Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)

We really liked this movie about the FBI informant who abetted the 1969 assassination of Chicago Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton. As Hampton, Daniel Kaluuya has rightfully earned much love from critics, but Lakeith Stanfield deserves it too, as conflicted snitch Bill O'Neal. Kudos for Judas! It's a big cast, including Jesse Plemons as O'Neal's FBI mentor, Dominique Fishback as Hampton's love interest, and Martin Sheen with a prosthetic nose as J. Edgar Hoover.

I was a little confused, though, because Kaluuya and Stanfield look their ages of 31 and 29, respectively, while their characters are supposed to be 21 and 17. Suspend your disbelief on that score.

With consultation from Hampton's fianceé, who now goes by the name Akua Njeri, and Fred Hampton Jr., director Shaka King co-wrote the script with Will Berson, adapting an earlier screenplay by Kenneth Lucas & Keith Lucas. Apparently Hoover once referred to Hampton as a "Black messiah."

The exciting score by Craig Harris and Mark Isham can be streamed on Apple Music or on Spotify, and there is a playlist of songs "inspired by" the movie on Apple Music.

Kaluuya was last blogged for Queen & Slim, Stanfield for Uncut Gems, and Isham for The Accountant. After I wrote about Plemons in Game Night I failed to mention him in The Irishman. Fishback's roles include The Hate U Give and 18 episodes of The Deuce (2017-2019) . After I wrote about Sheen in Seeking a Friend for the End of the World he was in Rules Don't Apply, Joe Papp in Five Acts, and 79 episodes of Grace and Frankie, to name a few.

This is King's second feature and the first screenplay for Berson and the Lucas brothers.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences, tied at 96%, are worshipping along with us. It was made for HBO and that's how we watched it last week.