The Best Of Enemies (2019)

Set in 1971 North Carolina, a civil rights activist (Taraji P. Henson) faces off with the head (Sam Rockwell) of the local Ku Klux Klan over school integration. Based on the non fiction book BEST OF ENEMIES: RACE AND REDEMPTION IN THE NEW SOUTH by Osha Gray Davidson and directed by Robin Bissell. A movie with good intentions does not guarantee a good movie and while this movie's heart is in the right place, as cinema, it's a pretty flat piece of film making. Coming after last years BLACKKKLANSMAN, it seems like an also ran but even if Spike Lee's film hadn't come out last year, it's still weak. It's not a bad movie, far from it, in fact, it has the feel of a good TV movie made in the mid 1970s. Sam Rockwell is excellent but we've seen him give this performance before in THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING MISSOURI. To this film's credit, his conversion from racist to good guy takes longer and is more realistic than his instant change in BILLBOARDS. Henson isn't bad at all considering she's miscast. Isn't it about time we had a moratorium on thin actors in "fat" body suits? Wouldn't it be easier to cast larger actors? That aside, it really is such a powerful story that one can't help but be emotionally affected. I just wish it were a better film. With Anne Heche, Wes Bentley, Babou Ceesay and Bruce McGill.