Netflix's Mudbound is its best shot at an Oscar win

Netflix films Okja, First They Killed My Father and The Meyerowitz Stories will all vie for Oscar glory this year. But the newly released Mudbound is the streaming giant's best shot at a win.

Co-written and directed by Dee Rees, the story of two families living in a racially segregated town in rural Mississippi in the 1940s is rewarding both in scale and emotion. At the end of World War II, young men from both families return home. But neither the privileged white captain Jamie (Garrett Hedlund) nor the black sergeant Ronsel (Jason Mitchell)-thrown together by their common experience of war-is happy with what he finds.

Jamie finds his elder brother Henry (Joe Clark) struggling with the farm and his family. And Ronsel has trouble readjusting to his second-class status in segregated America after fighting in Europe. "Over there I was a liberator," Ronsel tells Jamie as the two bond over alcohol, cigarettes and war stories. In America he feels captive to his race.

Adapted from Hillary Jordan's novel of the same name, Mudbound is not only about the former soldiers' readjustment woes. It's also the story of their families struggling to seek a better life in a rough environment. With a fine ensemble cast that includes Carey Mulligan as Henry's wife Laura and Mary J. Blige as Ronsel's mother Florence, Rees creates a compelling portrait of the messy life in the agrarian south.

Rees and co-writer Virgil Williams ably weave in passages from Jordan's novel in voiceovers that reveal the innermost thoughts of the characters. As a director, Rees doesn't resort to household theatrics and extreme violence to expose the racial divide, and she treats her characters, even the flawed ones, with tenderness.

Her subtlety means that Mudbound isn't as riveting a watch as Jordan Peele's horror hit Get Out or as disturbing as Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave. But it's a powerful addition to films that raise questions about America's race problem.