Judas And The Black Messiah Review: An Intense, Timely Look At Racial Injustice
- naterichard98
- Feb 9, 2021
- 2 min read
DIRECTED BY: SHAKA KING STARRING: DANIEL KALUUYA, LAKEITH STANFIELD, & JESSE PLEMONS
RATED R FOR VIOLENCE AND PERVASIVE LANGUAGE
LENGTH: 126 MINUTES
It's a bit surprising that there hasn't been a filmed centered around Fred Hampton until now, the revolutionary chairman to the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party certainly has quite the legacy. Though as current events have unfolded this past year, this felt like the most appropriate time for the film to release. The film also has quite the team behind it with Ryan Coogler producing and a cast that includes the Oscar-nominated star of Get Out: Daniel Kaluuya as Hampton as well as top-level talent from the likes of LaKeith Stanfield, Jesse Plemons, Martin Sheen, and Ashton Sanders. The film recently had it's world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and has it earned itself rave reviews and has even been heralded as a major awards contender.
Instead of being a standard biopic centering around Hampton's life, Judas and the Black Messiah focuses on the final days of Hampton's life and the events leading up to his murder. The film primarily focuses on William O'Neal (Stanfield), a petty criminal who is caught by the authorities, who agrees to work as informant to the FBI in order to infiltrate the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party and take down Hampton (Kaluuya). The further O'Neal gets involved with the Black Panthers the more he realizes just how backwards and sinister the FBI's plot against Hampton truly is.
King directs Judas as if it's a blockbuster, complete with intense and expertly choreographed set pieces, broad and sweeping cinematography, all while maintaining the visual style of a prestige drama. This could have easily been a film that lacks a sense of style, but thankfully King delivers a film that really shows his strengths as a filmmaker. He might just be one of the most promising directors working in the business.
Kaluuya gives his most impressive performance to date as Hampton, he completely transforms himself into the Black Panther chairman and truly shines in every single scene he's in. Stanfield is equally as great as O'Neal and delivers a performance that is just as worthy of awards consideration. Dominique Fishback also gives quite the impressive performance as Hampton's girlfriend Deborah and delivers one of the film's most heartbreaking monologues in a beautiful fashion.
The film does start off a bit too fast, while it's definitely engaging, it really feels that the build-up to the main core of the story is rushed, almost as if it's expecting the audience to already know the background information surrounding the events that this film is based off of. The film then starts to slow way down during the second act, which causes the film to lose some of it's momentum. Ultimately the film picks itself back up for a intense and powerful third act, that will definitely leave an impact on the audience.
Judas and the Black Messiah is not only an expertly made film, but it's also a vital film for the era we're living in. From King's direction, to the central performances, Judas is a film that will certainly get people talking.
4/5 Stars
Judas and the Black Messiah comes to theaters and HBO Max starting February 12.
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