Page 33 - Algee Smith News Today

Cast of ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ talks people power, Black love Glen Wilson/Courtesy “It’s about taking care of your own and loving yourself and decentralizing that liberation … No one can ever free you, you have to free yourself.” This reflection on the road to freedom is one of many revolutionary philosophies Daniel Kaluuya internalizes from his work in “Judas and the Black Messiah,” a new film by Shaka King. Kaluuya plays Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois Black Pant...

On Friday, Feb. 12, Shaka King’s  The Photograph and Donald Glover’s hit FX series  Atlanta, playing the man who snitched on Hampton to the FBI—is rich in the creativity of Young Black Hollywood. One of the rising Black actors in this period piece is Algee Smith, star of HBO’s  Euphoria and Kathryn Bigelow’s  Detroit. The 26-year-old plays Spurgeon “Jake” Winters, a member of the Illinois chapter Black Panther Party who, at 19, was shot and killed by the police. The Spurgeo...

While the spotlight is on Daniel Kaluuya’s performance as Chairman Fred Hampton in  Judas and the Black Messiah (which hits theaters and HBO Max on Feb. 12 and earned the actor a Golden Globe nomination), it’s awesome to see Young Black Hollywood all over  Judas. From  Euphoria’s Algee Smith, there’s an array of Black talent that make up this cast. One member of the squad is Darrell Britt-Gibson, who’s spent the last 15 years playing everyone from O-Dog on  The Wire and Rolla on...

One of the most jarring notes in the 2018 Marvel film Black Panther is the character of Everett Ross, a white CIA operative who fights alongside Wakandans to defeat the Black militant Killmonger. Never mind that for decades, the real CIA surveilled and murdered many African revolutionaries and Black Panthers. Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman (also 2018) features a similar sugar coat, making Ron Stallworth, the Black cop who infiltrated the KKK, into a he...

Glen Wilson / Via Courtesy of Sundance Institute Produced by Ryan Coogler, the second feature from Shaka King is a formidable work of art. A late addition to the Sundance lineup, the film stars Daniel Kaluuya as Fred Hampton, the young chair of the Black Panther Party’s Illinois chapter, and Lakeith Stanfield as William O’Neal, the undercover FBI informant who joins the group and betrays them. Kaluuya carries a grounded gravitas and is nothing short of sensational in his tour de force por...

2021 Sundance Film Festival Review – Judas and the Black Messiah Co-written and directed by Shaka King. Starring Daniel Kaluuya, Lakeith Stanfield, Jesse Plemons, Dominique Fishback, Lil Rey Howery, Martin Sheen, Ashton Sanders, Algee Smith, Darrell Britt-Gibson, and Dominique Thorne. SYNOPSIS: The story of Fred Hampton, deputy chairman of the national Black Panther Party, who was assassinated in 1969 by a Cook County tactical unit on the orders of the FBI and Chicago Police Department. The s...

Judas and the Black Messiah review: this Black Panther biopic is a nuanced triumph Charlotte OSullivan Daniel Kaluuya gives a career-best performance (which rightly won a Golden Globe, and this week garnered a Bafta nomination) in this sly genre movie that director Shaka King likens to a “Trojan horse”. King’s using the language of war, but don’t be scared. The Black Messiah of the title is real-life Sixties revolutionary Fred Hampton (Kaluuya), who was assassinated by t...

In the coolly electrifying “Judas and the Black Messiah,” you can’t take your eyes off Daniel Kaluuya as Fred Hampton, the Black Panther Party leader who would become a 21-year-old martyr and revolutionary icon. One of the achievements of this movie, an expansive yet intimate chronicle of the events leading up to Hampton’s 1969 killing during a police raid on his Chicago apartment, is that it restores the man, for two hours at least, to some dramatic semblance of his former glory. Memor...

From left: Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield in Judas and the Black Messiah Yesterday’s powder keg, still simmering today. TWITTER 2/12/2021 Daniel Kaluuya stars as Fred Hampton with LaKeith Stanfield as the FBI informant who betrayed both the Illinois Black Panther Party chairman and himself in Shaka Kings powerhouse political drama. The 1969 killing at age 21 of Illinois Black Panther Party chairman Fred Hampton was a potent secondary plot point last year in Aaron Sorkins The Trial of t...

JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH Is Too Much Trauma, Not Enough Character Exploration Twitter 0 comments Not everyone knows about the Black Panther Party or the name Fred Hampton (as evidenced by my asking a nurse about the upcoming film, to which he asked blankly, “Who?”). Though lauded as an Oscar contender—as it should be, at least for Daniel Kaluuya’s charismatic performance— Judas and the Black Messiah will leave similar questions on audiences’ minds: who? what? and why? The film i...