Danielle Deadwyler is one of the most captivating screen actors working today, bringing visceral, intense emotion to her performances in “Till” and “The Piano Lesson,” and elevating schlocky genre fare like “The Woman in the Yard” and “Carry-On.” But not even Deadwyler can save the dystopian action-horror film “40 Acres,” despite her Herculean efforts.

The feature directorial debut of music video director R.T. Thorne, “40 Acres” is a tale of apocalyptic struggle steeped in Canadian history. Deadwyler stars as tough-as-nails Hailey Freeman, a military vet and descendant of American runaway slaves who settled in Canada in the 19th century. After a “fungal pandemic” decimated the animal biosphere, resulting in civil war and famine, Hailey and her blended family have survived living in seclusion thanks to hard work and strict protocols. She and her partner Galen (Michael Greyeyes) live in relative peace with their four children, growing their own food and sniping any interlopers who show up on their property.

Hailey’s methods might keep her family safe, but they also put her at odds with her son Emanuel, or Manny (Kataem O’Connor) with whom she has a complex relationship. There is no destabilizing force like teenage rebellion, and Manny is bored, restless and interested in possibly meeting some girls (other than his sisters). When he balks at killing a young female intruder, we know that Manny might be a problem when it comes to his family’s security, which grows increasingly tenuous.

Every night, Hailey sits in her fortified basement bunker, checking in with neighbors via shortwave radio, and many have gone silent, with rumors of “flesh eaters” on the hunt. The ultimate crack in the wall that lets the evil into the Freeman farm is a predictable one, against which Manny has no resolve: a pretty girl (Milcania Diaz-Rojas) who turns up at their fence, asking for help.

Coming from music videos, Thorne knows how to maximize aesthetics on a budget, and “40 Acres” is heavily stylized, with a desaturated color palette during daylight and high-contrast lighting in night scenes. Drone shots capture the isolated, rural farm in context, and Manny’s moody roaming in the surrounding forest, listening to De La Soul cassette tapes on his Walkman. There are some beautiful shots, especially at night, but throughout, the color correction is pushed a bit to the extreme, perhaps overcompensating for what might have been budgetary restrictions.

The script, by Thorne, Glenn Taylor and Lora Campbell, is not particularly deep beyond it’s surface world-building. With a sustained slow-burn suspense, “40 Acres” never manages to break out of its tense dynamic, either. Tightly wound Deadwyler nearly vibrates off the screen as the high-strung and hyper-vigilant Hailey. She is riveting, but alone on an island in the film. O’Connor doesn’t have the chops to hold his own opposite her, and Greyeyes is relegated to a role that serves as a warm, often amusing presence, tonally at odds with Deadwyler’s full-bore performance.

It’s fascinating to see an actor of Deadwyler’s caliber playing in the action world, sinking her teeth into leading lady roles that allow her to display her grit and fighting skills. These characters have agency, and Deadwyler carries a kind of intelligence that makes it seem like Hailey is the only one making all the right decisions, even as everyone around her makes the wrong ones. If only the rest of “40 Acres” rose to her level, it could have been one of the most interesting genre films of the year. Alas, despite it’s intense violence, it ends up feeling more like a made-for-TV thriller of the week than anything else.

‘40 Acres’

2 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for strong bloody violent content and language)

Running time: 1:53

How to watch: In theaters July 2

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By ADRIAN SAINZ

It was about 1 a.m. on the Fourth of July when the facilities manager at a central Texas summer camp saw water from the Guadalupe River steadily rising amid a deluge of rain.

Aroldo Barrera notified his boss, who had been monitoring reports of the storms approaching Presbyterian Mo-Ranch Assembly, a recreation destination where an intercultural youth conference had been called off early just hours earlier.

Despite an absence of warning by local authorities, camp officials acted quickly on their own, relocating about 70 children and adults staying overnight in a building near the river. With the kids safe, camp leaders including President and CEO Tim Huchton were able to avoid the catastrophe that hit at least one other camp near Hunt, where the 500-acre Mo-Ranch is located.

“They helped them pack up,” Lisa Winters, communications director for Mo-Ranch, told The Associated Press on Sunday. “They got them up, they got them out, put them up on higher ground.”

Other places fared much worse.

Flash floods that roared through Texas Hill Country before dawn on Friday decimated the landscape near the river, leaving at least 79 dead and many others unaccounted for. As of Sunday, 10 girls from nearby Camp Mystic remained missing, officials said. Rescue and recovery teams combed the area for them and others still unaccounted for days after the flood.

The decision to leave added to the mounting accounts of how camps and residents in the area say they were left to make their own decisions in the absence of warnings or notifications from the county.

Local authorities have faced heavy scrutiny and at times have deflected questions about how much warning they had or were able to provide the public, saying the reviews will come later. For now, they say they’re focusing on rescues. Officials have said they did not expect such an intense downpour, the equivalent of months’ worth of rain for the area.

Mo-Ranch suffered no loss of life, said Winters, adding that the camp received no direct information from county officials about flooding that could — and did — take lives.

“We had no warning this was coming,” Winters said, adding that it would have been “devastating” had camp officials not been looking at weather reports and the rising river waters.

Mo-Ranch “saw it coming well in advance and they did something about it,” she said.

By about 7 a.m. Friday, camp staff began contacting children’s parents, telling them their kids were safe.

“They knew that those parents would wake up and just see all this media footage of kids lost, or the river,” Winters said. “They’re like, ‘tell your parents you’re OK’ … We made sure every single guest, every single kid, was accounted for.”

The camp, which sits on higher ground than some in the area, suffered some damage, but not as significant as others, Winters said.

“The buildings don’t matter,” she said. “I can’t imagine losing children, or people.”

She said a sturdy aluminum kayak was wrapped around a tree “like a pretzel.”

“That just shows you the sheer power of the water. I don’t know how any people could survive. We’re blessed,” she said.

The camp remained closed Sunday and Mo-Ranch was working on ways to help other camps affected by the flood.

“We’re in a difficult place because others are really suffering,” said Winters, who became emotional during an interview. “We’re a sisterhood of camps. We take care of each other.”

Faced with a one- and two-run deficits, the Twins were able to battle back twice against the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday afternoon. Faced with a three-run deficit in the 10th inning, they were unable to pull off another rally.

After Harrison Bader’s game-tying, two-run home run in the eighth inning electrified the Target Field crowd and eventually forced extra innings, reliever Justin Topa gave up three runs in the top of the 10th inning. The Twins’ response wasn’t enough, and they dropped the series finale against the Rays, 7-5, on Sunday afternoon.

Minnesota Twins’ Harrison Bader gestures after hitting a two-run home run during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Sunday, July 6, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

After a trio of the Twins’ top bullpen arms had already been used, Topa allowed a go-ahead double to Yandy Diaz, which scored the automatic runner. A second run scored on a sacrifice bunt, and Topa himself threw the ball away trying to nab the runner at first. That runner, Jose Caballero, would score the Rays’ third run of the inning.

All of that came after some eighth-inning drama in which the Rays scored a pair of runs on two batted balls that didn’t leave the infield and Bader, fresh off the bench, tied it the with his third home run of the weekend.

The Twins had jumped ahead in the first inning when Byron Buxton hit a home run to get things going. They held that lead until the third, when starter Joe Ryan allowed a solo shot to Taylor Walls, but they wouldn’t lead again after that. An inning later, the Rays took a lead on a Jonathan Aranda RBI single.

That was all the Rays would manage against Ryan, who threw six innings of two-run ball, walking one and striking out eight as he recorded yet another quality start. The Twins came back for the first time in the sixth, using a great slide by Trevor Larnach to help him evade a tag at the plate to tie the game up.

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Police in Apple Valley are asking people who live near where a man was found covered in blood on a sidewalk early Sunday to check their cameras for suspicious activity.

At about 3:12 a.m., Sunday, July 6, police were called to the intersection of Pennock Avenue and 138th Street on reports of a man on the sidewalk. When they arrived they found the man was covered in blood and had an injury to his chest. Despite lifesaving measures, the man was ultimately pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said.

The death is under investigation and the man’s identity will be released at a later date by the Hennepin County medical examiner’s office. Detectives ask anyone who lives near the intersection who has exterior cameras to review them for any activity between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. Sunday morning.

Anyone who sees any activity on their camera footage is asked to contact the Apple Valley Police Department at (952) 322-2323.

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