Judas and the Black Messiah Review

 

Judas and the Black Messiah is a biographical drama movie. The film is produced by MACRO, Participant, and Bron Creative and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. Judas and the Black Messiah is written by Shaka King, Will Berson, Kenny Lucas, and Keith Lucas and directed by Shaka King.

The story is it's the late 1960's and criminal William O'Neal (aka Bill) has yet again been captured by the cops. However, William gets a surprise when the FBI gives him an assignment. They want him to join the Black Panther Party and give them information on not only the group but their chairman, Fred Hampton.

Initial Reaction

Now at first I had no intention of seeing and/or reviewing this movie. But after doing some thinking I decided to give it a shot. I'm mean I'm always willing to watch movies that aren't related to superheroes or any other form of comic book movies.

Cons

My only real complaint is there really didn't seem like a balance between Bill's story and Fred's story. A matter of fact it's almost feels more like a Fred Hampton's movie, which is weird because I do believe the marketing was centered around Bill.

Middle Ground

I've got nothing to say. Let's move on.

Pros

One thing to praise the film for is the performances from Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield. They were both spectacular in this whether they were on their own, sharing a scene together, delivering their lines, or having to go by body language. Another thing to praise the film for is Shaka King's directing. Now I am not familiar with his work but after watching this movie I do want to go back and see what else he did. What I also liked about Judas and the Black Messiah the pacing. This is 2 hours and 6 minutes long and yet, it didn't really feel that way. For a majority of the film it just goes by. What also made this a great film was the cinematography. Not only was nicely done but it really made the film look and feel like we were in the late 60s. The last thing I'll give the movie credit for is how intense it is. And that's what I think is the best way to describe the movie intense.

Judas and the Black Messiah is pretty good. Kaluuya and Lakeith give amazing performances, King did a fantastic job directing, the pacing was on point for a good portion of the film, the cinematography was good, and I really liked the intensity of it all. My only real issue is there really should've been a balance between Bill and Fred.

My final rating is Great

Okay everyone I'm all done here. Come back on Thursday, Jan 18th for part two of Looking Back at the Films of 2020. Until then enjoy the rest of your day.