The Underground Railroad: Victorious
Without being in any way familiar with Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, midway through last month, I set out to read a couple of reviews, some of them diagonally, about Barry Jenkins’ adaptation. All of them were eulogistic in tone, and noting – amongst other aspects – its extraordinary direction, exceptional acting performances, the fact that it was striking, heart-breaking, challenging; even that it’s the kind of series to turn one’s insides out, profoundly shaking its audience with its masterful skills, and so on. Some even go as far as to name it the latest American masterpiece. I was still rather skeptical – I feared that I would end up watching an extended version of Steve McQueen’s 2013 triple-Oscar winner 12 Years a Slave. In other words, a ten-hour series that would encompass themes such as suffering, humiliation, and survival. I also read and listened to a couple of interviews with filmmaker Barry Jenkins, in which he spoke of his wish to adapt Whitehead’s novel in the form of a series, rather than a feature-length film. And the choice he went for proves to be particularly insightful.
Film critic since 2008, film lover since he was 4 years old. Former editor for the ART7 cultural platform and former film programmer for the "Horror Saturday" section of the Romanian Cinematheque. He writes film and festival reviews wherever he can and wherever he is invited to do so. He loves cats, like most humans do, he's an amateur ornithologist and he'd much rather see a good 80s horror film than an awarded hollywoodian drama.
