Just fantastic. Shaka King takes a crucial moment in history that could feel so cloying and unfocused in the hands of a less careful director, and gives us a smart, uncompromising tragedy about fear and power that properly portrays Bill O’Neal’s story as both a slave rebellion and an act of war. Lakeith Stanfield and Daniel Kaluuya are exactly as great as you think they’re gonna be, if not better, but Shaka King’s name better reverberate through the halls of every studio after this.

Fred Hampton was 21 years old when he was murdered by the FBI. Twenty-one years old.

if your ensemble has lakeith stanfield in it, it’s gonna be a good film. devastating from beginning to end.

in my opinion we do not have a more entrancing, magnetic, fizzling, romantic, riveting, endlessly watchable actor in our ("our") generation than Daniel Kaluuya

In a perfect world this would win Best Picture over The Trial of the Chicago 7

i agree jesse plemons, we should give lakeith stanfield an academy award!!!

Fuck, man. What else is there to say?

SUNDANCE 2021: film #25

“takes a thief to catch a thief”

SO well made. the performances here are on another level and all merit mentioning but i think my favorite was dominique fishback who brings both vulnerability and strength to the role. my money is on daniel for the oscar

Career topping performances for both Kaluuya and Stanfield which is impressive considering how amazing their careers already are.

62

A thrilling document that ultimately fails to provide a greater complexity for the two leads. Mostly I think the film isn't ambitious enough. It works as an introduction, but I would've liked another thirty minutes or so in character detail. Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield do the best with what they were given, however, and the craft of Shaka King's direction is riveting.

Kaluuya's tremendous performance here pretty much makes up for O'Neal being somewhat underwritten. I get making him a character of ambivalence but Stanfield seems to be emotionally pitched at a guy whose psyche gradually begins engaging in open revolt but whose historical and narrative actions don't line up with that. This is brutally timely, though, in a way that doesn't feel like it's the project's sole priority. I just wish it had been grittier, more confrontational, but in any case it's altogether striking and energetic.

Shaka King's follow up to the wonderful Shrill is gorgeously photographed and well staged. It is the two central performances, however, that steal the show. Kaluuya's fiery performance is well deserved of its praise, but I found Lakeith Stanfield's nervous energy drew my attention even more. The informant role can be tricky because it has been seen so much before, but he just nails the highs and lows so well.

Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.

I’m upset that I had never heard about Fred Hampton until now. Judas and the Black Messiah is probably my biggest reason as to why we still need theaters. I wish I had been able to see this with a packed crowd in a dark room.

While the film has excellent performances across the board, Kaluuya and Stanfield are phenomenal here. Kaluuya deserves every award he is bound to get after this.
Films like this, that stay with you, are few and far between and really need to be celebrated. In the same sense as the divisive I Care A Lot, we are torn between right and wrong, and who we root for throughout the film. The Anti-heroes here are so well thought out and written that you'll be thinking about them long after the credits roll.

Very good Hollywood style biopic anchored by Kaluuya’s and Stanfield’s excellent performances. It’s very digestible with Sheen’s mustache twirling performance as Hoover, it’s very A to B sans nuance storytelling. It’s a very important subject matter and I understand the desire to reach as many eyes as possible, it just feels like it could be more exciting.
It’s a good movie worth a watch and the awards considerations it will garner, I’m slightly disappointed because it could have been a great film.

fuck america

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

perfection

that soundtrack, damn! Daniel n Lakeith did it again

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

I wanted more character depth from fred hampton especially and more focus on the black panther party itself as opposed to the fbi, as I found those sequences less captivating. Also younger actors would have emphasised the harrowing nature of the true events as hampton was 21 when he died and kaluuya is 32, not to say his performance wasn’t incredible.
Critisisms aside, this film is so important and beautifully made. Tragic from beginning to end. Fred and Deborah’s relationship was framed beautifully and made the ending that much more devastating.

É um filme bem burocrático e frustrante pela possibilidade de uma cinebiografia mais interessante do Fred Hampton. Gosto de como o Shaka King capta o líder dos Panteras Negra pela lente da posição messiânica que ele de fato tinha, mas o faz pela via da intimidade e do que ele tem de melhor como líder e como figura. Se a reivindicação passa pelo “Power to people”, então nada mais justo do que mostrar como Hampton era de fato um homem do povo.

Mais uma vez o LaKeith Stanfield e o Daniel Kaluuya mostram os talentos que são em duas atuações opostas e complementares. É dos filmes que cresce no retrato preciso da figura forte que retrata, mas que sente falta de uma mão mais forte do Shaka King no comando da direção.

powerful