OVP: Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)

Film: Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)

Stars: Daniel Kaluuya, LaKeith Stanfield, Jesse Plemons, Dominique Fischback, Ashton Sanders, Martin Sheen

Director: Shaka King

Oscar History: 6 nominations/2 wins (Best Picture, Supporting Actor-LaKeith Stanfield, Supporting Actor-Daniel Kaluuya*, Cinematography, Original Screenplay, Original Song-"Fight for You"*)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

As I mentioned yesterday, the Oscar nominations are less-than-a-week away, and as a result I'm spending all of this week profiling the final 2021 films that I need to see that are in serious Oscar contention (any OVP films that I haven't profiled/seen post-Monday from 2020/21 will be given top priority so we have as many conversations before the ceremony about the year as possible, as it's always more fun to discuss while they're top-of-mind).  Perhaps no film is more certain to be nominated come Monday in a major category (that I've somehow missed until today) than Judas and the Black Messiah.  Armed with a recent Golden Globe win for Best Supporting Actor, the film has gained much attention for the work of lead (yeah, we'll get to the category fraud in a second) actor Daniel Kaluuya's work, but I was curious what the film itself would be like, as there has been less attention given to that aspect of the movie.  As I found out, this might be because the film, while good, doesn't have the same stylistic daring as what Kaluuya is bringing to his performance.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is set in the late 1960's, and features Bill O'Neal (Stanfield), a car-jacker who is caught but given an out if he takes it by FBI Agent Roy Mitchell (Plemons).  O'Neal can join the Black Panther Party, and serve as an informant, specifically on Fred Hampton (Kaluuya), the organization's leader & someone whose rising popularity has scared people in the FBI who are attempting to stymie the Civil Rights movement.  Once he joins, Bill moves up fast, but also clearly develops an admiration for Hampton & his fellow Black Panthers, making the work he's doing with the FBI (which he's blackmailed into continuing to do) all the more complicated.  The FBI is misappropriating justice, killing members of the Panthers through nefarious & "in the name of the law" ways, and toward the end of the film J. Edgar Hoover (Sheen), worried about what an imprisoned Fred Hampton might do (and potentially gain even more followers), calls a hit on Hampton using information that he has gained through O'Neal.  The result is that Hampton dies at the hands of the FBI, and while O'Neal halfheartedly tries to quit the Panthers, he continues to inform for payment, and commits suicide after this is announced in a documentary.

The film is a damning indictment of the criminal justice system in the United States, and the way that law enforcement will use its power to stop nonviolent free speech if it's a threat to their power.  This isn't new-we saw that last year with the George Floyd protests & the way that police officers attacked citizens exercising their first amendment rights.  Continuing to show this through a medium as expansive as cinema is a worthwhile endeavor, and I'm glad the film was made.

This is a case, though, where the message is important but the film doesn't always succeed.  Judas has a good cast, but it doesn't use its cast as well as it ought.  LaKeith Stanfield would be one of 3-4 actors I'd list if I had to name one of the most exciting performers in pictures today-he's just a powerhouse talent, and a total chameleon onscreen.  That being said, there's not enough to his Bill O'Neal for my taste, not enough insight into what he's feeling.  This wouldn't have been a problem if they'd just ended the movie, but adding in that O'Neal continued to inform & then committed suicide over the end titles invites you to realize you don't know enough about his character to really have an opinion.  The reality is that only Kaluuya is given a proper range in his work for us to understand his motivations onscreen.  Kaluuya is the lead (this is a co-lead film, and it's laughable that he's going supporting...when he's nominated for the OVP, he'll lose a point off of his score as a result), but that's one of the only complaints I have about him being highlighted here.  His Fred is so young & so confident that you'd expect him to come across as naive or foolhardy (movies frequently confusing youthful exuberance for impetuousness), but Kaluuya plays him as a man with a longterm strategy, someone who wants to be important and give the people a better life.  This combination makes his ending even more tragic-losing not just a young man, but what might've been.