"Alice" a cathartic rallying cry with an affecting, badass Keke Palmer

Alice (2022)

Going into a film with a blank slate should be encouraged for most films, but knowing as little as possible about “Alice” makes for a much more surprising, exciting experience. Though the film is "inspired by a true story," the series of appalling incidents in American history that become the basis for this story is unfortunately overlooked. Krystin Ver Linden's writing-directing debut does have a lot to prove, especially coming so close after 2020’s equally audacious horror film “Antebellum," which brought Civil War-era slavery to the 21st century. But in telling this story about the persistence of racism and the celebration of freedom as a homage to the pulpy blaxploitation genre of the 1970s, “Alice” knows what it is and what it isn’t. What's more, it has the sensational Keke Palmer and knows what to do with her.

Enslaved on a 19th-century Georgia plantation by her detestable white master (Jonny Lee Miller), Alice (Keke Palmer) realizes there may be more outside of what she can see. When she violently fights back and manages to escape, Alice runs into the woods and keeps running until the tree line, where she reaches a highway. Alice is now free from the antebellum South, so free, in fact, that the year is—and has been—1973. Fainting in front of an oncoming truck, Alice is given a ride by compassionate truck driver Frank (Common), who takes her to the hospital and then saves her from being taken to a psych ward. Frank tries jogging Alice’s memory, even though this world is entirely new to her, including the Emancipation Proclamation. Now knowing the truth, Alice needs to go back to where she came from and rescue those she loves, and nobody can stop her.

An unusual fish-out-of-water story and an empowerment tale if there ever was one, "Alice" is a cathartic rallying cry for its liberated title character. There’s no time-travel involved, just history, the backward thinking of this nation, and eventually revenge. If there's anything to actually quibble, the script is perhaps too streamlined and rushed after Alice gets accustomed to 1973, and yet Keke Palmer sells every moment. A superhero force of charisma and power as Alice, Palmer is tremendously affecting and just plain badass, particularly in a significant moment when it dawns on Alice that she is free and finds a role model in an icon like Pam Grier as Coffy. Common lends cool and tender support as the kindly Frank, and Alicia Witt gets one tense scene in a diner opposite Palmer as the master’s wife. The overall production is also a modest one but impressively resourceful, from set decoration to the costume design for both disparate eras. Cementing first-timer Krystin Ver Linden as a filmmaker to watch and giving Keke Palmer the adult role she has long deserved, “Alice” is not an entirely subtle film, nor does it need to be, or else it wouldn’t be “Alice.”

Grade: B 

Vertical Entertainment and Roadside Attractions released “Alice” (100 min.) in select theaters on March 18, 2022.