Selma

My first review of 2015! I originally was going to see Taken 3 but after hearing all the negative reviews, I decided to see this instead. It looks like I made the right decision. Selma was a very good movie.

Selma is, of course, a Martin Luther King Jr. biopic. Rather than chronicle his whole life, it instead focuses on the three month period in 1965 when King lead a very dangerous campaign in order to secure equal voting rights. This includes the march from Selma to Montgomery.

The thing that really stood out for me was the powerful performance by David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr. I think he looks quite a bit like him but more importantly, he captures the spirit of who King was. When you're watching him giving speeches in a church you really feel like you're there. It honestly gave me goosebumps I was so captivated. Even though there's a lot of competition this year, I really hope David gets an Oscar nomination.

The movie is directed by Ava DuVernay, although if you were like me and went into this not knowing that you would swear Lee Daniels was the director. It features many of the same actors that were in The Butler. Anyway, up until this point she had directed mostly TV shows and a couple of independent movies. What I was really impressed with was that she didn't shy away from showing just how brutal this time period was (as brutal as you can be with a PG-13 rating). There were a few moments though, and I've heard this from others as well, that felt a little too "Hollywood". Luckily those moments are brief and don't take you out of the movie for very long.

Despite some minor flaws, Selma is still a well made historical movie that everyone should see.

My Rating: 8.5/10