Wow, this is the movie The Trial of the Chicago 7 wishes it could’ve been. All due respect to that film which was well made and well acted, but it seems to me like Aaron Sorkin is too much of a neoliberal Obama and Biden supporter to really capture the spirit of a revolutionary like Abbie Hoffman. It’s clear from works like The West Wing that Sorkin believes in the exceptionalism of America’s institutions and working within the system to bring about change, causing a disconnect with his radical subjects. Shaka King on the other hand has made an unabashedly leftist film in Judas and the Black Messiah that absolutely succeeds in embodying the ethos of the Black Panther movement and the complex and sometimes contradictory struggles within. The acting from Lakeith Stanfield and Daniel Kaluuya could not have been more extraordinary.