2/14/21 - Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) - 7/10

Kaluuya is pure fire on screen; like a Neolithic blaze enrapturing and warming the shivering proto humans gathered around it. It exudes the heat to enliven while carrying with it its dangerous wrath. It is unique and transformative; a beacon to lead the future out of darkness of cinematic prehistory. THAT is the level at which he brings to life the gone all too young Fred Hampton, despite the character on the page being decidedly less than three dimensional.

Playing off Kaluya well, with jittery undecided eyes, is the main character os LaKeith Stanfield. With a role right out of Infernal Affairs, he sucks us into the tense and fraught journey of this low-time thief-turned-informant militant. Our understanding wavers as Stanfield approaches each tense situation as a man whose breath is half held at any given moment. He deftly lets the tension hover.

The film exists in shaded views, be it in the muted lighting, tenses tones, or the imposing shadow from Plemons & Sheen’s governmental presence. Always in darkness and almost in a gloom, it all hangs heavy.

A distinctly quality experience, though some of the historical tone and details come off as muddled. It is a bit tangled but the expressiveness and intensity of our leads drive this film as one to see.