Review: Judas and the Black Messiah

Set in the late 60s, this is the true story of how African-American FBI informant Bill O’Neal (Lakeith Stanfield) infiltrated the Black Panther party. O’Neal, a former small-time crook manages to get close to Panther leader Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) as he gives important party information to FBI handler Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons), the underling of J. Edgar Hoover (Martin Sheen) who plans to put an end to the Panthers, who he sees as a dangerous force.

 

Well-acted, well-made 2021 film from director Shaka King (who comes from a mostly TV and shorts background) and co-writer Will Berson (a few TV writing credits like an episode of “Scrubs”) covers fairly familiar territory – thematically at least – if perhaps with a bit more balance than in some other similar films. It’s all very credible and very worthy, even if the subject matter isn’t of the greatest personal fascination to me. Daniel Kaluuya is a damn fine actor, but the level of presence and charisma he shows here are unlike any previous performance of his I’ve seen. In particular he deserves credit for not turning Fred Hampton into a ranting, angry ‘black militant’ stereotype. There’s more depth to this film than that and Kaluuya nicely modulates his performance. I do wish he didn’t speak so indistinctly on occasion, but that’s a minor issue and could just be my shitty hearing. Lakeith Stanfield is even better in my view. Terrific as the FBI informant who based on end credits interview snippets seems a bit less sympathetic than Stanfield portrays him to be (And do watch through the credits, there’s some really shocking death statistics listed. If accurate, the FBI and police were absolutely heinous here. Criminal, even). Stanfield’s frequently nervous performance makes for a very tense film without the actor needing to overplay it at all.

 

In support, Jesse Plemons is his usual excellent self and Dominique Fishback is good as Hampton’s main squeeze. I was less enamoured with the normally outstanding Martin Sheen as J. Edgar Hoover, but it’s not really his performance that bothers me. It’s not his best turn, but he’s largely OK. However he is nonetheless miscast under layers of too-obvious makeup that doesn’t even serve its purpose. It gets the film off to a wrong note, Sheen looks as much like the old-age Hoover as Leonardo Di Caprio did the younger version in “J. Edgar”. Which is to say not at all. Why apply all that makeup if you’re still not gonna end up looking remotely like the man? That always bugged me.

 

This is a fine, well-acted film that will appeal more to others than it did me depending upon your interest in the subject matter. I still found enough to like and admire here (and get angry about), though it’s not really earth-shattering storytelling.

 

Rating: B-