Selma

2014 drama

Rating: 14/20

Plot: Martin Luther King, Jr. and other Civil Rights leaders try to get equal voting rights in Alabama. A historic march from Selma to Montgomery winds up leading to the invention of rap music.

There's nothing wrong with this movie. The acting is fine. David Oyelowo has to be brave to take this role, and I like how he doesn't really do a King impression here. The movie shows the historical figure as a man rather than a saint or a guy with his own holiday. Oyelowo plays an actual human being, and I think the subdued performance with a script that doesn't really include all that many giant movie moments probably makes the movie better. I thought Tim Roth was really good. What I like best about this movie is the look of the thing. It's too glossy to be a documentary, but there's a dustiness to the South here, and the whole thing feels dream-filtered. I liked the colors a lot. And this is a story that I'm glad was told, but I didn't think the movie was all that engaging. It kind of tells the story exactly as you imagine it would tell the story. It's sad only because you know it's supposed to be sad, and its biggest moments are big only because you know they're supposed to be big. Frankly, I got a little bored with the whole thing, and I hope that doesn't make me a racist.