Judas and the Black Messiah

One of the many names I left out of my review of The Trial of the Chicago 7 was Kelvin Harrison, Jr., who played Fred Hampton, the Illinois Chapter Chairman of the Black Panthers. He gave legal support for defendant and Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale until his assassination. Hampton plays a much bigger role in Judas and the Black Messiah, where he's played by Daniel Kaluuya.

In my defense, there were so many names in that film.

1966. William O'Neal (Lakeith Stanfield) impersonates a federal officer to steal cars. He picks the wrong man to rip off and the FBI come calling. Agent Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons) offers to drop the charges if O'Neal agrees to infiltrate the Chicago Black Panthers. O'Neal does so and he becomes the Panthers' security chief and one of Hampton's close confidants. Eventually, Mitchell tasks O'Neal with betraying Hampton to the Feds.

Director Shaka King (Newlyweeds) co-wrote the script with Will Berson and Kenny & Keith Lucas. The story is easily dominated by Kaluuya as Fred Hampton. We see how easily he was able to unite disparate groups - even white confederates - into his Rainbow Coalition. We see him and the Panthers give back to their community. The community pays him back by repairing the Panther HQ when the police torch it. His relationship with Deborah Johnson (Dominique Fishback) is a good one. He's an admirable man through and through.

Stanfield is a fine lead as O'Neal. His opening attempted car theft is amazingly almost successful. He would've gotten away with it if a guy didn't see through the ruse. The editing by Kristan Sprague makes this and other action scenes perfectly tense. But much of the film has O'Neal merely observing and reporting the events. His biggest action is the off-screen drugging of Hampton. Still, his betrayal of Hampton is a tragic choice rather than an evil one. He's also quite clever when he has to save face. 

What about the rest of the cast? Plemons as Mitchell is a likable agent who pressures O'Neal to stay on task and welcomes him in his home. A few agents, including J. Edgar Hoover (Martin Sheen), are overzealous racists. The creepiest scene involves J. Edgar asking about Mitchell's infant daughter's future boyfriends. This unnerves him and the audience equally. Two other compelling characters are Jimmy Palmer (Ashton Sanders), and Jake Winter (Algee Smith), who take justice into their own hands with tragic results. 

Judas and the Black Messiah is a great way to spend Black History Month and beyond. Its strongest aspect is Daniel Kaluuya as Fred Hampton. Expect him to get Oscar notice next month. But you'll have to hurry as it's only on HBOMax for a little over three more weeks. That's just when the nominations are announced. It's a memorable film for an unusual film year.