{"id":47501,"date":"2021-02-16T12:35:29","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T17:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=47501"},"modified":"2021-02-16T12:35:40","modified_gmt":"2021-02-16T17:35:40","slug":"judas-and-the-black-messiah-movie-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2021\/02\/judas-and-the-black-messiah-movie-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Judas and the Black Messiah Movie Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Bob Garver<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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            One good thing about the year 2021 in movies is that we might get two Oscar seasons. Usually the deadline to qualify for a year\u2019s Oscar race is the end of the calendar year, so December is often loaded with awards-chasers. But because there were so many releases pushed back in 2020, the Academy has decided to extend the deadline two months, so last-minute Oscar bait is actually opening now, in February 2021. Hopefully the system can be restored by the end of the year, meaning that we\u2019ll get one margin of Oscar eligibility that lasts fourteen months followed by one that lasts ten months. \u201cJudas and the Black Messiah\u201d is a film that is shrewdly positioning its release date at the end of the fourteen-month frame. And it is wise to do so, because I can see this film doing very well in the Oscar race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The film follows the Black Panther movement in Chicago in the late 1960\u2019s. Illinois State Chairman Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) is spouting the kind of fiery rhetoric that could lead to social and political upheaval. What he wants is nothing short of a revolution. This naturally freaks out those dedicated to maintaining the status quo, like the FBI, led by J. Edgar Hoover (Martin Sheen, in yet another onscreen depiction of Hoover that involves horrendous makeup). Agent Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemmons) taps lowlife car thief William O\u2019Neal (LaKeith Stanfield) to infiltrate Hampton\u2019s circle and serve as an informant in return for dropping some criminal charges. Technically the betrayer O\u2019Neal is the main character of the film, much like how the antagonist Salieri is the main character in \u201cAmadeus,\u201d minus the whole \u201cinsane jealousy\u201d angle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Hampton is under no delusion that he\u2019s not under constant surveillance or that his life isn\u2019t constantly in danger. He knows he\u2019ll probably be assassinated like fellow leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. But he wants to make a difference while he can, setting up educational programs for disadvantaged children and organizing warring gangs into the Rainbow Coalition. When his friends sense that his days are numbered, they give him some money to flee the country, but he turns it over to a comrade, telling him to start a health clinic. This is much to the chagrin of his pregnant girlfriend Deborah (Dominique Fishback), who worries that Hampton is acting without considering the consequences to his unborn child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            O\u2019Neal is very much taken with the charismatic Hampton, and as a fellow African-American, agrees with much of what he says about white oppression. But Mitchell warns him that Hampton\u2019s way is not one of peace, and it can only end badly. Also, he\u2019s still got those charges to work off. The time for him to play Judas to Hampton\u2019s Black Messiah is nigh. O\u2019Neal is so affected by the role he has to play that he\u2019s practically crying when he offers Hampton a tainted drink. A barely-conscious Hampton is later assassinated (sorry if that\u2019s a spoiler for a film whose very title equates Hampton with the most famous martyr in history) in a manner sure to draw comparisons to the domestic murder of Breonna Taylor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            At the heart of \u201cJudas and the Black Messiah\u201d is the fully-dedicated Kaluuya performance, virtually a lock for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, if not the win. I could see Fishback slipping into the Best Supporting Actress race as well, and even the movie for Best Picture. I haven\u2019t seen many of the direct-to-streaming awards contenders, so I don\u2019t know where this film falls in relation to them, but this is certainly a film that screams \u201caward-worthy.\u201d In fact, it\u2019s better than any film released in the year 2020 that I reviewed. And it\u2019s only February. I always recommend seeing movies in theaters for the sake of supporting theaters, but now there\u2019s a movie that\u2019s worth going out of your way to see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: A-<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJudas and the Black Messiah\u201d is playing in theaters and available for streaming on HBO Max. The film is rated R for violence and pervasive language. Its running time is 126 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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