Judas and the Black Messiah

a/k/a  Jesus Was My Homeboy

Release Date:  2/1/21; Sundance Film Festival & 2/12/21; HBO Max
Genre:  Biography
Rating:  R
Director:  Shaka King
Studio(s):  Bron Creative, MACRO Participant, Warner Bros. Pictures
Running Time:  126 mins.

Cast:  Daniel Kaluuya (Fred Hampton), Lakeith Stanfield (William O’Neal), Jesse Plemons (Roy Mitchell), Dominique Fishback (Deborah Johnson), Ashton Sanders (Larry Roberson), Martin Sheen (J. Edgar Hoover), Algee Smith (Jake Winters), Lil Rel Howery (Brian), Jermaine Fowler (Mark Clark), Darrell Britt-Gibson (Bobby Rush), Robert Longstreet (Special Agent Carlyle).

Story:  The story follows the rise and demise of Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) as seen through the eyes of William O’Neal (Lakeith Stanfield), a petty criminal who cut a deal with the FBI to infiltrate the Panthers. O’Neal helped create rifts within the organization, kept tabs on Hampton and, when the time came, drugged the 21-year old activist on the night of the raid, which ultimately led to Hampton being gunned down by officers.

Details:  Chairman Fred Hampton was 21 years old when he was assassinated by the FBI, who coerced William O’Neal to help them silence him and the Black Panther Party.  But they could not kill Fred Hampton’s legacy and, 50 years later, his words still echo…louder than ever.

I am a revolutionary!

In 1968, a young, charismatic activist named Fred Hampton became Chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, who were fighting for freedom, the power to determine the destiny of the Black community, and an end to police brutality and the slaughter of Black people.  The Chairman was inspiring a generation to rise up and not back down to oppression, which put him in the line of fire of the government, the FBI and the Chicago Police. But to destroy the revolution, they had to do it from both the outside…and the inside. Facing prison, William O’Neal is offered a deal by the FBI: if he will infiltrate the Black Panthers and provide intel on Hampton, he will walk free. O’Neal takes the deal.  Now a comrade in arms in the Black Panther Party, O’Neal lives in fear that his treachery will be discovered even as he rises in the ranks. But as Hampton’s fiery message draws him in, O’Neal cannot escape the deadly trajectory of his ultimate betrayal.

Though his life was cut short, Fred Hampton’s impact has continued to reverberate. The government saw the Black Panthers as a militant threat to the status quo and sold that lie to a frightened public in a time of growing civil unrest. But the perception of the Panthers was not reality. In inner cities across America, they were providing free breakfasts for children, legal services, medical clinics and research into sickle cell anemia, and political education. And it was Chairman Fred Hampton in Chicago, who, recognizing the power of multicultural unity for a common cause, created the Rainbow Coalition—joining forces with other oppressed peoples in the city to fight for equality and political empowerment.  O’Neal was placed in federal witness protection after his role in the infamous raid was revealed. He reportedly died by suicide in 1990, aged 40.  Source(s):  msn.com; official site, judasandtheblackmessiah. Com; Wikipedia; Openroad.la; denofgeek.com.

Trailer:

All Day And A Night

Release Date:  5/1/2020; Netflix
Genre:  Drama
Rating:  R
Director:  Joe Robert Cole
Studio(s):  Color Force, Mighty Engine
Running Time:  121 mins.

Cast:  Jeffrey Wright (JD), Yahya Abdul-Mateen, II (Big Stunna), Andrea Ellsworth (Kim), Ashton Sanders (Jah), Regina Taylor (Tommetta), Jalyn Hall (Young Jah), Christopher Meyer (Lamark), Isaiah John (TQ).

Story:   While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.  Source:  Netflix.

Trailer:

Native Son

Release Date: 4/9/19; HBO
1/24/19; Sundance Film Festival (Original Premiere)
Genre:  Drama
Rating:  NR
Director:  Rashid Johnson
Studio(s):   Bow and Arrow Entertainment, A24
Running Time:  108 mins.

Cast:  Ashton Sanders, Margaret Qualley, Nick Robinson, KiKi Layne, Bill Camp, Sanaa Lathan, David Alan Grier.

Story:  Bigger “Big” Thomas, a young African American man, lives with his mother and siblings in Chicago. Half-heartedly involved with a girlfriend, he sports green hair and a punk jacket, smokes weed, and carries a pistol—but rebuffs his buddy’s “easy-money” scheme to knock off a corner store. Full of self-determination, Big accepts a job as the chauffeur for wealthy businessman Will Dalton’s family. Moving into their mansion, he begins driving Dalton’s vehemently progressive daughter, Mary. But his involvement in an accidental death places Big on a collision course with the powerful social forces pitted against him.  A thoroughly contemporary reworking of Richard Wright’s 1940 novel, Native Son asserts the story’s persistent relevance by bringing its interrogation of fear, violence, race, and circumstance into a critical modern context. Source:  Sundance.org.

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Teaser:

The Equalizer 2

Release Date:  12/11/18; DVD
Genre:  Drama/Thriller
Rating:  R
Director:  Antoine Fuqua
Studio(s):  Columbia Pictures Corporation, Escape Artists, Fuqua Films, Lonetree Entertainment, Mace Neufeld Productions, Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE), ZHIV Productions
Running Time:  121 mins.
Cast:  Denzel Washington (Robert McCall), Ashton Sanders (Miles Whittaker), Pedro Pascal (Dave York), Orson Bean (Sam Rubinstein), Bill Pullman (Brian Plummer), Melissa Leo (Susan Plummer).

Story:   Sequel to the 2014 film The Equalizer, which was based on the TV series of the same name.  If you have a problem and there is nowhere else to turn, the mysterious and elusive Robert McCall will deliver the vigilante justice you seek. This time, however, McCall’s past cuts especially close to home when thugs kill Susan Plummer — his best friend and former colleague. Now out for revenge, McCall must take on a crew of highly trained assassins who’ll stop at nothing to destroy him.  Source:  Google.

Trailer:

The Retrieval

The Retrievala/k/a September Morning
Release Date:  (February 3, 2015; DVD) (April 2, 2014; Theatrical Release)
(April 5, 2013, Film Festival)
Genre: Drama/Historical
Rating: Unknown
Running Time: 92 mins.
Studio: Doki-Doki Productions/Sixth Street Films/ Variance Films
Director: Chris Eska
Cast:  Tishuan Scott (Nate), Ashton Sanders (Will), Keston John (Marcus), Bill Oberst, Jr. (Burrell), Christine Horn (Rachel).

Story: 1864: as war ravages the nation, on the outskirts of the Civil War business as usual continues for slave-owners and traders. The Retrieval follows Will, a fatherless 13 year-old boy, who survives by working with a white bounty hunter gang who sends him to earn the trust of runaway slaves in order to lure them back to the South.

On a dangerous mission into the free North to find Nate, a fugitive freedman, things go wrong and Will and Nate find themselves on the run. As the bond between them unexpectedly grows, Will becomes consumed by conflicting emotions as he faces a gut-wrenching final decision. Source: theretrieval.com, the official site; IMDB.

Trailer