Mudbound

Mudbound is currently streaming in Australia on Netflix, and in the US on Netflix, and it rewards the patience it asks of you. It knows exactly what kind of film it is from the opening scene, and never loses that thread. With 1,315 viewer ratings on TMDB, this is not a title flying under the radar. Carey Mulligan sets the tone, and the rest of the cast matches it scene for scene. Put it on tonight on Netflix and see for yourself.

Mudbound arrived without much fanfare and built its audience the hard way — through word of mouth. The writing in Mudbound treats its characters as people first, plot devices second. In the post–World War II South, two families are pitted against a barbaric social hierarchy and an unrelenting landscape as they simultaneously fight the battle at home and the battle abroad. Carey Mulligan and Jason Clarke lead a cast that brings real weight to the material. It was released in 2017. The writing trusts the audience to sit with ambiguity rather than wrapping everything up in a tidy conclusion — it is the approach that separates good drama from great. There is real craft here, even in the moments that do not fully land.

Mudbound is what you recommend to people who say they do not really watch much. It has built its own audience without needing a direct comparison. The complete film is available and best experienced without too much prior knowledge of where it goes. Carey Mulligan's work here is the kind that gets referenced in career retrospectives. It makes everything else feel thin by comparison.