Judas and the Black Messiah - Daniel Kaluuya, LaKeith Stanfield, Dominique Fishback

[CyberpunkCentral]

I feel like I should have given this movie a higher rating, now that I had more time to let it sink it. I'll probably give it another rewatch at some point.

[xbs2034]

Originally Posted by JWFORD

Lakeith is the lead as the film is about his betrayal of Fred Hampton (not Fred Hampton per se). He is the titular "Judas." The film begins and ends with him. Kaluuya has already been nominated for supporting at Critic's Choice, SAG, and Golden Globes. But, I agree, that Lakeith and Fishback are also deserving of nominations.



No one cares what the troll who gave the film one star thinks (you probably didn't even see it).

I tend to view them as both being leads (and indeed both are title characters, not that a title character is automatically a lead). One has a bit more screentime, and I feel like one dominates the scenes he’s in a bit more, but it’s a story of both those characters.

But yeah, Kaluuya is being campaigned supporting and barring a rare instance of the academy ignoring his suggested placement (like what happened with Kate Winslet in The Reader) he will be nominating there and could well win. And he’s far from the only questionable category placement, heck I feel the opposite about Viola Davis in Ma Rainey, it’s also borderline but I do think Boseman has the only leading role in that picture.

[Member-275053]

Originally Posted by xbs2034

I tend to view them as both being leads (and indeed both are title characters, not that a title character is automatically a lead). One has a bit more screentime, and I feel like one dominates the scenes he’s in a bit more, but it’s a story of both those characters.

But yeah, Kaluuya is being campaigned supporting and barring a rare instance of the academy ignoring his suggested placement (like what happened with Kate Winslet in The Reader) he will be nominating there and could well win. And he’s far from the only questionable category placement, heck I feel the opposite about Viola Davis in Ma Rainey, it’s also borderline but I do think Boseman has the only leading role in that picture.

Well, as I'm sure you know, you can't have two male leads in a film (not as far as awards are concerned). I look at it more like Viggo and Mahershala in Green Book, or Cate and Rooney in Carol. Not sure what the two films have to do with one another besides having black ensemble casts, but I keep hearing this opinion about Viola, and frankly I find it ridiculous. She is clearly the female lead in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. The only reason people would argue otherwise is because they want Frances or Carey to win in her place. It's complete and utter nonsense. She has just as much screen time as Chadwick, if not more. She already committed category fraud before to let Emma Stone win for a lesser performance and now people want her to do it again. Unbelievable!

[xbs2034]

Originally Posted by JWFORD

Well, as I'm sure you know, you can't have two male leads in a film (not as far as awards are concerned). I look at it more like Viggo and Mahershala in Green Book, or Cate and Rooney in Carol. Not sure what the two films have to do with one another besides having black ensemble casts, but I keep hearing this opinion about Viola, and frankly I find it ridiculous. She is clearly the female lead in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. The only reason people would argue otherwise is because they want Frances or Carey to win in her place. It's complete and utter nonsense. She has just as much screen time as Chadwick, if not more. She already committed category fraud before to let Emma Stone win for a lesser performance and now people want her to do it again. Unbelievable!

Obviously I didn’t time it going in a movie theater. But seemed to me like Chadwick Boseman had significantly more screentime, and I have heard others say that as well. I’m not sure she wins for Ma Rainey, but I do think she would’ve won for Fences had she gone lead and made a mistake, assuming (like many did) that La La Land was gonna be an awards juggernaut.

I know it’s become common practice to campaign only one person per gender lead, but I hate that idea if both actors of the same gender are clear leading roles. While they got no nomination out of it, glad that both Damon and Bale were pushed lead for Ford v Ferrari.

Googled the Ma Rainey screentime. Don’t know the method the source used, but they show Boseman having by far the most screentime and Davis actually being third (which does surprise me)

https://www.reddit.com/r/oscarrace/c..._black_bottom/

[imsounoriginal]

Also felt like Kaluuya was more Lead than Supporting, but that may have been because his presence and performance were so dominating compared to Stanfield's.

[xbs2034]

Originally Posted by imsounoriginal

Also felt like Kaluuya was more Lead than Supporting, but that may have been because his presence and performance were so dominating compared to Stanfield's.

https://www.reddit.com/r/oscarrace/c...black_messiah/

And here’s the screentime comparison for Judas. I already thought Kaluuya was a lead for a similar reason like you said, and could also be brought up with Forest Whitaker in Last King of Scotland and Denzel Washington in Training Day with how they dominated their films despite having less screentime than their co star. But I suspected the screentime difference was even closer here, and this shows that with basically just 3 and a half minutes in time difference.

[SlaughterX]

Think I''ll watch this Friday since I accidently let my HBO Max free trial continue after redeeming it to watch the awful, awful WW 1984.

[TAC]

Can’t wait to watch this! Kaluuya has become one of my favorite actors today! Didn’t even know anything about this movie.

[Cherokee Jack]

Good movie but felt like it tries to do a bit too much with its runtime. It's a biopic, period piece and paranoid informant film all in one; the latter element effectively drives the narrative but it unfortunately suffers most from the film's ambition. Stanfield is excellent as always but his character's motives and inner turmoil end up feeling quite muddled due to lack of screen time. And I saw it at an AMC Prime theater (Atmos but no Dolby Vision) and didn't feel it did a lot with the format. Hard to say since I usually go to Dolby Cinemas for releases like this and it might have been the theater itself that was technically underwhelming.

Btw, there's a love theme used throughout the movie that I assumed was written for Sideways. Turns out it's an original composition by Bill Evans. Fans of Sideways will recognize it immediately.

Edit: Embedded Youtube video taken down for whatever reason. Search "Bill Evans Symbiosis, 2nd Movement" on Youtube if you're interested in the music I'm referring to above.

[Sozo]

Excellent all around. Kaluuya and Stanfield really shine throughout. I also thought Jesse Plemons was a great choice for his role here.

[JayTL]

Excellent performances, but the overall movie didn't do it for me. This is what needed to be a Netflix mini-series type of show.

[spider-neil]

Brilliant movie. Give Daniel the Oscar now. Easily my favourite movie of 2021. And it will take some mindblowing movie to shift it.

[imsounoriginal]

Originally Posted by Cherokee Jack

Good movie but felt like it tries to do a bit too much with its runtime. It's a biopic, period piece and paranoid informant film all in one; the latter element effectively drives the narrative but it unfortunately suffers most from the film's ambition. Stanfield is excellent as always but his character's motives and inner turmoil end up feeling quite muddled due to lack of screen time. And I saw it at an AMC Prime theater (Atmos but no Dolby Vision) and didn't feel it did a lot with the format. Hard to say since I usually go to Dolby Cinemas for releases like this and it might have been the theater itself that was technically underwhelming.

Btw, there's a love theme used throughout the movie that I assumed was written for Sideways. Turns out it's an original composition by Bill Evans. Fans of Sideways will recognize it immediately.

Bill Evans - Symbiosis 2nd Movement (Largo - Andante - Maestoso - Largo) - A - YouTube

Absolutely agree about it being overstuffed, and that the Stanfield character was underserved. Other than that, not sure I have any other complaints.

[shrex]

Originally Posted by JayTL

Excellent performances, but the overall movie didn't do it for me. This is what needed to be a Netflix mini-series type of show.

Kind of how I felt afterwards as well. Could have easily been made into a Netflix or HBO 5-6 part series. I wanted more, but great performances all around with what they were given. I'll watch anything Kaluuya or Stanfield do.

[TAC]

Trailer was really brilliant. Im shocked that I had to come up with ways to make my vote a 3 and not a 2. I just knew this would be a 4 if not 5. Great performances all around. Daniel should get a nomination for best supporting actor. I could be wrong though. As I said in a prior post. He is one of my favorite actors going right now. This one was too easy for him. Just yelling "Revolutionary" to a crowd doesn't make this oscar worthy. This movie felt rushed to me. Wasted opportunity. I had to fight back a tear or 2 in a couple scenes. That doesn't always make a film score good though. This is my opinion as Ive seen others say the film was Brilliant. At the end of the day. We have our opinions. 3/5

[cgpublic]

Screened this at home via HBOMax (4K/DV/DA). Four out of five stars, solid direction, screenplay and cinematography, driven by four great performances from the leads (Kaluuya and Stanfield) and key supporting (Plemons and Fishback) actors.

[format916]

finally caught this on hbomax. it was great. the score is good and the songs they play in the film are great too. its too bad the soundtrack is from modern artists...not interested.

[Britnasty]

[Cephalopod]

Looks like this year's Supporting Actor Academy Award is Kaluuya's to lose!

Slightly off topic here, but what are the chances of Judas getting a 4K release? I think Widows is a pretty similar film and that got one so....

[Member-275053]

Originally Posted by Cephalopod

Slightly off topic here, but what are the chances of Judas getting a 4K release? I think Widows is a pretty similar film and that got one so....

Well, I don't know. Who's to say? Of course, WW84 is getting one. But, The Little Things isn't. It's anyone's guess at this point. But how are the two films similar (besides me creating the thread for both)?