Review: Daniel Kaluuya brings power, presence to 'Judas and the Black Messiah'

The biblical title of “Judas and the Black Messiah” is totally fitting for its scintillating narrative, about a Black man wanting to galvanize his people while facing brotherly betrayal and menacing authority.

Directed by Shaka King and produced by "Black Panther" filmmaker Ryan Coogler, “Black Messiah” (★★★ out of four; rated R; in theaters and streaming on HBO Max Feb. 12) satisfies both as a tense thriller and insightful period piece featuring two of the most captivating actors in Hollywood, Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield. Their star power in the movie, which premiered Monday at Sundance Film Festival, keeps “Judas” interesting through a densely packed history lesson about the FBI’s obsession with tamping down the influence of Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton in the late 1960s.

William O’Neal (Stanfield) is a young Chicago ne'er-do-well who gets busted and brought in by the FBI on charges of impersonating a federal agent and stealing a car. Baby-faced G-man Roy Mitchell (Jesse Plemons) gives him two options: Go to jail or infiltrate the Illinois Black Panther chapter and be an informant about what “Chairman Fred” is up to.

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Amid the tumultuous political and social unrest of the ‘60s, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover (Martin Sheen, under a ton of makeup) founds a counterintelligence program to silence political dissent and prevent "the rise of a Black messiah." Hampton especially poses a problem for Hoover because he not only speaks up for the Black community nationally in terms of racial injustice and police brutality, he also forms a “Rainbow Coalition” with the white Young Patriots and Latino Young Lords to rally "oppressed brothers and sisters of every color."

As O'Neal rises higher in the Black Panther leadership and becomes closer to Hampton as head of security, his paranoia grows about being found out – either by those who recognize him from his criminal life or Panthers wondering if he's a rat – but he also becomes more affected by Hampton’s stirring, profound oratory. The chairman’s power and presence make him an exalted figure in the community, though his character is grounded by a relationship with Deborah Johnson (Dominique Fishback), who joins after hearing him speak.

Kaluuya has always been impressive, from his Oscar-nominated hero in Jordan Peele’s social horror hit “Get Out” and romantic bandit in "Queen & Slim" to supporting turns in “Black Panther” and “Widows.” Another nomination should be in the cards here showing the full range of his talents: As his new film’s “Black Messiah,” Kaluuya projects appealing charisma in major speech scenes but also a lot of heart as the gravity of Hampton’s work weighs heavy on him.

Similarly, Stanfield is also great at playing all the issues clawing at O’Neal, and he fuels many of the film’s most white-knuckle scenes. Plemons' character has to deal with the moral complications of his choices, too: He initially views the Black Panthers as “terrorists” akin to the Ku Klux Klan, though questions his organization’s handling of Hampton. Only Hoover is a straight-up villain here, and Sheen really goes for it.

“Judas” is rich in history, a little to its detriment. (For those who choose the HBO Max streaming route, it’s OK to have some Wikipedia pages open. We won’t judge.) It’s not a biopic at all because it covers a lot of historical figures and events that happened in a short amount of time, but you’re left wanting to know a lot more about Hampton, whose life was cut short at 21 when he was assassinated in 1969.

The film forms a triptych of sorts with other timely films in this awards cycle: “The Trial of the Chicago 7” has Hampton as a background character during the U.S. government’s efforts to punish protesters after the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and the documentary “MLK/FBI” centers on Hoover’s campaign against another of his “Black messiahs,” Martin Luther King Jr.

What makes “Judas” stand out is an emphasis on the personal aspects of a true revolutionary who tried to empower others for the greater good while unknowingly facing subterfuge from within.