons' heartfelt and spiritual direction, Harriet is restricted by its routine biopic storyline. The script by Lemmons and Gregory Allen Howard ( Remember the Titans ) spans several years in Tubman's life, from her time freeing other slaves as the soldier plantation owners call "Moses" (see again, the superhero parallels) to her battle against the Fugitive Slave Act and run commanding troops in the Civil War. As fascinating as these events and the people involved are, though, Harriet hurries on through them like it's checking items off a grocery list. Tubman's relationships suffer the most for it, from her found sisterhood with Marie and friendship with William to her affections for her parents (Clarke Peters and Vanessa Bell Calloway), and personal war with Gideon Brodess (Joe Alwyn), her former slave owner, who's been obsessed with her since they grew up as children. And with so much ground to cover, the film simply can't spend much time dwelling on the important topics it broaches, like social privilege and the role the law played in upholding the institution of slavery.

Unsurprisingly, Harriet is elevated by its talented cast and especially Erivo, who delivers yet another spirited performance (one fueled by passion and righteous fury) following her equally great work in last year's Bad Times at the El Royale and Widows . It also helps that Lemmons finds ways of painting the morality of the film's setting in shades of grey by including characters like the scheming black slave trackers Bigger Long (Omar Dorsey) and Walter (Henry Hunter Hall) into the mix - though again, one wishes the movie devoted more effort to fleshing them out. And of course, Harriet is a beautiful sight to behold on the big screen, where the richly earthy tones of John Toll's cinematography are done proper justice. Together with Terence Blanchard's rapturous score (not to mention, a perfect needle drop of Nina Simone's "Sinnerman"), these elements breathe life into the film, even as it settles into the rhythm of a paint by numbers memoir.

Attempting to cover the vastness of Tubman's amazing real life was always going to be a challenge for a movie, and the task might've been better left to a TV miniseries instead. Harriet makes a proper go at it all the same and there's something inspired about the way it draws from superhero tropes to make its story more accessible to a mainstream audience. In the end, however, the film is a fairly standard awards season offering and probably won't have much luck appealing to those outside of the crowd that usually turns up for biographies of this kind. Still, it's not like the actual Tubman needed Hollywood to confirm she was a real-life badass anyway.

Harriet  is now playing in U.S. theaters. It is 125 minutes long and is rated PG-13 for thematic content throughout, violent material and language including racial epithets.

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Film Review: ‘Harriet’

Cynthia Erivo plays the escaped slave Harriet Tubman with a mournful fury, but the rest of Kasi Lemmons' biopic is more dutiful than inspired.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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When you see photographs of Harriet Tubman (and many exist), she appears, in an eerie way, to be staring right at us. Her implacable scowl throws down a gauntlet that cuts across the ages. Cynthia Erivo , the British singer and actress who takes on the title role of “Harriet,” nails that thousand-yard glare with a furious and mournful eloquence. She looks just like you’d imagine Harriet Tubman might have looked when she wasn’t staring down a photographer’s lens. As Harriet, Erivo communicates anger and anguish, fear and resolve, all held together by something like possession. (When you regularly commune with God, your eyes might tend to fixate on something beyond the everyday.)

Fleeing from the Maryland plantation on which she was born and raised, Minty, as she’s first known, winds up on a bridge suspended over a rushing river, with armed men hemming her in from either side. She takes a leap into the rapids — her smartest strategy, but it’s also a mortal plunge. At that moment, having gotten rid of her spiritual shackles, she would rather be dead than find herself a slave again. (It’s not a choice, it’s an instinct.) The river carries her off, and once she’s alone in the woods, she winds up taking the 100-mile trek all the way up to Pennsylvania, the free state that borders Maryland. As she approaches the state line, bathed in the light from the sunrise, she takes a little hop over it, and her face opens into a smile, giving off a momentary glow that lifts you. It may be the only time in the movie she’s completely unburdened.

Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery in 1849, when she was 27, and wound up in Philadelphia, where she could have chosen to settle into, for that time, a (relatively) safe and comfortable existence. But that choice wasn’t in her mental-spiritual vocabulary. She had left her husband, and the rest of her family, and so she went back to get them. She wound up making 13 missions and guiding 70 enslaved people to freedom. She is one of the most heroic individuals in America, and her story is one of the most extraordinary.

“Harriet,” directed and cowritten by Kasi Lemmons (who made “Eve’s Bayou” and the even better “Talk to Me”), has got the heroism covered — the courageous audacity of Harriet Tubman’s struggle. Minty, who is subject to fainting spells (the result of one of her masters cracking her head open when she was 13), goes into the wilderness armed with nothing but her wits, and comes out the other side. Rechristening herself Harriet, she turns into a stealth abolitionist, and a leader too, brandishing a pistol that she’s willing, if need be, to turn on her own people (to get them to cross the water they’re scared they’re going to drown in). She’s cautious, but she can also be reckless, because that’s the unprecedented nature of what she’s doing. As she becomes a conductor on the Underground Railroad, her bravery just grows, to the point that she wields that pistol as if it were part of her.

As a heroine, Harriet Tubman is long overdue on the big screen, and “Harriet” is a conscientiously uplifting, devoted, rock-solid version of her story. Yet when it comes to putting the audience in touch with what’s extraordinary about Harriet Tubman — not just illustrating what she did but letting us connect with that quest, and with her, on a moment-to-moment level — “Harriet” is a conventional and rather prosaic piece of filmmaking. I don’t tend to complain much when movies feature inspirational musical scores, but the score of “Harriet,” written by the jazz composer Terence Blanchard, has a surprisingly standard Jerry Goldsmith-meets-Aaron-Copland blandness that keeps getting in the way of what we’re watching. There are too many scenes where the music is asked to do the movie’s work for it: to create a rush of emotion, when the scenes, as written, should be doing that on their own. At one point, Lemmons uses Nina Simone’s “Sinnerman” to accompany a slave-escape montage, which gives the film a momentary charge but just makes you think: This isn’t a subject that’s really right for a montage.

And there’s a crucial way the film could have been more experiential. Since “Harriet,” as a biopic, is long overdue, whenever we’ve heard her story we’ve had to imagine the details of how she made it all that way, evading lethal wildlife and racist white Southern hunters. Theoretically, that should make for a kind of Civil Rights adventure movie. But Harriet’s voyages from the South to the North feel physically underdramatized. Wouldn’t we want to know, as if we were taking the journey ourselves, just what it felt like? Too often Harriet’s odysseys have the generic flavor of ‘70s TV-movie chase scenes.

It’s not as if there are a ton of dramas about slavery, but six years ago “12 Years a Slave” was so scaldingly intense in the depths of its agony, the power of its faith, that it’s hard to watch “Harriet” without noticing how much less potent the characterizations are. Joe Alwyn plays Harriet’s most sadistic master, who grew up with her and has to suppress his love for her, to the point that he only talks about slaves with ugly animal metaphors — a completely believable 19th-century racist characterization, but not exactly a deep or resonant one. (Just compare him to the Paul Dano or Michael Fassbender characters in “12 Years a Slave.”) In Philadelphia, Harriet finds a community — the born-in-freedom rooming-house proprietor Marie, played by Janelle Monáe with saucy pride, and the abolitionist William Still (a disarmingly benign Leslie Odom Jr.). The actors hold you, but I wish the characterizations were richer. Even the great Clarke Peters, as Harriet’s father, has a sweet presence but limited impact.

“Harriet” ultimately evolves into a kind of righteous Western action movie, built around the logistics of how to escape a posse of slave hunters. Harriet gets to get good with her gun, and that’s fair enough, since she wound up being one of the only women in the Civil War to lead a military patrol. It’s one more thing about her to be in awe of, and “Harriet” is nothing if not a dutiful and eye-opening salute. But it still leaves you feeling that the great movie about Harriet Tubman has yet to be made.

Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival (Gala Presentations), Sept. 10, 2019. Running time: 125 MIN.

• Production: A Focus Features release of a Stay Gold Pictures, Martin Chase Productions production. Producers: Debra Martin Chase, Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Gregory Allen Howard. Executive producers: Josh McLaughlin, Shea Kammer, Nnamdi Asomugha, Bill Benenson, Pen Densham, John Watson, Kristina Kendall, Elizabeth Koch, Charles D. King.
• Crew: Director: Kasi Lemmons. Screenplay: Kasi Lemmons, Gregory Allen Howard. Camera (color, widescreen): John Toll. Editor: Wyatt Smith. Music: Terence Blanchard.
• With: Cynthia Erivo, Janelle Monáe, Leslie Odom Jr., Joe Alwyn, Clarke Peters, Jennifer Nettles, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Henry Hunter Hall, Zackary Momoh.

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Movie Reviews

In earnest, contrived biopic 'harriet,' tubman is an action hero.

Mark Jenkins

Cynthia Erivo (left) stars as Harriet Tubman along with Aria Brooks (right). Glen Wilson/Focus Features hide caption

Cynthia Erivo (left) stars as Harriet Tubman along with Aria Brooks (right).

Unless and until Harriet Tubman assumes her place on the $20 bill, writer-director Kasi Lemmons' Harriet will have to serve as the anti-slavery heroine's national monument. It will do so reasonably well. Like most monuments, the biopic is somber, well-intentioned, and fundamentally inert. But British actress Cynthia Erivo, in the title role, animates it.

The story opens blandly with a shot of mid-Atlantic scenery, circa 1846, and a dollop of Terence Blanchard's score, which is as earnest and conventional as the movie. Then Araminta "Minty" Ross, a young enslaved woman on Maryland's Eastern Shore, has one of her spells.

The image turns bluish as the woman — later to rename herself Harriet Tubman — swoons and sees a vision. These trances are historically accurate. (They were likely the result of an injury that occurred when a slave master, throwing a metal weight at someone else, fractured her 13-year-old skull.) But the director's attempt to enter Tubman's head is unpersuasive. Harriet is very much an outside experience.

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Tubman was promised her freedom, but is denied it by young plantation heir Gideon Brodess owner (Joe Alwyn, in the same slave-holder-as-dissolute-rock-star mode as Michael Fassbender in 12 Years a Slave and Leonardo DiCaprio in Django Unchained ). Then Gideon decides to sell her, so Tubman runs away and heads for the Pennsylvania border.

In Philadelphia, she finds shelter and community, notably with abolitionist William Still (Leslie Odom Jr.) and free-born African American boarding-house matron Marie Buchanon (Janelle Monae). But Tubman can't abide that she left her parents, husband, and brothers behind. So she returns in a bid to lead them to freedom.

That mission is the first of 13, and Tubman becomes known as the "Moses" who conducts enslaved people to Pennsylvania and beyond. (After the 1850 passage of the Fugitive Slave Act endangers people of color throughout the country, the favored destination becomes Canada.)

Tubman carried a pistol, as this film's protagonist does, but her principal weapon was stealth. The script — co-written by Gregory Allen Howard, whose Remember the Titans was almost entirely fiction — invents dramatic confrontations with slave holders and trackers. These would likely have turned out much worse for Tubman that they do here. But the principal reason they feel false is that they play like bits lifted from random chase flicks, not history. Tubman is even given a moment where she rides off on a white horse.

The action scenes aren't Harriet 's most contrived aspect, though. That would be the way Tubman periodically bursts into song, serenading her loved ones with gospel tunes that they — and everyone else on screen — somehow can't hear. It's as if Tubman is having a spell in a movie musical.

The film also become less convincing, and more preachy, in its final half hour, which depicts Tubman as an abolitionist celebrity. In the earlier sequences, the tight focus on Tubman — and on Erivo — energizes the generic material. Once Harriet widens to incorporate cameos by Frederick Douglass and the like, it feels more like a chapter from a history for young readers.

Vondie Curtis Hall and Henry Hunter Hall have nice moments as black men who, in very different ways, support both slavery and the people who flee it. But such ambiguity is not typical of Harriet , which is more attuned to righteousness than nuance. If the movie doesn't burn as brightly as Tubman's legacy, the tale it tells is illuminating nonetheless.

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Harriet Can’t Conjure the Humanity of Its Iconic Lead

There is power in a name.

Early into the film Harriet , not long after its lead makes the 100-mile escape from slavery to freedom on her own, the abolitionist William Still (Leslie Odom Jr.) asks Araminta “Minty” Ross (Cynthia Erivo) whether she’ll take on a new name. Erivo’s eyes scan the room, as if trying to conjure the right answer out of the air: “Harriet Tubman,” she says, offering up a name we’ve certainly heard before. It’s a moment meant to make the heart swell — to commemorate the fact that she holds her destiny in her hands now — but instead, it lands with a thud, with Erivo communicating a resolute hopefulness and little else. Despite the talent in front of and behind the camera, this scene, like so many others in this mostly by-the-numbers biopic, plays out like a hollow turning point, stripped of the weight we know it could possess.

Harriet unfurls like a beefed-up Wikipedia entry as it charts the titular character’s journey to freedom, from the compound of her former slave master (played with bland malevolence by Joe Alwyn) to the echelons of the Underground Railroad, where she becomes a conductor of high regard — so high she eventually helps to command an armed expedition in the Civil War. The script hits the notes (triumphs of will, rousing speeches, obvious turns of fortune) we’ve come to expect from a film genre angling for award traction, but it’s bloated with clunky, expository dialogue. The score is increasingly saccharine, approaching Hallmark movie territory; the visual landscape of the film is brimming with basic shot decisions. In the end, Harriet demonstrates none of the curious, perspicacious abilities of Kasi Lemmons, who burst onto the scene with the beguiling Southern tale, Eve’s Bayou. But Lemmons does add to the story of Harriet’s life in one less expected way — namely by making her a psychic .

A project like this might not be saved by its performances, but it can be complicated by them. Cynthia Erivo proved to have a spiky presence in Widows, having already gained acclaim in The Color Purple on Broadway. But in Harriet , Erivo delivers a performance free of the fierceness for which she’s become known. Harriet understands its lead is remarkable, framing her as such with amber lighting and swelling music every chance it gets. But Harriet never feels like a fully formed human being with all the doubts and desires that come with that distinction. In this retelling, Harriet’s psychic visions (not simply her ferocious faith) guide her to freedom, nearly casting her as a magical Negro figure. I’ve always been interested in how people behave alone, in the dark, far away from prying eyes — it’s there we reveal so much of ourselves, and biopics should usher us into these private moments of grand lives. But Harriet is too interested in framing Harriet Tubman, undoubtedly one of the most fascinating people in American history, as a superhero , rather than an extraordinary member of humanity.

Despite its issues, there are a few intriguing threads. The brutality of slavery is seen primarily in the aftermath of violence otherwise shown briefly onscreen — bodies only appear burned, whipped, and scarred after the fact. This choice sets Harriet apart from other historical films about the era, known for their unflinching approach to displaying the ills of a loathsome institution that it can be argued is necessary for showing the truth of the matter. Harriet also pays attention to the tension between blacks born in freedom and those born enslaved, which manifests in the tender relationship between Harriet and Marie Buchanon (Janelle Monáe), a proprietor of high standing who was born into freedom and has had to unravel her own prejudices and blind spots as a result.

Harriet brings up a lot of questions about the purpose of slavery epics. Are they meant to entertain or to challenge? What is the purpose of a glossy, superheroic rendition of one of America’s most terrifying sins? How informative or realistic does it need to be? There are no easy answers to these questions, but Harriet only highlights how this genre can fail despite the so-called important nature of the picture and a talented black director at the helm.

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Harriet review: A flashy, formulaic biopic of one of America’s great heroes

The film would have felt more at home if it had been released in the nineties, when gregory allen howard wrote the first version of the script , article bookmarked.

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Dir: Kasi Lemmons. Starring: Cynthia Erivo, Leslie Odom Jr, Joe Alwyn, and Janelle Monáe. 12A cert, 126 mins.

A handful of films about Harriet Tubman should have been made by now. She escaped slavery, and then turned back and helped countless others. During the Civil War, she became the first woman in US history to lead a military expedition. She’s one of America’s great heroes, with a story of such risk and bravery that it seems primed for the big screen. You have Hollywood’s institutional racism to thank for the fact that Harriet is the first major biopic dedicated to her.

What a shame, then, that Harriet is such a flashy, formulaic film. It takes historical reality and stretches it over the canvas of an old-fashioned adventure story – at one point, someone genuinely utters the phrase, “We’ve got company”. The film attempts to cover all the basics of Tubman’s life, including her escape to Philadelphia in 1849 and her missions back into the slave-owning states of the South. She saved an estimated 70 slaves over the course of 13 expeditions, earning her the title of “Moses”. An epilogue covers the Combahee River Raid, an armed assault she led during the Civil War that resulted in the rescue of more than 750 slaves.

This isn’t necessarily what you’d expect from Kasi Lemmons , whose directorial debut Eve’s Bayou – a drama rich with the mysticism of the Southern Gothic – remains one of the most impressive first features ever made. But Harriet would, at least, have felt more at home if it had been released in the Nineties, when Gregory Allen Howard wrote the first version of the film’s script – a time when historical biopics (such as Braveheart ) were expected to be both epic and a little overcooked. Terence Blanchard’s score feels like it was ripped from this era, too. It often intrudes on the drama, announcing every single one of Tubman’s heroic acts with the swell of an orchestra.

Still, Cynthia Erivo is magnificent in the role of Tubman. It’s a performance driven by pure will, and a desire to understand how a woman who’d suffered so much could continue to put one foot in front of the other and push forward. She’s gorgeously costumed by Paul Tazewell in jewel-toned dresses, layered coats, and hats set at the perfect angle. Yet Erivo is hampered by Lemmons and Howard’s script, interested only in upholding the myth of an American icon, not revealing the humanity that lived within it.

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Tubman suffered a traumatic brain injury when she was 12 years old, after a slave owner threw a heavy metal weight intended for another slave, but hit her instead. She started experiencing odd visions and hallucinations, which she interpreted as direct messages from God. Harriet interprets these premonitions far too literally, using them as a plot device to save the day over and over again, as though she’s an 1800s X-Men superhero.

There are a handful of interesting themes at play here, namely in Tubman’s interactions with black abolitionists William Still (Leslie Odom Jr) and Marie Buchanon (Janelle Monáe, whose character, unlike Still’s, is fictional). The former is averse to risk, since he’s fixated on maintaining the secrecy of the Underground Railroad, a network of secret routes and safe houses. The latter was born free and must learn to see the world through Tubman’s eyes. The film even touches on the collective trauma experienced by those who were enslaved.

But these all feel like mere inklings of the film that Harriet could have been. Hopefully the next project about her will take a deeper look.

Harriet is released in UK cinemas on 22 November

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‘Harriet’ Review: An American Heroine Gets Her Biopic

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

Cynthia Erivo captures the spirit of Underground Railroad freedom fighter Harriet Tubman with enough ferocity and feeling to set this biopic soaring. The passionate acting of this British dynamo — a Tony winner for The Color Purple on Broadway — comes in handy when the film itself threatens to trip on its own hard-sold uplift. Harriet surely doesn’t need to push the importance of Tubman’s story to the Civil Rights movement, though it does, disappointingly and often. Luckily, Erivo is always there to remind us what counts in this dramatization of one woman’s heroic fight against the odds.

Director Kasi Lemmons ( Eve’s Bayou ), who wrote the script with Gregory Allen Howard, ( Remember the Titans ), opens the story in 1849, when Harriet — then a slave known as Minty— fought the idea that she was the personal property of Maryland plantation owner Edward Brodess (Michael Marunde). Her husband, John (Zackary Momoh), a free man, has found legal proof that Brodess’ great-granddaddy left a will freeing Minty, her siblings and their mother (Vanessa Bell Calloway). Brodess, of course, is having none of that. That’s when he and his son Gideon (Joe Alwyn) decide to put the rebellious woman up for sale.

Minty has visions of the future that come when she communicates with God, The glory of Erivo’s voice as she sings spirituals in the field adds poignance to the scenes when the resistance leader says goodbye to her husband, mother, father (Clarke Peters) and family,  and runs away to the free state of Pennsylvania.. A local minister (Vondie Curtis Hall), known her helping fugitive slaves, offers advice. But Minty is pretty much on her own.

The great cinematographer Jon Toll ( Braveheart, Legends of the Fall ), aided by Terence Blanchard’s celestial score, brings a lustrous beauty to Harriet’s harrowing, 100-mile journey. It’s in Philadelphia that she meets Marie Buchanan (an outstanding Janelle Monae ), who finds her a paying job as a maid and a gun to protect herself herself against a retaliatory white South. But our heroine finds her real vocation through abolitionist William Still (Leslie Odom Jr., the original Aaron Burr in Hamilton ), who records her history and instills her with a desire to lead rescue missions for other runaway slaves.

Minty changes her name to Harriet Tubman, and is lit from within with a fire to lead others out of bondage. Her increasing fame puts her in a dangerous spotlight, especially when Harriet joins the Underground Railroad and becomes a conductor whose reach extends to Canada. Known as a female Moses, Harriet — who sometimes dressed as a man — becomes the face of a movement while resisting becoming a martyr to It.

It’s a big role, written with dimensions of sainthood that might defeat a lesser actor. But Erivo is up to every challenge, never losing Harriet’s compassionate humanity even as the film moves to the Civil War and pumps up the action at the expense of characterization. Tubman’s place in anti-slavery annals looms so large that her life virtually spills off the screen, as if no single movie could hold her. But there’s Erivo, hardly more than five feet tall like the dynamo she’s playing, giving us a woman in full on her march into history.

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‘harriet’: film review | tiff 2019.

Cynthia Erivo plays Harriet Tubman, the courageous Underground Railroad conductor who became a hero of the anti-slavery movement, in Kasi Lemmons' bio-drama 'Harriet.'

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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The Obama administration’s plan to put Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill remains in limbo thanks to the stalling of the Trump government, but Kasi Lemmons ‘ lustrous epic treatment of the legendary freedom fighter’s life etches an iconic portrait for better or worse, resonating more as a symbolic figurehead than a nuanced flesh-and-blood character. Cynthia Erivo is a powerful physical presence in the title role and Harriet recounts an important chapter in American history too long neglected by Hollywood. If the movie doesn’t escape the hagiographic trap of the reverent biopic, it nonetheless will move audiences with a taste for large-canvas inspirational drama.

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Lemmons, who first turned heads with her 2004 indie debut, the poetic Southern Gothic Eve’s Bayou , doesn’t exactly tread lightly here. That tendency is evident from the very first widescreen frame, as Terence Blanchard’s lush score swells into soaring uplift mode over a rain-soaked field, aggressively signaling emotional cues before we’ve encountered a single character. The use of music is often heavy-handed, one exception being the thrill of hearing Nina Simone’s “Sinnerman” over a montage of daring Underground Railroad rescues.

Release date: Nov 01, 2019

The screenplay by Gregory Allen Howard and Lemmons begins in 1849 with the brutal experience that sparks the freedom-or-death fire in the belly of the slave then known as Minty. Her husband John (Zackary Momoh), a free man, has obtained legal documentation to verify that under the terms of a will left behind by the great-grandfather of Maryland plantation owner Edward Brodess (Michael Marunde), Minty, her siblings and their mother (Vanessa Bell Calloway) should have been freed more than a decade ago.

John states his case calmly and respectfully, explaining that they want to start a family and wish for their children to be born free. But Brodess rips up the paper and dismisses them with indignation, telling his son Gideon (Joe Alwyn) he should have sold the troublesome Minty years ago.

Having nursed him through typhoid as a child, Minty holds a strange position for Gideon, mingling possession with obligation and devotion. He’s unsettled by the intensity of her prayers, and evidence that she communicates directly with God is conveyed throughout the movie in black-and-white vision sequences revealing flashes of the future to her. But a sudden change in the family’s circumstances causes Gideon to act belatedly on his father’s advice and put Minty up for sale. The prospect of being separated from her family is the impetus she needs to make an escape attempt, but she refuses to let John run with her, arguing that capture will cost him his freedom.

From then on through much of its two-hour running time, Harriet becomes a chase movie, with action sequences driven by Blanchard’s propulsive score and John Toll’s agile camera. There are brief emotional markers on the journey, especially early on, as Minty says farewell to her mother in the field by singing a traditional spiritual, embraces her father (the great Clarke Peters , underused) and receives guidance from the local Reverend (charismatic veteran Vondie Curtis Hall), whose church serves as a waystation for fugitive slaves. But despite Erivo’s tenacity in the role, the drama feels more stately and impressive than urgent and affecting.

It’s never uninvolving though, and the script does a solid job of tracing the formation of a courageous freedom fighter out of a scared runaway. That process happens once Minty arrives in Philadelphia and marks her liberation by choosing a new name, combining those of her mother and husband to become Harriet Tubman. She meets abolitionist William Still ( Leslie Odom Jr. ), who records her history along with those of other fugitive slaves; and Marie Buchanan ( Janelle Monae ), an elegant business owner born in freedom who sets Harriet up in a paying job as a domestic worker.

It’s Marie who gives her a gun, teaches her how to pass for a free woman and secures her fake ID papers a year later when Harriet insists on taking the dangerous 100-mile journey back to Maryland to bring John with her to the free state of Pennsylvania. That doesn’t go as planned, but she ends up shepherding a party of eight to freedom, including her brothers. Five of them come from the financially struggling Brodess plantation, described by Gideon as “three bucks, a female and foal” — words that underscore the horrific thinking of the time and place, that slaves were akin to livestock.

Lemmons introduces a welcome strain of low-key humor as Harriet’s rescue missions become more audacious even while slave-owners grow more ruthless in their bids to stop the swelling tide of runaways. The influx in Philadelphia gets to be so numerous that William can barely record their histories fast enough. Harriet’s success rate prompts him to introduce her to the secret organizing committee of the Underground Railroad, making her an official conductor, and her exploits make her notorious in the South, initially as an unidentified “slave stealer” dubbed Moses.

It’s a gripping story, for the most part efficiently told. But the frequent interludes of religious rapture, during which Harriet often senses danger in time to change course and get her charges to safety, contribute to the sense of invulnerable sainthood that keeps the central character at a slight remove.

When Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, allowing for escapees to be tracked and captured even in Northern states, Harriet’s rescue trips extend from 100 miles to 600 as Canada becomes the only safe haven. But the script becomes preachy around this point, indulging in big movie-ish speeches designed to reinforce Harriet’s valiant sense of purpose and proto-feminist spirit. Also, once Gideon learns the true identity of the liberator raising the hackles of the white Southerners and causing them to place blame on him, a confrontation is set up as an inevitability.

That encounter doesn’t pack the dramatic weight to provide a fully satisfying payoff, and Harriet’s involvement as an armed assault leader during the Civil War is given somewhat rushed handling. The unprecedented nature of her military role is conveyed mainly in onscreen text at the end of the movie, along with her subsequent dedication to the women’s suffrage movement.

British actress Erivo, who won a Tony Award for her Broadway debut in The Color Purple , hits all the requisite notes of flintiness and selfless bravery born of suffering, determination and rage. But the movie bathes Harriet in the hallowed light of nobility without providing much access to what she’s thinking and feeling; its heavy bias toward action scenes leaves too little room for character study. Tubman is an extraordinary figure with a unique place in American history, but although Lemmons’ film is an admirable bid to do this giant of the anti-slavery movement justice, it’s a monument to her heroism rather than a full-blooded incarnation.

Production companies: Stay Gold Features, Debra Martin Chase Productions Distributor: Focus Features Cast: Cynthia Erivo, Leslie Odom Jr., Joe Alwyn, Clarke Peters, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Omar J. Dorsey, Henry Hunter Hill, Tim Guinee, Janelle Monae, Vondie Curtis Hall, Jennifer Odessa Nettles, Deborah Olayinka Ayorinde, Michael Marunde, Tory Kittles, Zackary Momoh Director: Kasi Lemmons Screenwriter: Gregory Allen Howard, Kasi Lemmons Producers: Debra Martin Chase, Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Gregory Allen Howard Executive producers: Josh McLaughlin, Shea Kammer, Nnamdi Asomugha, Bill Benenson, Pen Densham, John Watson, Kristina Kendall, Elizabeth Koch, Charles D. King Director of photography: John Toll Production designer: Warren Alan Young Costume designer: Paul Tazewell Music: Terence Blanchard Editor: Wyatt Smith Casting: Kim Coleman Venue: Toronto International Film Festival (Gala Presentations)

Rated PG-13, 125 minutes

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Harriet movie is not just another biopic

By erika delgado | nov 4, 2019.

Harriet landed in theaters amid strong awards buzz and some controversy. Should movie fans give Harriet a shot? Here’s our take!

Fans love superheroes. We relish origin stories of underdogs who discover their powers and learn to harness them for good. The new film, Harriet , is the story of a real-life hero who does just that.

Harriet Tubman didn’t have x-ray vision or telekinetic abilities. She couldn’t fly or freeze time. She didn’t even have a cape. But Tubman did beat the odds, find inner strength, and risk her life to save others over and over again. She was a hero, says the film’s director, Kasi Lemmons , and the biopic, Harriet , is her origin story.

Ex-slave, Harriet Tubman, became the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad, a secret network that helped enslaved people escape to freedom. The film explores driving forces behind Harriet Tubman’s choice to jeopardize her liberty for the sake of friends, family, and even strangers. Harriet doesn’t exhibit the size, the sizzle, or the special effects of a typical modern-day big-screen superhero movie. But this story of a great American hero has heart.

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In theory, Harriet possesses all of the components that should produce a solid historical drama that soars during awards season. The film boasts a talented director and stellar cast who partnered to bring a piece of history to life. But does the film deliver?

Harriet director and co-writer, Kasi Lemmons, has a knack for period films. She directed two 1960s-era films, Eve’s Bayou , starring Samuel L. Jackson and the biopic, Talk to Me , starring Don Cheadle . Both films are rated R (that is relevant, I promise), and Lemmons captures the soul of the 60s beautifully. However, Harriet depicts a watered-down pre-Civil War America with a PG-13 rating.

Considering Lemmons’ history of directing legit period pieces with suitable ratings for the material, it makes me wonder if the studio dictated the decision to secure a PG-13 rating. It is utterly impossible to produce a truthful representation of slavery, while bound by PG-13 restrictions. However, PG-13 movies typically have the potential to attract wider audiences, and more box office bucks, which is why studios often shy away from “R” territory.

Many times, filmmakers can dial back the violence, swearing, or adult content to hit the PG-13 mark without compromising the creative vision. In this case, an R-rating would have allowed for a more accurate depiction of the brutality that was characteristic of the time. Showing these horrors would have better demonstrated how high the stakes were for Tubman every time she returned to the South.

That said, as the director, Kasi Lemmons produced rich content, regardless of the rating constraints. Lemmons shot Harriet on location in Virginia and used carefully chosen settings to represent the Underground Railroad.

Much of the film takes place in heavily wooded areas, similar to routes that escaped slaves probably took to avoid capture. Lemmons takes care to add small details to illustrate the scarcity of food, clothing, and supplies, as well as the harshness of the terrain that runaway slaves had to endure. Throughout the narrative, Lemmons shines a light on the internal scars inflicted by slave masters, and the actors bring genuine emotion to these moving scenes.

The stars of the film are incredibly gifted. Cynthia Erivo portrays Harriet Tubman, and singer Janelle Monáe, Tony Award-winner Leslie Odeon Jr., and Grammy Award-winner Jennifer Nettles also star. While Harriet has been praised for stellar performances, negative reactions to the casting of Cynthia Erivo as Tubman undermines some of the excitement.

Erivo is a talented yet polarizing lead actress. The Nigerian-British bombshell has been  criticized  for her perceived disdain for African-Americans. Because of this, some fans question why Erivo was chosen to portray a prominent Black American hero. The obvious answer? She’s wicked talented.

Questionable  tweets  aside, Erivo packs loads of artistic genius into her five-foot, one-inch frame. The 32-year-old powerhouse has already earned an Emmy, a Grammy, and a Tony Award. Now, she brings her A-game as Harriet Tubman. Film critics and fans alike praise her portrayal in the film.

If Cynthia Erivo does manage to snag the Oscar for her performance in Harriet , despite the backlash from detractors, she will become one of the few members of the  EGOT Winners Club . In my opinion, she has a good shot.

Aside from the casting backlash and MPAA rating misstep, I think Harriet still has a lot going for it. The timing of the film is impeccable, and I’m not talking about awards season. A movie like this can make a huge difference during this pivotal time in history. As women and minorities in entertainment and other industries fight for equality , a movie about a powerful Black woman, starring a powerful Black woman, directed by a powerful Black woman is in theaters now. And Harriet is killing it.

Based on the  Rotten Tomatoes  score, the majority of critics and fans agree that Harriet is a biopic worth seeing. With most critics giving the film a thumbs up, the film rates a healthy 73% on the Tomatometer. Moviegoers are even more enthusiastic about Harriet . At the time of writing, the audience score stands at a whopping 98%.

The takeaway? The star of the film probably won’t win any popularity contests anytime soon – at least not stateside. But Harriet could be a heavy hitter this awards season. More importantly, Harriet , could help inspire the next generation of heroes.

Next. Does Gemini Man live up to the hype?. dark

Harriet is now playing in theaters. Will you check it out? Comment and join the discussion.

Harriet (I) (2019)

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Movie Review: Harriet

The peerless underground railroad conductor gets the biopic she deserves..

Harriet prays for her master’s death—and it comes, the first indication that the film really does see her as a prophet of sorts, bestowed with extraordinary gifts. (The film takes the fact that Harriet can see the future and communicate with God as canon.) But this doesn’t free her. She still has the master’s self-pitying wife and mean-spirited son Gideon (British actor Joe Alwyn, distractingly handsome and dandyish in the role) to contend with. Gideon saw Harriet praying for his father’s death, so he decides to sell her. That’s when she knows she must escape to the north, where black men and women can live free.

Yes, the film is a straightforward biopic that will certainly be shown in high school history classes for generations to come. I’m fine with that. This kind of American history deserves a film like this. And lest you think the film is exaggerating Harriet Tubman’s bravery and accomplishments, please remember that she was a conductor of the Underground Railroad, the first woman to lead an armed expedition into war, a Union spy, an abolitionist, and a leading supporter of women’s suffrage. If that’s not a superhero, I don’t know who is.

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Harriet Review: How Did They Mess This Up?

The name of Harriet Tubman exists in history books. We see her mentioned in museums, parks, historical sites, and paintings. The U.S. twenty-dollar bill even almost wore Tubman’s face and name.  She made a larger impact than most and hasn’t been forgotten by many, which is why the disappointing nature of Harriet feels even worse.

Harriet  bangs a similar drum as  Judy  did just a few months ago, another paint-by-numbers biopic that neither surprises nor shakes. A film depicting the life and times of Tubman should have had more bite, more excitement, and more emotion.  Harriet  lacks all of the above, instead opting for an over-the-top score, long speeches, and a clear religious fervor.

Though the real Harriet Tubman experienced visions which she attributed to God, making her devout in her spirituality, the film hammers home this fact a bit too often. Tubman suffers from these “spells” as they call them constantly, and her survival depends on these visions.

She prays mostly in the direction of trees, and she bears a likeness in name and in action to Moses, parting the sea and leading people to freedom. Every time she faces possible capture, a vision befalls her, and leads her in the correct way, leading the audience to believe that God deserves more praise than Tubman herself.

The writing and storytelling frustrate you at every turn, and you actually wish that the film is over soon after it starts, because you already know what is going to happen. You know she will escape. You know she will help others escape. And you know she will ultimately defeat, but not kill, her master. The filmmaking doesn’t allow room for any other outcomes, surprises, or plot points.

Cynthia Erivo does an admirable job in the role of Harriet Tubman, and she deserves praise for making lemonade out of some rotten lemons. She avoids overperforming, rather giving a composed and positive portrayal of an American, almost mythical at times, legendary figure. The rest of the cast serves the purpose of existing for Tubman to save them or resisting Tubman’s saving efforts. The heroes and the villains are clear, and without Erivo, this movie would have had zero impact.

The film, directed by Kasi Lemmons, somehow makes Tubman’s story uninteresting, zapping the excitement out of its events. We don’t get to see Harriet Tubman the badass, nor do see get to see Harriet Tubman the war hero. We don’t get to see Harriet Tubman the diplomat or even Harriet Tubman the slave. Her journey to freedom lasts all of a few minutes and feels lucky and odd.

The film deprives its audience of knowing Tubman, and sometimes even rooting for her, as she leaves her husband, is upset that he’s remarried, and initially jeopardizes the plans of the anti-slavery organization. It might be incredulous to say, but some of her decision-making feels risky at times, and we end up hoping that God, or someone else, will save Harriet Tubman, a woman that survived far worse in real life.

Harriet  explores the interesting topic of those that don’t choose to run with Tubman’s sister, but it acts as a short aside instead of a talking point. Some stayed behind in the South, and those people aren’t given a real place in this film.

This Harriet Tubman biopic traverses no new territory, giving into the tropes of a feature following real events. A fine cast and a beautiful landscape help to minimize the poor script, but this is a film that you should pass on. Wait for the next big biopic, and hope that it brings perspective, poignance, and progression, three elements that Harriet  sorely lacks.

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Article by Michael Frank

Michael Frank is a film critic and entertainment journalist based out of Brooklyn, New York, and he joined Ready Steady Cut in September 2017, publishing over 80 articles for the website. Michael’s eye for Film and TV has gotten him noticed, and he has become a Rotten Tomatoes-certified critic.

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New Horror Movie With 21% RT Score Nearly Triples Budget At The Box Office In Just 10 Days

• Tarot has grossed a cumulative $20 million worldwide in its second weekend.
• This has more than tripled the horror movie's $8 million budget.
• Despite a 21% Rotten Tomatoes score, Tarot is likely already turning a profit.

Tarot has accomplished a huge box office feat despite a cavalcade of negative reviews. The new horror movie, which stars Harriet Slater, Avantika, and Jacob Batalon , is based on the 1992 Nicholas Adams novel Horrorscope and follows a group of college students who play with a cursed deck of tarot cards that dooms them to die in twisted ways based on the cards that were pulled in their readings. The movie has earned a thoroughly Rotten 21% score on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing, a number that is based on 43 different critics' reviews.

Per Variety , the Tarot release is projected to earn an additional $3.4 million at the domestic box office by the end of its second weekend in theaters. Combined with its second-weekend international grosses, this will bring its cumulative global box office total to $20 million . Considering the fact that the movie only cost $8 million to make, this nearly triples the horror title's production budget in just 10 days.

Why Are Tarots Reviews So Bad?

Critics call out tarot for its lazy storytelling.

Despite the box office milestone, Tarot ’s poor reviews tell a starkly different story. With a 21% on Rotten Tomatoes, Tarot can easily be considered a critical flop . Though audiences are seeing the movie, their perception has not been fantastic either, giving the film only a 57% approval rating.

Critics are knocking Tarot for its weak characters, who lack personality and connection in the horror film. As Matthew Jackson of The AV Club wrote, Tarot “ ends up feeling flimsy, empty, and again, very, very frustrating .” Others called the storytelling weak and found it to be a lazy genre film that lacked depth and cultural value. While there were a couple critics who liked Tarot , those were few and far between against the highly-critical overall reception.

Is Tarot A Box Office Hit?

The horror movie may have hit its break-even point.

At the time of writing, Tarot is the sixth highest-grossing English-language horror movie of the year worldwide.

Because theaters keep half of ticket sales, a movie's break-even point is usually at least twice its production budget. Despite those negative Tarot reviews , the movie has already surpassed $16 million at the box office, which was most likely its break-even point. In fact, at the time of writing, it is the sixth highest-grossing English-language horror movie of the year worldwide. Below, see how the movie's budget and box office compares to the current Top 5 English-language horror titles of 2024 so far:

One issue with the break-even point rule of thumb is the fact that it doesn't include marketing costs for the movies in question. This means that some of the titles with a positive balance may not have yet made their money back, depending on how much was spent promoting them. However, Tarot came with quite low marketing costs , as there wasn't a huge promotional push for the title, with horror-hungry audiences seeming to have found the movie relatively organically.

While it seems unlikely that the movie has yet earned a significant profit, it may already be in the black. If it can push this gross even higher in the coming weeks, it's possible that it will be considered a proper box office hit and that a sequel will be greenlit before long. The Tarot ending is not necessarily open-ended, but it does leave room for more stories to be told at different points in the timeline of the movie's universe, whether or not the stars who played the surviving characters return to the project.

Will Tarot Help 2024 Horror Turn Around?

2024 horror has had a rough start.

As evidenced in the top five horror films of 2024 so far, the year has been off to a rocky start with horror. As per the estimated budgets, two out of the top five highest grossing horror movies of 2024 have actually lost money rather than gained money. Abigail , for instance, which has an 84% on Rotten Tomatoes, has vastly underperformed expectations thus far. It was originally predicted to open to $12–$15 million and top the box office during its opening weekend. Instead, it brought home $10.2 million and lost out to A24’s Civil War .

Tarot may just be a note of hope in a depressing start for the year in horror. If Tarot continues on its current box office path, it will easily clear the marker needed to profit. Tarot is also only $3.2 million behind the box office gross for Immaculate , so it also has a shot at making it into the top 5 grossing horror films of the year so far. Hopefully, Tarot ’s success can be the start of a turn around for the lukewarm 2024 horror box office thus far.

Source: Variety

Tarot (2024)

Director Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg

Release Date May 3, 2024

Studio(s) Ground Control, Alloy Entertainment, Screen Gems

Distributor(s) Sony Pictures Releasing

Writers Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg

Cast Avantika Vandanapu, Wolfgang Novogratz, Larsen Thompson, Humberly Gonzlez, Harriet Slater, Jacob Batalon, Adain Bradley, Olwen Four

Rating PG-13

Runtime 92 minutes

Genres Mystery, Thriller, Horror

Main Genre Horror

Tarot Scares Up a Box Office Success Despite Poor Rotten Tomatoes Ratings

Tarot turns a modest $8 million budget into a stunning $20 million global box office haul in just ten days.

• Tarot surprises with financial success, earning $20 million on an $8 million budget in just 10 days.
• Despite lukewarm reviews, Tarot delivers a mix of humor and horror, with standout performance by Jacob Batalon.
• Batalon's role injects needed charisma, making the film a more fun experience for viewers of all ages.

Tarot has emerged as an unexpected box office success, despite a wave of critical disapproval. The new horror film has nearly tripled its production budget in a mere ten days.

With a modest budget of $8 million, Tarot has stunned industry observers by pulling in a whopping $20 million globally , as reported by Variety . This includes a projected $3.4 million from the domestic market by the end of its second weekend, combined with substantial international earnings. The movie’s financial performance is notably strong, considering its critically lukewarm reception, which has culminated in a measly 21% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on critic reviews.

Tarot (2024)

The plot centers on a group of college friends who start dying in ways that are related to their fortunes after having their tarot cards read. Before their time runs out, they have to work together to uncover the mystery.

Tarot Offers a Mix of Humor and Horror with Standout Performance by Jacob Batalon

Tarot, directed by Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg, struggles to play a winning hand despite its appealing premise . The movie features a group of college friends who inadvertently unleash a demonic force after toying with a cursed tarot deck in a remote mansion. MovieWeb's Greg Archer said in his Tarot review :

"The filmmakers keep things very lean here — from cast to settings to lighting. In fact, this film is so dimly lit, you’d be forgiven if you drifted off. The plot itself never truly drags, however. At 92 minutes, we get in and out of the surreal ride in no time."

The film's jump scares are a hit-or-miss affair, though they manage to deliver some genuine thrills amidst a series of predictable horror setups . Despite its PG-13 rating, which limits the gore, the movie attempts to compensate with psychological terror and atmospheric tension.

The filmmakers keep the action moving thanks to sharp and effective editing. The jump scares work — 60/40. Most of them do the trick.

Jacob Batalon , known for his roles in the Spider-Man series and Reginald the Vampire , stands out with a performance that injects much-needed humor and charisma into the storyline. His presence brings a lighter tone to the otherwise grim narrative, which sees the group facing deadly manifestations of the tarot figures . Archer's review said:

In the meantime, there’s Jacob Batalon. The actor’s engaging screen presence gives us a character we can relate to. The filmmakers were wise to give him the best dialogue and Tarot is a much more fun experience because of him.

In an interview with MovieWeb, Batalon spoke about his role as the funny guy, Paxton . The actor revealed:

“Paxton is sort of the funny best friend to our friend Ruth. He starts out in the movie as very bullish on things like terror, which makes jokes of it, but as the horrors continue to happen, he realizes that it's definitely happening, and he becomes a full-on freak with it , and hopefully, he doesn't die.”

Batalon talked about the film's unique approach to the horror genre, noting its focus on tarot, which he believes has not been extensively explored in horror films before.

“ I thought it was really fun and a really different take on the horror genre . We've never really seen something based on tarot before. I feel like a lot of young people today are into star signs and whatnot. It's very relatable in that sense. And having a bunch of college friends and making jokes about it is going to be great.”

Tarot is currently showing in theaters.

New Horror Film Becomes Big Box Office Success Despite Harsh Reviews

Rotten reviews didn't stop a recent horror film from finding big success financially in theaters.

The new horror movie Tarot did not have the warmest reception with critics upon release, to say the least. At Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a low approval rating of 21 percent, but that doesn't mean the horror flick was not a success.

Via The Numbers , Tarot will be rounding out the weekend with $3.4 million earned at the domestic box office, landing in the No. 4 spot with its second weekend in theaters. That brings the film up to more than $12 earned domestically , and counting in $8.2 million from overseas ticket sales, Tarot has surpassed $20.2 million worldwide . Given the low budget of the film, which was made for around $8 million, Tarot can be seen as a big financial success by earning so much more in less than two weeks in theaters.

New Horror Film From Killer's Perspective Gets Near-Perfect Rotten Tomatoes Score

It's also worth noting that the audience score is much higher than the low approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Though the 57 percent audience score is still just a few points shy of being considered "fresh" at the review aggregator website, it's nearly three times higher than what critics had given the film. While there are exceptions , low-budget horror films are also known to often struggle with critics, so the Rotten Tomatoes score may have done little to scare off the horror fans looking to check this one out.

What Is Tarot About?

Tarot is co-directed and co-written by Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg, and it is based on the 1992 novel Horrorscope by Nicholas Adams. The film tells the story of a group of college students using a strange Tarot deck before they start getting killed off one by one in ways that are reminiscent of the fortunes they were told. The ensemble cast consists of Harriet Slater, Adain Bradley, Avantika Vandanapu, Wolfgang Novogratz, Humberly Gonzalez, Larsen Thompson, and Jacob Batalon .

Acclaimed Horror Movie Finds New Success With Streaming on Netflix

Speaking about the project with CBR, Batalon said how he was intrigued by the concept of Tarot , which isn't like most other horror films getting released these days. Batalon also explained how Tarot has gotten to be very popular with young filmgoers these days, which may have played a role in the movie performing as well as it is in movie theaters.

"I know that a lot of young people today are into star signs, they're into Tarot, they're into palm reading, they're into all these things," he said. "So, I think from just like a business standpoint, it's a good move. But this is a very great story, for sure."

Tarot is playing in movie theaters .

Source: The Numbers

Tarot (2024)

A group of college friends decide to have their fortunes read for fun, but little do they know, the tarot cards will reveal deadly truths. Soon, they start dying in gruesome ways, each death eerily mirroring the predictions from their reading. As the body count rises, the surviving friends must race against time to decipher the cards' symbols and break the curse before it claims them all.

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