More often than not ... "Selma" focuses on the one thing we don't expect in a movie about Martin Luther King Jr. - his doubts - and Oyelowo comes through with a deeply felt and quite brilliant performance.
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Selma
Overview
"Selma," as in Alabama, the place where segregation in the South was at its worst, leading to a march that ended in violence, forcing a famous statement by President Lyndon B. Johnson that ultimately led to the signing of the Voting Rights Act.
Director and cast
- Ava DuVernay Director
- David Oyelowo as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King
- Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon B. Johnson
- Giovanni Ribisi as Lee White
- Tim Roth as Gov. George Wallace
- André Holland as Andrew Young
- Colman Domingo as Ralph Abernathy
- Common as James Bevel
- Stephan James as John Lewis
- Omar J. Dorsey as James Orange
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
This is a film about work: the work at hand, the work it takes to do the work, and, for an audience in 2015, the question of whether the work worked.
Vivid, nuanced and, yes, timely.
Like Dr. King did, the film captures your mind and your heart as it entertains, the way great movies often do.
An uneven yet generally skillful effort that has probably drawn more praise and criticism than it warrants.
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