What “Free State of Jones” Meant To Say”

When I put in for a review copy of Free State of Jones, I thought I’d end up just writing a standard review of Gary Ross’ film about the Southern Unionist and freedom fighter Newton Knight. I was completely 100% wrong, thus proving that I am a big dummy. Instead, I wrote about the terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad tumble the film takes at around the hour and twenty minute mark, when it takes a certain infamous racial epithet and tries to claim it for white people. That’s a bad look on an otherwise average film, and this long feature I wrote for Paste Magazine is what happens when you tickle Andy in the Bullshit Detection Center of his brain space. Take notes.