Yeah I'm horrible at keeping promises especially new years resolution. Sorry about not keeping up this week I've been both sick and busy with school. Anyway instead of Bullshitting my way through apologies here's my review for a film I saw the much critically acclaimed Selma.
Selma is a film by Ava DuVernay (totally snubbed by the Oscars) starring David Oyelow as Dr. Martin Luther King during the Selma voting rights march. Also starring is Tom Wilkson as Lyndon B. Johnson, Wendell Price as Hosea Williams, Carmen Ejogo as Corretta Scott King and others.
I love this movie and to me it's basically perfect. The acting, the writing, the directing and everything down to the costumes is perfect.
Selma is not so much a biopic of Martin Luther King as much as a look into the civil rights movement itself, specifically the Selma voting marches itself. There is actually a long stretch of the film where Dr. King is at home with his family while we follow the first march (most perfect scene in the film) and the other characters. It's interesting prospective into the political dealings behind this and what everyone had to do to get the right. It makes the film unique as oppose to what we would usually expect from a Dr. Luther King movie. It also shows different perspectives of the civil rights movement at the time as it shows the perspective of white people (without doing the whole really nice white hero that other civil rights films tend to do) and black people, even showing some of them didn't like Dr. King.
First Ava DuVernary directing is magnificent, her style is very intense and it sucks you into the narrative. She is not afraid to show many very dark moments and get really up close and personnel with them and stays on them to allow the audience a chance to really soak in what's going on. She also does something that no other film has ever done, made me like narration. Unless it's a documentary narration in a film feels like crutch to explain something either the director or writer knows how to explain subtly. Yet here it used twice in two of my favorite and my opinion most perfect scenes: the first is the first march, after the police start attacking the marches no one talks except for one journalist who narrates what happens like a news reports while we see on screen what happened is both creative and absorbing as it lets you fell the impact of what's going on as if you were watching this in your home in that time era. The second is the last five minutes which is inter-spliced with footage of the actual march which feels so uplifting and so inspiring you can't help but cheer for Dr. King and the people who worked so hard to get to that point. All in all Ava DuVernay deserved the Oscar nomination not Clint Eastwood.
The film also uses a FBI report framing device which is very cool and creative especially with the introduction of J. Edgar Hoover.
The script is also very good especially when you find out they had no rights to any of Martin Luther King's speeches and had to make up a lot of things and for a historical drama to do that they did a very excellent job as the dialogue is both human and inspiring at the same time. David Oyelow as Dr. Martin Luther King is phenominal while he does show the very human and very real side of Dr. Martin Luther King (which I love whenever historical dramas or biopics do that) but also show this was a very righteous and intelligent man wanting to do the right thing his way. Other highlights include Wendell Price as Hosea Williams who does really well and Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King who does a very human and relatable portrayal which I can see happening to anyone if their husband was in this type of situation. This film also has many great performance but those were the ones that stood out to me.
There was some controversy about the inaccuracies of Lyndon B. Johnson's role in the civil rights movement in which he was actually pretty support of it and actually did a lot but unlike something like downplaying Alan Turing's sexuality in imitation game it's not a big part of the larger story and at the end it does show him growing a back bone.
Overall this is a fantastic movie that should not be missed, one of the best films of the year if not the best and I suggest seeing this over American Sniper any day.
Although I do recommend not taking anyone under the age of fourteen to see this movie because their is some intense stuff in this film right off the bat and even one scene that right now could be considered too relevant. I'm saying this because their were a couple of kids in my theater while watching this (which what the hell were their parents thinking) and one of them had a big freak out and started to cry.
Overall I give this Selma- 10/10 great script, great acting, great director and just all around a perfect movie just don't take anyone under fourteen to see this, please be smart parents.
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