Just Mercy (Destin Daniel Cretton, December 25,2019) Movie

also starring Tim Blake Nelson, Rafe Spall, Rob Morgan and O’Shea Jackson, Jr.

 

pretty stoked for this

 

Looking good

 

MBJ looking great

 

I thought this was pretty good. Felt a bit too safe at times but still decent. Some really good performances.

 

i kinda guessed this wouldn't top short term 12 for me, but yeah this was ultimately good enough. performances are as great as you probably heard (namely mbj and foxx, who might have had his best moment since collateral or ray here) and if my crowd was any indication, you'll have no problems feeling for these people. this is especially ringing true for a music-free scene towards the end that i thought was a real chef's kiss moment acting-wise between the leads

but i felt (disclaimer: white guy from boston possibly taking a wildly privileged stance) like it needed some more oomph in certain areas. can't shake the idea that the real story and stevenson's novel/source material could've given rise to something that might've gotten under the skin more than it did (not saying it didn't whatsoever.) hope people who see this movie end up disagreeing with me on that front and think i'm crazy.

i also think some folks might find the way certain racists in the film are portrayed might be too over the top for their tastes, but it's unquestionably not my place to deny that's what stevenson and others had to contend with. overall worth a watch at least for the story and the mostly solid treatment it's given. i'd also say it's not worth the oscar bait accusations it's gotten

 

Yeah, I think the scenes with the three men in the cell work the best out of the movie, to show how people behind bars support each other in very dark moments. It felt like some of the best parts of "Short Term 12." But I also feel like it was a bit sanitized, as we're told how McMillian's time behind bars haunted him for the rest of his life. We're never really shown (and I guess you could argue that we don't have to be shown) the psychological effect prison had on him.. I could have used more of that and less of Stevenson doing legal work.

But I think it's an effective, slow-moving drama that's a good primer on the injustices in the legal system. And MJB, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Tim Blake Nelson and Foxx are great.

 

I thought this okay, but nowhere near as good as ST12, imo.

 

anybody else see this since it went wide

 

plus, short term 12 has until about the 17th before it leaves netflix if you haven't seen that. possibly one of my favorites of the 2010s

 

it's impossible for me to fathom that this movie took place between 1989 and 1993, that is so recent and it seemed like such a foregone era; I know it isn't much better now
I thought the movie did a good job showing how the process ages you, Johnny D and Herbert were both like 50 and seemed so much older, and you saw Johnny D look more happy and youthful
it also did a good job I thought of showing how some people are just victims of the system
Brie Larson's accent was distracting but I loved that every bit of dialogue of hers was just like this is bullshit, that son of a bitch
also it was distracting how much Rafe Spall kinda looks like Ryan Reynolds

I still need to see Short Term 12, I know I know

 

This was good. Short Term 12 is a high bar to set and Cretton has yet to reach it since, but his work is always so overflowing with care for his characters and I enjoy that about him. Not a particularly nuanced film, but it might not have to be, and there are enough elements of awareness of complexities that, even though the work doesn’t address them in detail, it was slightly more than a feel-good, pat yourself on the back movie.

 

VOD 3/24

 

hbo 9/26