Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) Review

rating: ****

the story: Black Panthers organizer Fred Hampton becomes the target of the FBI.

review: The big draw, for me, is watching Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out) and LaKeith Stanfield. I assumed Stanfield, who has showed up in a number of interesting projects in recent years, was going to be my favorite of the two, but it’s actually Kaluuya who lights up the screen as Hampton, speaking with rapid fire, charismatic ease. Stanfield is usually pretty subdued, but his presence alone tends to be eloquent. Here he can’t really contend with Kaluuya.

The story is pretty even-handed, even though Stanfield plays the informant who eventually sets up Hampton’s assassination. We watch as Stanfield’s handler, played by Jesse Plemons, grapples with the morality of their assignment, working under the famously heavy hand of J. Edgar Hoover (Martin Sheen).

The results are perhaps best appreciated for what they’re not: Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman, a bafflingly lighthearted but on the whole similar story. I was never that enthusiastic about Lee’s film, but seeing this is all the more proof of how easy it is to improve upon. I get that Lee basically saw room for a farce (black guy infiltrates KKK!), but for a filmmaker so well known for his passion, the results were inert. 

Not so with Black Messiah. It even manages to get me onboard with Plemons, a supporting actor who’s gotten a steady amount of positive buzz recently. As the FBI liaison, he at last finds a context that makes sense to me. 

Hampton’s legacy is relatively small as a leader of the black community. His story plays out in the shadow of far more famous assassinations: MLK Jr., Malcolm X. The movie posits that Hampton was poised to succeed them, and that the FBI was desperate to prevent that from happening. That he was militant, at least in rhetoric, is where viewer interpretations of his potential will come into play, but the film itself stays away from judgment.

Suffice to say, his death still plays as tragedy. This is a story that needs telling, and this is a fine way to experience it. It might even be a great way. I will periodically revisit to ascertain.

The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

rating: ****

the story: Peter Parker becomes Spider-Man.

review: This is the fourth Spider-Man movie, first not directed by Sam Raimi or starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst.  In other words, it's the first of two directed by Marc Webb and starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone.  I much, much prefer these movies.  I get the goofy appeal of the Raimi films (the first two of which are greatly admired by the public at large, the third not as much).  Ever since Adam West first dressed up as Batman, or even George Reeves as Superman, audiences kind of expect a little smirk in their superhero.  The Avengers movies certainly benefit from that perception.  I don't think it's necessary.  I think you can take superheroes seriously.  And I think along with Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder, no one's done it better than Marc Webb.

The only thing I don't like about Amazing Spider-Man is the giant mutant lizard Rhys Ifans becomes.  I think giant mutant villains of any kind is exactly what's wrong with a lot of superhero movies.  I like the villains to be identifiable, not cartoons.  The superheroes themselves are enough of a stretch in storytelling logic.  To make any sense they need to inhabit the real world, as close to the real world as possible.  That can't happen with giant mutant villains.

Other than the giant mutant lizard Rhys Ifans becomes, this is as intimate and realistic a superhero movie as you're ever likely to find.  The classic template of the origin story is there, a lot like you saw it in Raimi's first movie, but it feels more authentic in Webb's telling.  Webb's best film is (500) Days of Summer, a heartbreaking romance where the breakup is fore-ordained and never undone, and the whole point is trying to make peace with it, and why it happened in the first place.  So why does Peter Parker become Spider-Man?  Well, in this version it has a lot to do with his parents. 

Yeah!  In most Spider-Man stories, Peter's parents are dead and forgotten, right from the start.  Their absence is taken for granted.  We see him raised by his aunt and uncle, the one who also has to die in order for Spider-Man to be born.  But in this version, even in their absence Peter's parents means a great deal.  We see that they were involved in the science that eventually results in Spider-Man, and the giant mutant lizard played by Rhys Ifans.  And it's Peter chasing after his absent parents that drives the story.  That's full storytelling.  Never let an absence become an absence. 

I'm not faulting Ifans for the failure of the giant mutant lizard.  Ifans is awesome!  He's never gotten enough credit, or enough work, for the level of integrity he brings to the table.  He's a perfect match for Garfield, and for Stone, who are both credible high school students (I can't say the same for the guy who inherited Garfield's mask).  The whole idea of Peter Parker feels real in this incarnation.  Uncle Ben is played by Martin Sheen, who like Ifans has never quite gotten the credit he deserves, despite at least two exceptional spotlights (Apocalypse Now, The West Wing, plus a supporting role in The Departed).  Sheen feels real, too, and his death is a real tragedy.  Field is Aunt May, and once Sheen is out of the picture, she fills in his void.  This is a movie about voids being filled.  That's what Spider-Man is all about, and that's what his movies ought to be about, and what the characters in them ought to represent.  And Denis Leary plays Stone's dad, the police captain who fills the void the absence of J. Jonah Jameson creates, the cynic who rejects the idea of Spider-Man.  Until he has a change of heart, when he no longer has a choice.  At which point he has Peter make an impossible promise.  But the last line of the movie is what ties it all together.  Peter admits that promises you can't keep are the best kind. 

The traditional logic of Spider-Man is that like all superheroes he eventually makes a vow to do what's right ("with great power comes great responsibility"), but Spider-Man is an act of defiance against all logic, not in a destructive way, but a redemptive one.  That's what his origin is meant to convey.  For the first and perhaps only time, a movie reflects that.  It's worth celebrating.