Judas and the Black Messiah | February 12, 2021 | WB | Daniel Kaluuya, Lakeith Stanfield

[lorddemaxus]

86 on Metacritic so far and 4.2 on letterboxd. Should be a pretty solid bet for a Best Picture nom at this point and  Kaluuya is probably winning too.

Edited February 3, 2021 by lorddemaxus

[lorddemaxus]

Highest rated film of this year's sundance: http://cannes-ratings.herokuapp.com/Sundance2021?t=95#95

 

Definitely feels like there'll be a lot of audience passion behind this. Dissapointing GG performance but will probably rebound. Don't think this has a chance at being a frontrunner anymore tho (needed a Director, Screenplay, or Picture nom at the GGs for that).

Edited February 3, 2021 by lorddemaxus

[Eric Prime]

The non-Hampton material could have been more engaging, but this was still pretty great. Daniel Kaluuya is absolutely incredible in this. It'll be hard for any performance this year to top it IMO. But Shaka King truly is marvelous when it comes to crafting an ensemble because everybody is great. I had no idea who Dominique Fishback was, but I really hope she is everywhere in the next few years. Including how wonderfully staged many sequences are, I see a bright future for Shaka King.

 

Really sad the film hasn't done better in the awards circuit.

[DAJK]

1 hour ago, Eric Gardner said:

The non-Hampton material could have been more engaging, but this was still pretty great. Daniel Kaluuya is absolutely incredible in this. It'll be hard for any performance this year to top it IMO. But Shaka King truly is marvelous when it comes to crafting an ensemble because everybody is great. I had no idea who Dominique Fishback was, but I really hope she is everywhere in the next few years. Including how wonderfully staged many sequences are, I see a bright future for Shaka King.

 

Really sad the film hasn't done better in the awards circuit.

How do you think audiences will respond to it? I'm personally really looking forward to it, but idk when I'll be able to watch it since HBO Max isn't available in Canada.

[lorddemaxus]

2 hours ago, Eric Gardner said:

The non-Hampton material could have been more engaging, but this was still pretty great. Daniel Kaluuya is absolutely incredible in this. It'll be hard for any performance this year to top it IMO. But Shaka King truly is marvelous when it comes to crafting an ensemble because everybody is great. I had no idea who Dominique Fishback was, but I really hope she is everywhere in the next few years. Including how wonderfully staged many sequences are, I see a bright future for Shaka King.

 

Really sad the film hasn't done better in the awards circuit.

Movie still has a shot to do well this awards season. Not gonna win anything outside of Kaluuya probably but a BP nom could still happen because Oscar nomination voting is happening really late this year and precursors like GGs might not matter as much. Definitely gonna need a lot of audience buzz to get to that position tho.

[Eric Prime]

15 minutes ago, DAJK said:

How do you think audiences will respond to it? I'm personally really looking forward to it, but idk when I'll be able to watch it since HBO Max isn't available in Canada.

I'm never really good at this stuff, but I'll try and answer without going into spoilers. It's definitely exciting and has a lot of heartfelt moments, but I wouldn't really say it's a crowdpleaser. There's a lot of downer moments and an emphasis on both politics and a feeling of "how little we have come". I guess the best comparison is BlacKkKlansman in terms of themes, tone, and emotion, although Black Messiah is far more leftist and radical and far less action-oriented. From what I can gather, people really dug BlacKkKlansman, so I think there will definitely be an audience for this, even if this probably would have done ~25M in normal times (not a bad thing mind you).

 

Really, I think most people who will see this will know what they're going in to, and I think most will have a good time here.

[filmlover]

This did terrible at the theaters around me tonight (even by pandemic standards). Hopefully the streaming numbers will be really good (although the prestigious Netflix projects mostly not catching on with them make me skeptical about that).

Edited February 13, 2021 by filmlover

[DAJK]

3 hours ago, Eric Gardner said:

I'm never really good at this stuff, but I'll try and answer without going into spoilers. It's definitely exciting and has a lot of heartfelt moments, but I wouldn't really say it's a crowdpleaser. There's a lot of downer moments and an emphasis on both politics and a feeling of "how little we have come". I guess the best comparison is BlacKkKlansman in terms of themes, tone, and emotion, although Black Messiah is far more leftist and radical and far less action-oriented. From what I can gather, people really dug BlacKkKlansman, so I think there will definitely be an audience for this, even if this probably would have done ~25M in normal times (not a bad thing mind you).

 

Really, I think most people who will see this will know what they're going in to, and I think most will have a good time here.

That's fair, I really enjoyed BlackKklansman, and I'm really looking forward to this. While Blackklansman certainly had its downer moments and emphasis on politics etc. (everything you mention), it seemed to be talking to the audience rather than down at them (which is how customers at the theater told me they felt about the "we-know-this-will-be-good-because-it's-an-incredible-story Oscar bait" movies).

[Webslinger]

This was seriously excellent. Deserves any and all eyes it gets in theaters and on HBO Max.

[Eric Prime]

 

[lorddemaxus]

The movie is good but like with almost every other Oscar contender from this season, just dissapointed. I would be ok with framing O' Neal as the protagonist even if it meant the movie would be more apolitical than I would've liked, but the problem is that it also causes narrative problems here. We needed more time with Hampton to make us more invested in him as a person and for his death to feel even more like a gut-punch. Skipping stuff like the Rainbow Coalition and his time in jail so that we could spend more time with O' Neal just makes no sense to me. 

 

But every moment we get with Hampton in this pretty great. Just wish we got more of it.

Edited February 14, 2021 by lorddemaxus

[Eric Prime]

 

[Eric Prime]