Judas and the Black Messiah

Based on true events, Judas and the Black Messiah follows small-time criminal William O’Neal (Lakeith Stanfield) as he’s coerced by an FBI agent (Jesse Plemons’ Roy Mitchell) into infiltrating the Black Panthers and informing on the activities of the group’s Illinois chairman, Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya). Filmmaker Shaka King, working from a script written with Will Berson, delivers a fairly conventional yet mostly compelling drama that benefits substantially from the efforts of its uniformly solid cast, with, especially, Kaluuya’s frequently electrifying work as the dynamic, charismatic Hampton elevating the proceedings on an impressively consistent basis. And although the picture occasionally feels just a little too long and padded-out for its own good, King does an effective job of peppering the deliberate narrative with several overtly spellbinding sequences and stretches, including a legitimately captivating scene wherein Hampton delivers a fiery, emotional speech, that buoy the viewer’s interest on a consistent basis – which, in turn, paves the way for a second half that admittedly grows more and more absorbing and engrossing. By the time the emotionally-charged finale rolls around, Judas and the Black Messiah has certainly cemented its place as an above-average biopic that receives plenty of mileage out of Kaluuya’s career-best performance.

***1/2 out of ****