Search This Blog

Saturday, May 8, 2021

Judas And The Black Messiah (2021)

Set in 1968 Chicago, a petty thief (Lakeith Stanfield) is arrested but instead of being prosecuted, he's approached by an FBI agent (Jesse Plemons) to infiltrate the Black Panther party and act as an informant. Co-written and directed by Shaka King, this is a riveting film from start to finish chronicling a disturbing injustice and cold blooded assassination perpetuated by the FBI and Chicago police. Superbly acted by Stanfield and Daniel Kaluuya as Fred Hampton whose Oscar nominations for supporting actor are inexplicable as they are both co-leads and should have (deservingly) been in the best actor category! Though the film has its share of flaws, Plemons is so obvious that he may as well have "Evil" tattooed on his forehead and the movie veers dangerously close to sentiment in some scenes, it's an intense film experience. The film is aided immeasurably by the mood setting cinematography of Sean Bobbitt (also Oscar nominated) and an excellent score by Mark Isham and Craig Harris. With Dominique Fishback, Martin Sheen, Ashton Sanders and Algee Smith. 

No comments:

Post a Comment