Judas and the Black Messiah Movie Review

Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)

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Written by: Will Berson & Shaka King (screenplay by), Will Berson & Shaka King and Kenneth Lucas & Keith Lucas (story by) 
Directed by: Shaka King
Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, LaKeith Stanfield, Jesse Plemons, Dominique Fishback, Ashton Sanders, Lil Rel Howery, Martin Sheen
Rated: R

Plot
The story of Fred Hampton, Chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party, and his fateful betrayal by FBI informant William O'Neal.

Verdict
Fact based movies often rely on the history, the event, or the person to carry the movie. You could know nothing about the real life counterparts or events and this movie would still make an impact. It's a good movie and that's not because of the underlying themes. In this case the history bolsters what seems unbelievable. Performances are strong, directing is assured, and this movie does film making right.
Watch it.

Review
I love the title of this movie. It's going to rile up certain people, but they wouldn't have watched this movie anyway.

This doesn't hide from the viewer that Bill (LaKeith Stanfield) is an FBI informant.  The FBI force him into it after he impersonates an FBI agent to steal a car. I wondered if part of the movie would be commentary on how informants are used and abused. No matter how much Bill did or would have done for the FBI, it would never be enough. He'd never get to stop.

LaKeith Stanfield plays Bill O'Neal.

From his first scene Kaluuya delivers an impressive performance as Fred Hampton. You can feel his performance. Kaluuya is always good (Widows, Get Out), but this is one of this best roles. Hampton amasses power in the form of people supporting him. He's not uniting people to form an army, his goal is to help people. He unites Chicago, and that scares the FBI. J. Edgar Hoover is seen a few times. He's always looking for a way to bring Hampton down no matter what.

This is a bit of an undercover genre movie. Tension permeates in the form of Bill's gambit and whether he'll get caught, with Hampton trying to unite gangs of Chicago, and the FBI wanting to bring Hampton down.

I wondered if Bill would feel remorse. He doesn't like what he's doing, but he feels trapped. The alternative is jail. The movie doesn't touch upon his feelings until the end.

Daniel Kaluuya plays Fred Hampton.

This is really well directed, and the time period feels authentic. Based on a true story movies often lean heavily on what we already know about characters to carry the movie. Even if this wasn't about Hampton, it's a powerful story. There are a lot of movies that have a message, but that message often carries the movie. That's not the case here. While the message is strong, this is just a good movie.

The images and text cards at the end are powerful. They often seem superfluous when implemented, but in this movie it really puts a fine point on the themes of the movie.