History Without Sugarcoating
Judas and the Black Messiah (2021), directed by Shaka King, is a film that's loud, charged and hits you in all the right places. This is the story of Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party, and William O'Neal, the FBI informant paid to infiltrate and ultimately topple his empire. This is one of those morally gray films. Even though you have a spineless FBI informant, betraying his people for his own interests, you can't exactly side with the 'revolutionaries' either. The Black Panther Party is one filled with corruption, abuse and torture and we see it on full display. We're not watching history from a rosy, safe distance, it is as real as it gets. Daniel Kaluuya as Fred Hampton delivers a career defining, one of the most passionate in decades. He does not play Hampton as a saint or a symbol. He plays him as a man, a brilliant, funny and deeply human man, which makes his role all the more devastating. As the title states, this is a story about betrayal and about a government who will do anything to get their control over the people back. That fact alone makes this a furious watch.
source: imdb.com
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Shaka King directs this film with a confidence and a command that is remarkable for a relatively young filmmaker. Sean Bobbitt's cinematography is gritty and immersive, pulling you into the streets of late 1960s Chicago. We can see an intimacy in the frames that feels almost documentary in its texture. Now, the score, it's marvelous. Nothing struck me harder than the soundtrack for this film. It is surprising, it makes itself known, it's not subtle at all. Mark Isham and Craig Harris composed a masterpiece that draws deeply from the soul and jazz traditions of the era, giving the film this constant undercurrent of both beauty and improvised chaos. Lakeith Stanfield as William O'Neal is as nervous as ever. He's done great in those kinds of roles before and he does so again. He shines as the weakling who you can't be mad at for being the weakling. He plays a man trapped between survival and conscience and he makes you feel every inch of that tension without ever asking for your sympathy, but earning it every time nonetheless. Jesse Plemons as FBI Agent Roy Mitchell brings bureaucratic heartlessness to his role that makes it one of the most frightening of his career.
A Story Just As Relevant Tomorrow:
Judas and the Black Messiah is not a film you enjoy in the traditional sense. It is a film you experience and then carry around with you. Fred Hampton was building something real and meaningful and the people in power were so afraid of it that they burned it down while he slept. Kaluuya took home a richly deserved Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance, though the category placement remains one of the stranger decisions in recent awards history given that he is unambiguously the lead of the film. This movie will grow in stature with every passing year. As long as the conversations it is about remain unresolved, and they will for a long time, this film will always have something urgent and necessary to say. Shaka King announced himself here as one of the most important voices in American cinema and the industry needs to give him everything he asks for next.
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