The sweetness of sheer happiness when lifting from your seat after viewing a film that hasn’t wasted your time is something quite irreplaceable. There’s simply nothing like a good watch, and the film Alice is certainly an excellent contender. 

   Directed by the incredible Krysten Ver Linden, the story of Alice gazes into the southern manifolds of Georgia. Our main character, Alice (played by Keke Palmer), is a slave during the 19th century on a plantation under her brutal and distressed owner, Paul Bennet. Alice yearns freedom for her and her family, and constantly finds herself pondering a different world beyond the boundaries of the hellish hacienda she refuses to call home.   

   This continues to eat at Alice until one day, she snaps. After a violent clash with Paul, she flees through the neighboring woods and stumbles onto the unfamiliar sight of a highway, soon discovering the year is actually 1973.  Delusional and discombobulated, Alice is brought back by the rapid passing-by of vehicles zooming in and out of her gaze. Next thing led to another, Alice finds herself in the middle of the road and nearly gets struck by a hurtling truck.

   Popping out of the truck was a political activist named Frank (played by Common), who scoops up Alice to safety. The two grow together, and quickly, under Frank’s influence, Alice comprehends the lies that have kept her in bondage and the promise of true Black liberation, lacing her knowledge with intelligence and enlightenment. Anger bubbles in Alice’s soul, and it pushes her to finally take control of this injustice once and for all… 

   Inspired by true events, Alice is a modern empowerment story tracing Alice’s journey through the post-Civil Rights Era American South. What only adds to the magnificence of this film is that it is based on true triumphs of a woman named Mae Louis Walls Miller. 

   This empowering film is inspired by true events of Black Americans who remained enslaved for years after the Emancipation Proclamation. It took years for news of the law to spread across the country, with many slave owners refusing to comply. One woman in particular, Miller, did not get her freedom from enslavement until 1963, one hundred years after the proclamation was issued. The truth was shifted as Miller’s father was tricked into signing a contract that he could not read which enslaved him and his entire family.

   Unable to leave the land they were tied to and with no contact to current media of any sort, the family had no comprehension of what was going on in the world beyond their fields. At age 14, Miller attempted to flee, only to be caught and returned to her captors; this setback, however, never held the stubborn teen back. Later that night, Miller ran through the woods again, though this time she was taken in by a family who rescued the rest of her family later that very same night.  

   The layers embedded within this story help the plot to blossom in a way that even later generations could comprehend this intricate memoir. Kyrstin Ver Linden perfectly juxtaposed Miller’s story with a modern twist, forming it into an enlightening and irreplaceable film, and it’s so worth your dedicated attention.