64/100

Got very worried early on, because DuVernay's handling of the Birmingham church bombing is atrocious—not only does she shoot the buildup to the explosion with various doomy portents (close-ups of little hands sliding down bannisters, etc.), she isolates one of the little girls on the stairs in a way that telegraphs what's about to happen, to the point where I actually said "And boom!" out loud about one second before the bomb went off. (Sadly, this obnoxious comment disturbed nobody, as I was alone in the theater. 10:15pm on a weekday, but still.) Subsequent use of slo-mo in violent scenes confirms that DuVernay has some hack-y instincts when it comes to tragedy, and I frankly saw nothing to suggest…

Simultaneously quietly reverberating and viscerally horrific; Ava DuVernay's Selma is a fiery and subdued look at racial tensions in the mid-1960s. David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr. silently stuns, portraying the historic man with vulnerability and a classical presence. Carmen Ejogo, playing King's wife, is just as vigorous and hushed, and their conversations are as powerfully intense as anything released in 2014.

The direction is quite good, with some bravura set-piece moments, and the cinematography is elegant in all the best ways. The rest however felt very familiar, and in many stretches, downright boring. Being a self-professed hater of biopics, mainly because of preachy politics, dreadful scores, and the overall sentimentalism of most productions; I can say that Selma…

“Our lives are not fully lived if we're not willing to die for those we love, for what we believe.”

Martin Luther King is a very popular figure, so the biggest risk for a biopic like this is simply retelling a familiar story, which is what most directors do turning films like this into history lessons. You are sort of expecting this inspiring and uplifting film that will have its emotional moments once King stands up and delivers his world famous “I Have a Dream” speech, but Ava DuVernay takes an entirely different approach. Instead of following a timeline and going through important dates in King’s life she simply introduces us to an important and defining moment in his life.…

Keeping in view the current incidents surrounding the Ferguson protests which has once again escalated the racial tensions in the United States, the timing & arrival of Selma couldn’t have been more apt. Not because it brings any solution to the present unrest situation but brilliantly demonstrates just how far we still remain from an ideal society that treats everyone as equal, no matter what their race, colour or creed is.

Set in the titular city of Alabama state in 1965, the story of Selma concerns events surrounding the Voting Rights Movement carried out by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. & his organisation which ultimately led to the famous protest march from Selma to Montgomery as an exhibition of black American citizens’…

My thoughts written several weeks later:

It must have taken some bottle for a relatively inexperienced features director to take on such a huge topic as Martin Luther King and his role in the 1965 protest marches from Selma to Montgomery. First of all, there was the fact that Hollywood had previously shied away from this story (not that I am suggesting that there was any sinister motivation behind this). Secondly, there were the many pitfalls and temptations which exist in portraying an important moment of recent history which still resonates today. Lesser but more experienced directors have wilted under the weight of their subject matter. But Ava DuVernay negotiates all these difficulties with aplomb. She was clearly respectful of…