KRR: So, 'Judas and the Black Messiah' Revolutionizes the Biopic Formula. (Plus, 'Minari' and 'Saint Maud' Finally Came Out!)

How does one make a movie about someone as singularly explosive and anti-establishment as Fred Hampton, the Chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party, the energetic leader who in 1969 was assassinated by the FBI before he could shake Chicago with a revolution? Shaka King's answer: You don't.

Shaka King is the man behind Judas and the Black Messiah, the new bombshell biopic exploring the Black Panther Movement, Fred Hampton, and the man who sold him out, William O'Neal. It is a story so entrenched in politics, racism, and personal struggle that at first glance it seems to be too much to fit on the big screen. Nowadays especially, it seems like stories such as O'Neal and Hamptons' would be reserved for television - a Emmy-winning limited series perhaps. King, however, finds a way to tell these two men's stories with depth and empathy by turning away from conventional biopic methods. He didn't make a movie about William O'Neal or Fred Hampton. Instead, Judas and the Black Messiah is a movie about the movement and messages around them. 

It is about the struggle for black liberation, a goal these two men are trying to reach in starkly different ways. And while the history of that struggle is already written, Judas and the Black Messiah is still as fresh and thrilling as any fiction recently brought to life; thus, immediately making it the first important must-watch of the new year. 

 

-SPOILERS AHEAD-

The story of Fred Hampton is not often taught to the American public, making Judas and the Black Messiah not just a film, but a history lesson. While it certainly takes some liberties with the exact history of events, there are no better actors to spotlight the story's characters and teach audiences that lesson than Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield. 

Reuniting only a few years after Jordan Peele's masterpiece, Get Out, Stanfield and Kaluuya play opposite each other as the titular Judas and Black Messiah. While both are frequently brilliant - Kaluuya had a breakout performance in the aforementioned Peele project and backed it up with a powerful performance in 2018's Widows, while Stanfield has made his name known through Atlanta and the 2018 sci-fi leftist film Sorry To Bother You - in Judas and the Black Messiah, both take their careers to new heights. That Kaluuya is able to channel the fiery charisma of Fred Hampton exemplifies why he is one of the best actors working today. And LaKeith Stanfield turns William O'Neal, a true villain, into a nuanced and often sympathetic character with the best performance of his career to date.

Good to see Kaluuya and Stanfield back on the big screen together.

While I could go on endlessly about the brilliance of Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield, I'll spare a moment to talk about the work being put in by the rest of the cast. Jesse Plemons plays O'Neal's FBI handler, Roy Mitchell - another villain who somehow comes off as not-entirely-evil thanks to Plemons' stellar nonverbal acting. Martin Sheen is in this movie as J. Edgar Hoover. Why? I don't know. My best guess is that he was the only person they could get to sit through the extensive make-up process to play one devilish person for ten minutes. While both Plemons and Sheen are great in their respective roles, the real third star of the film is Dominique Fishback, playing Akua Njeri (formerly Deborah Johnson), Fred Hampton's fiancée. Fishback is flat-out incredible. It is her portrayal of Njeri that brings out the softer side of Kaluuya's Hampton, a feat necessary to fully understand the complexities of the man; and, when the fateful assassination finally occurs at the end of the film, it is Dominique Fishback who carries the emotional burden. She may not play a title character, but she's as good as any in this film. 

The problem with the casting then lies not in what is being done on screen, but in who's doing it. There is no need to reiterate how stellar Stanfield and Kaluuya are, however by casting these two men, they age the characters up decades. Stanfield is 29 years old, Kaluuya 31. Their real-life counterparts though, were 17 and 21 respectively. O'Neal was a teenager, facing more than half a decade in prison, who had to make a terrible decision. Hampton was barely old enough to drink, while the federal government was plotting his assassination. It can be easy to forget how young these men truly were when watching Kaluuya and Stanfield, who both handle their characters with the maturity of grown men. I wouldn't change their performances or casting for the world, but it's an important note to remember when watching the film. Seventeen and twenty-one. Children on the precipice of revolution. 

Njeri had Hampton's heart, but Fishback has ours'.

Revolution is no understatement. The crux of Judas and the Black Messiah revolves around Fred Hampton's budding Rainbow Coalition, a union of Chicago street gangs and political revolutionaries of all creeds and color. This is the front where the war against their oppressors is fought, both peacefully and violently. The balance of rallies and warfare in Judas and the Black Messiah is unmatched, playing like a cross between Malcolm X's great oration and The Departed's stress-laden violence. 

The film's crown jewel - and the scene that best captures this balance - follows Fred Hampton's release from prison, where he hosts a rally and exclaims, "You can murder a revolutionary, but you can't murder revolution!" William O'Neal stands guard in front of Hampton. Akua Njeri chants along while crying. And nestled in the back of the crowd is Roy Mitchell, the FBI handler who makes a point to lock eyes with O'Neal. That's when it really hits home how dangerous and suffocating this situation was. As an audience, you feel equally for all three: support for Hampton's revolution, empathy for Njeri's concern, and sympathy for the impossible situation William O'Neal finds himself in. To juggle so many emotions in one scene shows the powerful filmmaking Shaka King is capable of.

This scene is going to remain in the running for best scene of the year, I promise you that.

If Shaka King will get to use that rare talent to make more important films remains to be seen. It can't go understated how miraculous and unlikely it is that Judas and the Black Messiah got made in the first place. Warner Brothers, a Hollywood corporation worth over six billion dollars, produced and released a movie about Fred Hampton and William O'Neal, a story only fifty years old of two young black revolutionaries, one of which was manipulated by the federal government to participate in the assassination of the other. Can you believe I just typed that sentence? This isn't the kind of movie that would have been made ten years ago. Who's to say if it would even have been made five years ago.

Luckily for audiences it was made, and it was made well. Powerful, gripping, and important: Rare that a film, especially a biopic, can be all three. Judas and the Black Messiah is just that though. It's defies the standard conventions of cradle-to-grave biopics by delivering a powerful message instead. Long may that message and the memory of Fred Hampton live.

There's a dark magic brewing behind Stanfield's eyes. He is perfect.

Judas and the Black Messiah KRR: 8.6/10

If you'll spare just a few more minutes of your time, there are two more movies that released in the last week that I want to touch on quickly: Saint Maud and Minari. Both are A24 films that went to limited screenings in 2020, but were just released to global audiences this month. I had the good fortune of seeing both before their release this February, but I've been saving my thoughts until the larger viewing body would have the opportunity to see them.

I'll start with Minari. This is a Korean-American family drama semi-based on filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung's own childhood growing up in rural middle America, and if you haven't already heard, it is absolutely phenomenal. Steven Yeun is going to go down as one of the best actors of his generation at this rate, and everyone on planet Earth should keep an eye out for whatever Lee Isaac Chung has in the works next. Truthfully, my KRR for Minari is probably too low, and I still feel awful for slotting this film in as my first honorable mention on my list of favorite films of 2020. For most others, I imagine it will go higher than #11. Deservedly so. 

Minari KRR: 8.8/10

A touching tribute to family and Arkansas, both of which I love dearly.

Saint Maud is as different as one film can get from Minari. Rose Glass' directorial debut horror film follows an overly pious nurse who becomes obsessed with saving her patient's soul. Light on plot and heavy on symbolism, Saint Maud is a deeply fucked up looked at the delusions of religion and psychosis at the heart of the savior complex. While there are certainly parts of the film that don't work for me - the rushed third act and sloppy world building, for example - there are just as many things that I do find really compelling. Morfydd Clark is terrifying in the titular role and Jennifer Ehle gives a great supporting performance (as always). While some moments are entirely forgettable, others leave you with a genuine fear that goes deeper than a stereotypical horror film's jump scare. If horror is your thing, Saint Maud is absolutely worth watching. Also, the ending is seared into my brain. Saint Maud is fucking twisted. 

Saint Maud KRR: 7.4/10 

Pictured above: The elevation one experiences after watching Saint Maud, Minari, and Judas and the Black Messiah within a week of each other.