Well-intentioned, but soapy, tedious and overstretched.
read more
Homestead is a soapy, tedious, overstretched television pilot that dares the viewer to take it seriously as a movie.
The movie opens with two men at sea who speak Tagalog to each other as they prepare to launch a nuclear bomb. Before the men can be stopped by a military helicopter, the bomb engulfs Los Angeles in flames, causing mass riots, food shortages and power grids to shut down.
Jeff Eriksson, an ex-Special Forces officer, and his family escape to The Homestead – a mansion run by a wealthy owner who has everything he needs to be prepped for a collapse – guns, homegrown produce, shelter – but not for the amount of bloodshed and desperation of people willing to do anything they can to survive.
The sad part is I wanted to like this movie. It’s about finding strength in a community stricken by paranoia in a doomsday prepper situation. I appreciated the subversion of certain alpha male tropes, like the ‘lone wolf’ archetype and refusal to let the owner of the mansion succumb to apathy, despite looking like the prime target for a MAGA commercial.
But as well-intentioned Homestead is, it lacks the depth to handle commenting on the human condition, with an even funnier dedication to making their apocalyptic situation look like a country music video with how certain scenes are shot. Pretty, but ultimately too polished for the story it’s trying to tell.
When the main leads speak about how to prepare for food shortages in the upcoming winter, it’s through clunky exposition rather than through the voice of the characters, as if the original author was excited to show off their knowledge they gleaned off wikipedia articles.
Homestead, while earnest and well-meaning, fails to resonate as a cinematic experience, and sits more comfortably at home as a TV pilot with a somewhat impressive budget.
read less