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'just mercy': an earnest, effective legal drama.

Andrew Lapin

Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) defends wrongly condemned Walter McMillan (Jamie Foxx) in Destin Daniel Cretton's film. Jake Giles Netter/Warner Bros. hide caption

Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) defends wrongly condemned Walter McMillan (Jamie Foxx) in Destin Daniel Cretton's film.

Just Mercy , the attorney Bryan Stevenson's 2014 bestseller, has already become a touchstone of criminal justice writing for helping change the conversation around capital punishment in America. It tells the true story of Stevenson's efforts to free a poor black man in Alabama, Walter McMillian, who spent six years on death row for a murder he plainly did not commit, imprisoned on flimsy evidence brought forward by a white sheriff and district attorney.

The invocation of race, class, and setting in McMillian's case is unmissable — particularly since he was from Monroeville, Alabama, home of Harper Lee and To Kill A Mockingbird , and residents seemed to be living out a remake of her novel with zero lessons learned. We're in a climate of heightened public awareness around these disparities in the criminal justice system, which means stories like this have become cultural flashpoints for reasons entirely beyond the crime itself. Case in point: The new film adaptation of Just Mercy opens one week after Curtis Flowers, a black man in Mississippi, found his own temporary relief from a two-decade legal saga that mirrors McMillian's own.

With all this weighted context, the fact that Just Mercy works is a pleasant surprise. Not only does the drama grant respect and dignity to the key figures of the original case, but writer-director Destin Daniel Cretton (adapting the book with co-writer Andrew Lanham) also touches on larger issues about the morality of the death penalty at large. The delayed exoneration of an innocent black man is a relatively straightforward narrative, one that tracks easily with audience sympathies (although the fact that this happened in the '90s, instead of the '50s, should disturb people). But to use McMillian's story to ask whether anyone , even the guilty, deserves the electric chair? That's a much thornier, more unsettling question, one more befitting the life's work of its hero.

N.C. Supreme Court Hears Arguments On Racial Bias In Death Penalty Cases

We follow Stevenson as he moves to Montgomery in 1989 to found the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit that provides legal assistance to death row cases in Alabama. The attorney is played by Michael B. Jordan, who's also a producer (as is Stevenson himself). Jordan's best-known roles ( Creed, Black Panther ) have him playing the brash young upstart with swagger for days, but here he has to bury his charisma underneath stuffy suits, legalese, and general unease. For once, his character's inexperience and outsider status work against him, although Jordan's never quite able to demonstrate what exactly is motivating this Harvard-educated Delaware native to voluntarily move to the Deep South to work on capital punishment cases for no money. The film's answer is essentially naked idealism, which is fine as things go, but it makes Stevenson seem more like a do-gooder cipher than a character.

Stevenson soon finds his ideal case in McMillian (Jamie Foxx), whose conviction for the murder of an 18-year-old white woman rested almost entirely on some fantastical witness testimony. Foxx's performance is a subtle balancing act, making McMillian a simple figure who has also seen his good faith hardened by years of unfair treatment. In testy exchanges, he maintains his innocence while also accepting, on some level, that death row has become his home.

Cretton doesn't dramatize the actual murder, keeping the film from drifting too far into lurid true-crime territory. He focuses instead on Stevenson's efforts to win the trust of McMillian's family, challenge the unsympathetic district attorney (Rafe Spall), convince a key witness (Tim Blake Nelson) to recant his testimony, and attempt to aid other men on death row at the same time. In a deeply affecting subplot, the great actor Rob Morgan ( Mudbound ) plays a mentally ill veteran who, though he's responsible for an innocent's death, is nevertheless a thinking, feeling person who must live with the knowledge that the electric chair awaits him. The scene in which he's prepared for his execution, eyebrows shaved off in silence amid the harsh yellow glare of the prison, is a vital reminder that we cannot look away from that which we choose to condone.

That Cretton makes this ambitious message work at all is in itself a sigh of relief. He's a big-hearted filmmaker with an eye for social causes, but the brilliance of his breakout film, the tender foster-care drama Short Term 12 ,was followed by the tone-deaf calamity of the memoir adaptation The Glass Castle , a movie incapable of recognizing the difference between eccentricity and outright abuse. Both starred Brie Larson, who also has a supporting role here, and though she's playing a real person (EJI's longtime operations director Eva Ansley), the script gives her no functional narrative purpose except to allow the audience to see a white face on the side of justice. In those moments and others, like a brief scene that makes no fewer than three heavily underlined references to Mockingbird , there are hints that Cretton may be too overwhelmed with the principle of what he's filming to do it justice as a film.

But ultimately Cretton pays enough attention to the tough details of McMillian's journey, and to the harsh realities of capital punishment and racism it prompts, to sell Just Mercy 's unflagging earnestness. What this movie really does well is bring the straightforward politics of a Mockingbird -esque crusading legal drama into our modern dialogue around mass incarceration and the death penalty. And even the happy ending leaves us with the unsettling knowledge that we're still far too deep in these woods.

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‘Just Mercy’ Review: Echoes of Jim Crow on Alabama’s Death Row

Jamie Foxx and Michael B. Jordan star in an adaptation of a memoir by the civil rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson.

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‘Just Mercy’ | Anatomy of a Scene

Destin daniel cretton narrates a sequence from his film, featuring jamie foxx and rob morgan..

“Hi, my name is Destin Cretton. I’m the director of ‘Just Mercy.’ This is a scene between Walter McMillian. Played by Jamie Foxx, and Herbert Richardson, played by Rob Morgan. And they are in cells on death row in Alabama. They share a wall. They’re directly next to each other. And one of the really interesting things that I learned from speaking with Anthony Ray Hinton, who was on death row in Holman Prison for 30 years for a crime he did not commit, was the camaraderie and relationships that they had between jailmates that were completely based on conversations they were having without being able to see each other. Bryan Stevenson said in his book that you cannot really fully understand a problem unless you allow yourself to get very close to it. And that was something that we were playing with with the camera, was leading up to this very scene. The cameras started off wider on these characters. And this was the scene where we actually bring the camera as close as possible to both Walter McMillian and Herbert Richardson. And I mean, you’ll see how close we are. Their eyes are in focus. Their nose is out of focus. And the camera was literally a couple inches from their faces.” “In and out.” [BREATHING DEEPLY] “Now close your eyes.” “Our DP, Brett Pollock, was really wanting to shoot all of these jail cells scenes as close to reality as possible. So in this scene in particular, there really is just the light source that’s coming in from outside the jail cell, which gives this kind of amber hue. That is really going to be a big contrast to the moment when we go outside through Walter McMillian’s escape vision in his mind that takes him back to the moment in the beginning of the movie when he is out in the forest and looking up at the trees. To capture the performances of this scene, we actually shot with two cameras running simultaneously, with Jamie Foxx in one cell and Rob Morgan in the other— which was very helpful for a scene like this, because it was quite loose. And it allowed the two actors to really be in it and respond to each other. And both sides of the conversation were captured. So we didn’t have to do too many editing tricks for this scene.” “I don’t want you to think about nothing else. Just keep your mind on that. Everything gonna be aight.”

By A.O. Scott

Bryan Stevenson’s “Just Mercy” is a painful, beautiful, revelatory book, the kind of reading experience that can permanently alter your understanding of the world. Partly a memoir of Stevenson’s career as an activist and a lawyer specializing in death-penalty appeals, it is also a meditation on history and political morality, a clearsighted and compassionate reckoning with racism, poverty and their effects on the American criminal justice system.

The new film based on the book, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton ( “Short Term 12” ) from a script he wrote with Andrew Lanham, conveys at least some of its gravity and urgency. It focuses on an early, pivotal episode in Stevenson’s career, when he represented Walter McMillian, an Alabama man who had been sentenced to die for a murder and who insisted on his innocence.

Stevenson, played by Michael B. Jordan, is a recent graduate of Harvard Law School who arrives in Alabama in the late 1980s with a quiet idealism that many of the locals — both those who are hostile to his cause and those who support it — take for naïveté. They gently and less gently suggest that as a native of Delaware with a northern education, he can’t possibly understand the tenacity of white Southern habits of racial domination, which some of the white residents insist are not racist at all. McMillian himself, known to his family and neighbors as Johnny D (and played by Jamie Foxx), at first refuses Stevenson’s help. The injustice of his trial was so blatant that opposing it seems almost like a waste of time. Other lawyers have come and gone, taking money from Johnny D’s wife, Minnie (Karan Kendrick), and leaving him to languish on death row.

The drama of “Just Mercy” is mostly procedural. Stevenson and his colleagues, including Eva Ansley (Brie Larson), work to establish Johnny D’s alibi and to challenge the testimony of a dubious witness (Tim Blake Nelson). Stevenson also runs up against the malevolent arrogance of the sheriff (Michael Harding) who led the investigation and the duplicity of the new district attorney (Rafe Spall), whose initial politeness turns to condescension and contempt.

What is clear is that Stevenson isn’t just challenging a single conviction, but also the deep legacies of slavery and Jim Crow. Like many of the lynching victims of the past, Johnny D threatened racial hierarchies, both because he was economically independent (owning a successful pulpwood business) and because of an affair he had with a white woman. His adultery is painful for Minnie and their children, and represents an unacceptable transgression of racial and sexual taboos to the sheriff and other white people.

Jordan plays Stevenson as a man of heroic decency, but this kind of role comes with constraints. He is consistently admirable but not always dramatically interesting, and whatever fear, doubt or anguish he experiences in his work is telegraphed through speeches and music-heavy moments. His inner life is a territory the film leaves unexplored.

“Just Mercy” is saved from being an earnest, inert courtroom drama when it spends time on death row, where it is opened up and given depth by two strong, subtle performances, from Foxx and Rob Morgan. Foxx, 15 years after his Oscar-winning turn in “Ray,” still somehow seems underrated and underutilized. Johnny D provides a welcome reminder of how good he can be; he conveys the man’s guardedness and his vulnerability, his kindness and his fury, with the smallest eye movements and vocal inflections, which makes the big emotional scenes all the more powerful.

But it’s Morgan, as Herbert Richardson, another inmate awaiting execution, who leaves the deepest impression. Richardson, a Vietnam veteran, doesn’t deny his guilt, and the mixture of remorse, terror and simple grief he feels as he contemplates his fate is heartbreaking. Morgan keeps doing remarkable work (in “Mudbound” and “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” as well as on the Netflix series “Stranger Things”), and he deserves a louder fanfare.

Rated PG-13. Discussions of murder and execution, but very little on-screen violence. Running time: 2 hours 16 minutes.

A.O. Scott is the co-chief film critic. He joined The Times in 2000 and has written for the Book Review and The New York Times Magazine. He is also the author of “Better Living Through Criticism.” More about A.O. Scott

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Just Mercy review – star power lifts sturdy, emotive legal drama

Full-blooded performances from Michael B Jordan and Jamie Foxx add weight to a powerful, if by-the-numbers, fact-based tale

I t’s hard to fault either the intention or the emotion behind the fact-based legal drama Just Mercy, a sturdy retelling of one of the influential lawyer and social justice activist Bryan Stevenson’s most enraging cases. It’s also damn near impossible to fault the performances of Michael B Jordan as Stevenson and Jamie Foxx as his client, both as good as they’ve ever been. But instead it’s director Destin Daniel Cretton, whose breakout indie Short Term 12 showed such promise, who can’t quite rise to the material or his performers, choosing anonymity over ferocity, making the dullest, safest decision at every turn. It’s not enough to topple the fascinating true story at his film’s centre but it does have a frustrating, flattening effect.

Stevenson, whose legend seems to rise with each year (most recently thanks to an HBO documentary), graduated from Harvard with a dream of making a difference. But unlike many of his peers, his idealism was focused on those at the very bottom of the food chain, death row inmates whom the system had deemed unworthy of due process. In the late 80s he started the Equal Justice Initiative to help right these wrongs and, in some cases, exonerate those who had been wrongly imprisoned.

In the film, he starts meeting prisoners and quickly discovers both the depth of the epidemic and his naivety over how much he can really achieve. When he hears about Walter “Johnny D” McMillian, a man who claims he’s been wrongfully accused of murder, he’s appalled and engaged in equal amounts, inserting himself into the case even if McMillian remains unsure. As he delves further and starts to construct enough evidence for a retrial, he finds the system unwilling to bend for the truth.

The mechanics of the plot might be familiar but the facts of McMillian’s case are so utterly infuriating that Stevenson’s dogged search for justice remains involving throughout. As he explains late in the film, the racial profiling that led local authorities to pin a violent murder on McMillian was, and depressingly still is, indicative of a system that deprioritises people of colour and people living in poorer communities. The case became a blueprint of sorts for Stevenson and given how the specifics don’t sound too dissimilar to cases 30 years on, there’s poignant prescience in its retelling. The facts make us angry enough and so Creton and co-writer Andrew Lanham’s decision to turn the film’s vile bigots, led up by a hammy Rafe Spall, into cartoonish villains snarling from the wings has a hindering effect. It distracts from the reality of the case and of ongoing cases such as this, turning racists into pantomime bad guys rather than presenting them far more chillingly as real people who have normalised their hatred.

The film is far more successful in its portrayal of the good guys. As the woman who helped Stevenson set up his non-profit, Brie Larson is solid but it’s the two men at the film’s centre who truly steal our attention. Jordan’s movie star credentials have been affirmed time and time again at this stage but it remains a joy to see him lead and here he dials back his trademark charm for a more understated turn that remains as effective as anything we’ve seen him do. Stevenson believed in fairness above all else and the scenes that cut deepest are when we see Jordan’s quiet outrage at how race tips the scale, for him and for those around him. His heroism is that much more effective because of the simplicity underpinning it and Jordan’s performance. He’s a man of the law who wants a just system, regardless of race and income, and it’s humbling and stirring to see him try to achieve this. Foxx hasn’t done much that’s memorable for so long now that it’s easy to forget just what an accomplished actor he is but he’s excellent here, avoiding an overly mannered character bit and delivering a powerfully restrained portrait of a man who just wants to go home.

Both performances could well enter the awards race but the film suffers from Creton’s workmanlike direction. The score, the cinematography, the film’s overall feel – it didn’t need to be this overwhelmingly average. I understand the need to allow the facts breathing space but still, a punchier, angrier, more confidently made film would have been possible without distracting from the truth.

Just Mercy is a straightforward, no-frills drama that does have an undeniably emotive effect. The finale in particular, although it perhaps goes one big speech too far, is incredibly moving and the film’s epilogue reminds you that Stevenson’s brave, important work is sadly not over.

Just Mercy is showing at the Toronto film festival and will be released in the US on 25 December and in the UK in 2020

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‘just mercy’: film review | tiff 2019.

THR review: Before entering the Marvel universe with 2021's 'Shang-Chi,' Destin Daniel Cretton offers 'Just Mercy,' an Earthbound story of justice starring Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx.

By John DeFore

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A straightforward biopic that views one American’s long career of fighting injustice through the lens of an early victory he won in Alabama, Destin Daniel Cretton’s Just Mercy stars Michael B. Jordan as Bryan Stevenson, founder of that state’s Equal Justice Initiative. Having spent three decades overturning the convictions of the wrongly imprisoned and defending anyone on death row, Stevenson has been at the vanguard of a righteous fight. So it’s not surprising if the film’s edge is somewhat dulled by respect for its subject, who’s drawn here as more hero than man. A sturdy example of this genre, in which persistence and faith lead to the righting of terrible wrongs, it will likely move younger viewers who haven’t seen many like it. Those of us who have seen truly exceptional examples (in both feature and documentary form) will be content to admire Stevenson himself, and to enjoy a rich performance by Jamie Foxx as the man he saved from the electric chair.

Foxx plays small-town entrepreneur Walter McMillian, introduced to viewers in a moment of transcendence through labor: Having just felled a tall tree, he gazes up at the hole he has just opened into the sky. It’s the closest he’ll get to freedom for a long time, as he’s arrested on the drive home by cops who are longing for an excuse to shoot him on the spot. McMillian is accused of the long-unsolved murder of a local white girl and, in a parody of justice, he’s quickly sentenced to death — despite there being no physical evidence and a multitude of witnesses (all black, unfortunately) backing up his alibi.

Release date: Jan 10, 2020

Around the same period, Stevenson, a Harvard law student, is working as an intern in Georgia, where he shares a human moment with a death-row inmate whose background is similar to his own. He finishes school and, over the protests of his fearful mother, moves south to defend death-row inmates free of charge. (The script, by Cretton and Andrew Lanham, might have tossed us two lines explaining how he manages to support himself.)

In Alabama, Stevenson quickly learns how resistant the white establishment is to those who sympathize with felons. In scenes that occasionally echo some of Sidney Poitier’s onscreen confrontations with bigotry, he is stalked by men in police cruisers, kicked out of the office he has rented and even strip-searched when he first visits new clients in prison — demeaned by a bland-faced guard who grins at his humiliation.

A local who has signed on as his paralegal, Eva Ansley (frequent Cretton collaborator Brie Larson , in a throwaway sidekick role), lets her boss move into and work out of her home, sharing work space with her son’s toys. But as their work raises eyebrows in town, the situation becomes difficult: Older viewers will immediately know that when a phone rings at night, and a young boy says, “It’s for you, Mom,” there’s about to be a racist on the line issuing death threats.

Of all the incarcerated men whose cases Stevenson takes up, McMillian’s a holdout — sure that fighting his conviction is pointless and that this young lawyer will be no better than the last, who disappeared as soon as the family’s money ran out. (Bryan hears lots of variants of “that’s exactly what the last guy said.”) But when Stevenson arranges a meeting with Walter’s wife (Karan Kendrick) and supporters, his seriousness is impossible to deny. Walter agrees to work with him, setting the film on its largely familiar procedural trek through shocking evidence of malfeasance, thwarted legal maneuvers and eventual triumph in a courtroom bathed in sunlight.

The story is most involving at its margins: Walter’s friendships with the men (O’Shea Jackson and Rob Morgan) stuck in the cells next to his, for example; or scenes in which Stevenson tries to get the felon whose false testimony got McMillian convicted (Tim Blake Nelson) to admit that he lied. And in one or two harrowing moments, the film communicates the way Stevenson’s up-close interaction with the institution of capital punishment informed his work. But as played by Jordan, this crusader is more Boy Scout than Erin Brockovich — a steadfast champion of the downtrodden with none of the complications that make characters breathe onscreen.

Jordan serves as straight man for the beaten-down magnetism of Foxx, whose character understands things about the world the younger man can’t fathom. A couple of Foxx’s scenes are transfixing enough to make you hold your breath without realizing it. The big courtroom moments the pic constructs for Stevenson, by contrast, sound like prepackaged American idealism. That’s not to deny that everything he says is 100 percent true; but speeches don’t always make for great movies, even in courtrooms where they beg to be delivered.

Production companies: Gil Netter Productions, Outlier Society Distributor: Warner Bros. Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, Brie Larson, Rob Morgan, Tim Blake Nelson, Rafe Spall, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Karan Kendrick Director: Destin Daniel Cretton Screenwriters: Destin Daniel Cretton, Andrew Lanham Producers: Gil Netter, Asher Goldstein, Michael B. Jordan Executive producers: Mike Drake, Daniel Hammond, Gabriel Hammond, Michael B. Jordan, Charles D. King, Niija Kuykendall, Bryan Stevenson, Jeff Skoll Director of photography: Brett Pawlak Production designer: Sharon Seymour Costume designer: Francine Jamison-Tanchuck Editor: Nat Sanders Composer: Joel P. West Casting director: Carmen Cuba Venue: Toronto International Film Festival (Gala Presentations)

Rated PG-13, 136 minutes

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• Just Mercy is a powerful argument against the death penalty

The film — based on Bryan Stevenson’s book and starring Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx — is flawed but vital.

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Share All sharing options for: Just Mercy is a powerful argument against the death penalty

The American practice of capital punishment is inextricably linked to much of what’s wrong with our justice system — its focus on punitive rather than restorative measures; its indisputable bias against the poor, mentally ill, and marginalized; its captivity to racial bias . These issues aren’t up for much debate.

But despite support for abolishing or at least reforming the death penalty from both progressives and a healthy number of pro-life conservatives , it’s also not something most Americans have to think about a lot. Few people find their own lives touched by the death penalty, and it’s in the best interests of its supporters not to say much about the details in public.

Since 1976, for every nine Americans executed by the state, one is exonerated and released from death row — a margin of error that should terrify us all. (And yet, after years of decline, American support for the death penalty ticked up in 2018.)

That’s precisely what Just Mercy , a true story that will set your sense of injustice ablaze, aims to change.

Just Mercy is a story of idealism that becomes tempered by reality and sharpened by injustice

Based on Bryan Stevenson ’s bestselling 2014 memoir of the same name, Just Mercy tells the story of Stevenson’s early career as an attorney working to reverse wrongful convictions in Alabama and details the founding of his organization, the Equal Justice Initiative . The film focuses on the case of Walter “Johnny D” McMillian, a poor black man who was arrested in 1987 for the murder of an 18-year-old white girl and convicted based on testimony that later turned out to be fabricated. After years of legal battles, McMillian’s story became a national case, and his convictions were at last reversed in 1993.

It is a plainly infuriating story, and Just Mercy doesn’t try to disguise its most angering aspects: the racism and bias against the poor that led to McMillian’s conviction; the twisting of the pursuit of justice into the pursuit of reputation; the ways the powerful protect their own.

And the film is smartly designed to deliver its message into as many hearts as possible. Directed and co-written by Destin Daniel Cretton ( Short Term 12 , The Glass Castle , and Marvel’s upcoming Eternals ), Just Mercy stars a bevy of actors who get audiences in the door, led by Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, and Brie Larson. Foxx’s performance, in particular, seems like a solid bet for an Oscar nod.

Jordan plays Stevenson, a recent Harvard Law graduate raised in Delaware who feels compelled, after completing an internship in Alabama during law school, to take the state’s bar and move south to work with death row inmates. His mother is angry at him — she’s afraid of what will happen to a black man in the deep south who dares to take on that task — but he’s full of ideals and undeterred. (He’s also driven by his faith, something the film conveys mostly through visual cues, such as when he prays with inmates, but was a big part of Stevenson’s real-life motivation .)

Stevenson arrives in Monroeville, Alabama — the county where Harper Lee wrote To Kill a Mockingbird , many residents, including the white district attorney, proudly inform him. People keep telling him to go to “the Mockingbird museum”; it’s “one of the most significant civil rights landmarks in the south,” the DA says.

But what Stevenson finds in Monroeville is a death row full of inmates who seem to have ended up there for reasons that are less than just. Even Herbert Richardson (Rob Morgan) — who confesses immediately to Stevenson that he did what he’s been convicted of doing — is obviously mentally ill, suffering from PTSD following a harrowing tour of duty in Vietnam.

In reviewing his new case load along with local advocate Eva Ansley (Larson), Stevenson realizes that the conviction of one inmate in particular, McMillian (Foxx), is almost certainly wrong. The further he digs into the case, the more he realizes that it’s linked to some of Monroeville’s ugliest attitudes and secrets. The entire case against McMillian is based on testimony from a convicted murderer (Tim Blake Nelson) who was offered a plea deal in exchange for fingering McMillian.

Stevenson and Ansley know the whole thing stinks. But their quest to reverse McMillian and others’ convictions fly right in the face of the powerful, and Stevenson’s experiences with McMillian begin to change the shape of his own idealism.

Just Mercy has some key storytelling flaws, but is still worth watching

Just Mercy ’s greatest strength as a film is its true story, and Cretton chooses to keep the focus on the plot. The movie is structured like a straight-ahead procedural, with all the usual beats. It’s more workmanlike than imaginatively scripted or shot, which is a little disappointing — there was certainly an opportunity to set the film apart from other procedural films or movies about death row, but this one sticks to familiar vocabulary.

And in following that template, it also falls into a distressing rut. McMillian, after all, was innocent. And it’s easy to get indignant on behalf of the wrongfully convicted.

But by dint of McMillian’s story being the easiest sell to the audience, someone like Richardson — who did in fact commit the crime — ends up as a side story, albeit one that’s powerfully told and embodied by Morgan. As the Equal Justice Initiative’s website argues , the death penalty is rooted in the practice of lynching, and there are myriad arguments, both practical and philosophical, for why people who are not innocent still ought not to be executed by the state.

Still, the film's point comes across by the end: Not only is capital punishment barbaric, but the system that orchestrates it is grossly flawed. Several time, the film illustrates how the threat of the electric chair is used to coerce and intimidate people who have not even been convicted (McMillian was put on death row a year before his trial). Fear, as a tool wielded by those who enforce and enact the law, should have no place in the pursuit of justice and the protection of innocence. But it does, all the same.

And that should matter to everyone who cares about a just society. Not every American will know someone personally touched by the death penalty. But shifting how we think about capital punishment will shift the way we think about what the justice system is for. (We are, after all, governed by a president who brashly, publicly called for the execution of five teenagers in 1989 , and refuses to recant even after their exoneration, saying their coerced testimonies should still be taken as fact — a rhetorical move that will seem familiar after you see Just Mercy .)

In spite of its shortcomings, Just Mercy is still the sort of film that’s worth watching and absorbing and discussing, because the story it tells has not stopped being relevant in the decades since Stevenson and McMillian met. America’s history of injustice has not gotten less dark in recent years. And we cannot willfully blind ourselves when our brothers’ and sisters’ blood continues to cry out from the ground .

Just Mercy premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. It opens in theaters on Christmas Day.

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Sliding comfortably into genre terrain, director Valérie Donzelli still brings a raw emotional edge to this story of a woman terrorized by her seemingly ideal husband.

By Guy Lodge

Film Critic

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Thus isolating his wife from her family, Grégoire proceeds to follow the abuser’s playbook to the letter, limiting their social circle and activities, and guilt-tripping Blanche over any perceived deviations from her duties to him and their two children. When, desperate for release, she finally hooks up with a kindly stranger via an app, Grégoire senses her transgression, his possessive instincts going into violent, torturous overdrive — finally sending Blanche into fight-or-flight mode. This pivot is signalled throughout by a plain framing device, as Blanche shares her story to this point with an attentive lawyer (Dominique Reymond), yet “Just the Two of Us” insists we’re never comfortably assured of her safety and stability: The potentially cruel uncertainties of the legal system lie gapingly ahead.

This kind of story has been more luridly told in such potboilers as the 1991 Julia Roberts vehicle “Sleeping With the Enemy,” but Donzelli and Diwan’s tight, no-nonsense script — adapted from Éric Reinhardt’s well-regarded novel “L’amour et les forêts” — has little time for cheaply contrived imperilment of its protagonist, instead focusing on the cumulative everyday anxiety of living with domestic violence and mental cruelty, to increasingly suffocating, disorienting effect. (“Why did you let me do this?” Grégoire asks Blanche after one attack; she’s at risk of internalizing such victim-blaming.) If the film feels a little compressed in its second half, with a clutter of secondary characters who may have had more breathing room on the page, it nonetheless culminates in a gratifying gesture of faith in female community.

Efira’s pained, physically demanding performance cycles through a range of survival modes, from brazen defiance to passive, energy-conserving acquiescence; Poupaud makes for a frightening, steadily relentless tormentor, while still retaining flashes of the seducer who snared his prey in the first place. The film’s restrained though starkly canal sex scenes, edited so briskly by Pauline Gaillard as to resemble sense memories, feel significant in this regard — not merely furnishing the film’s erotic-thriller trappings, but making visceral sense of a near-fatal attraction.

Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (Cannes Premiere), May 25, 2023. Running time: 104 MIN. (Original title: "L'amour et les forêts")

• Production: (France) A Rectangle Prods. production in co-production with France 2 Cinéma, Les Films de Françoise in association with Sofitvcine 10, Indéfilms 11, La Banque Postale Image 16. (World sales: Goodfellas, Paris.) Producers: Alice Girard, Edouard Weil.
• Crew: Director: Valérie Donzelli. Screenplay: Donzelli, Audrey Diwan, based on the novel by Éric Reinhardt. Camera: Laurent Tangy. Editor: Pauline Gaillard. Music: Gabriel Yared.
• With: Virginie Efira, Melvil Poupaud, Dominique Reymond, Romane Bohringer, Virginie Ledoyen, Marie Rivière, Guang Huo, Laurence Côte, Bertrand Belin.

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Just Wright

• Comedy , Drama , Romance , Sports

Content Caution

In Theaters

• May 14, 2010
• Queen Latifah as Leslie Wright; Common as Scott McKnight; Paula Patton as Morgan Alexander; Phylicia Rashad as Ella McKnight; James Pickens Jr. as Lloyd Wright

Home Release Date

• September 14, 2010
• Sanaa Hamri

Distributor

• Fox Searchlight

Movie Review

Leslie Wright is a likeable girl-next-door. She’s a hard worker. She’s easy to talk to. She loves her family. And she’s a diehard hoops fan. Even though life pelts her over and over with bargain-priced lemons, she’s got the gumption to keep making the best lemonade you’ve ever tasted.

All those positive traits make Leslie a great daughter, a wonderful friend and an excellent physical therapist. But, unfortunately, they haven’t landed the thirtysomething gal any good marriage prospects. Leslie has to admit that she’s just not one of those picture-perfect beauties who turn men’s heads.

Her gorgeous roommate/godsister Morgan, on the other hand, is quite used to guys straining their necks as she passes by. So when Leslie accidentally befriends NBA All-Star Scott McKnight, the self-serving Morgan uses all her bedazzling skills to immediately take home-court advantage.

But things can change quickly in the game of basketball … and the game of love. When Scott blows out a knee, Leslie comes to the rescue to nurse him back to health. And as the ballplayer struggles to get back on his feet and save his career, he starts seeing the very special woman behind the very gifted therapist.

Suddenly, Ms. Wright is looking a lot like Miss Right.

Positive Elements

Both Leslie and Scott have solid relationships with their respective parents. And the movie links those loving connections to the pair’s relatively good understanding of what constitutes a healthy relationship. Scott publicly praises his mother’s guidance. And though he has many female “admirers,” Scott’s set on having a committed marriage. Even gold digger Morgan admits, “When you’re in love you get married and start a family,” though she doesn’t always stand by that maxim.

Leslie’s parents state that they’ve had a long, loving marriage. And Dad repeatedly reaches out to show love and support for his daughter. Just Wright also stresses how important friendship, common interests and dedication are to a loving partnership.

Leslie’s hard work in her profession pays off when NBA teams call to hire her as a team physical trainer.

Sexual Content

Tight, cleavage-baring dresses and tops are the outfit of choice for the majority of young women here. Several of Leslie’s dresses are very low-cut as well. A number of the women—particularly Morgan—use their revealing ensembles to purposely gain ogling attention from men … and the camera, which slowly travels up Morgan’s body as she stretches out in bed wearing a T-shirt and skimpy shorts.

Scott is shirtless on several occasions while either exercising or in bed. A female physical therapist, dressed in a curve-hugging top and shorts, leans on Scott suggestively as she works on the prone ballplayer’s knee ligaments.

Scott and Morgan kiss repeatedly. After a romantic dinner, Scott and Leslie embrace and kiss passionately, and are then seen entwined in lovemaking under the sheets. We see Leslie in bed the next morning, too, with the sheet barely covering her chest.

Violent Content

Some typical elbowing and body-thumping sports action is on display. Scott falls to the court at one point, gripping his knee and writhing in pain after tearing a posterior cruciate ligament (PCL).

Crude or Profane Language

One s-word along with a use or two each of “h‑‑‑,” “a‑‑” and “d‑‑n.” One unfinished “what the …” and a half-dozen or more exclamations of “oh my god.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

Hard alcohol, champagne, beer and wine all flow freely—both in crowded party scenes and more intimate moments in bars and restaurants. That allows the movie’s central characters to drink liberally. While on a blind date, for instance, Leslie and her companion drink multiple glasses of wine and hard liquor. She suggests to him, “Let’s get toasted.” A depressed Scott is shown asleep in bed with a handful of empty beer bottles on his night table.

Other Negative Elements

Morgan rebukes Leslie for just “being herself” on a date. “You’re not supposed to show him your regular self until you’re five years into the marriage,” she declares. Later, when Leslie asks Morgan if she plans on getting a job, her roommate reports that her job is to become an “NBA trophy wife.” In the process of reaching that goal, Morgan lies about her charity work. And when Scott’s first therapist shows up, a jealous Morgan reports, “Some people have got ‘gaydar,’ but I’ve got ‘hodar’ and this woman’s a ho.”

There’s no question that Just Wright is something of a Cinderella tale. Leslie Wright is every inch an appealing princess of the common folk—who’s much more concerned with the content of her heart and the strength of her character than the designer labels on her dress and glass slippers. (Maybe high-tech polymer sneakers would be more fitting in this case.) Scott McKnight is definitely a handsome, gentleman prince, on and off his royal basketball court.

Yes, their modernized love story is easily recognizable and inviting. Never mind that it trims the bad guys down to one manipulative godsister, doing away with the idea of the wicked stepmother altogether.

For all of its positives, though, this happily-ever-after yarn proffers a kingdom where it’s quite acceptable for maidens to slip in and out of the prince’s bedchamber. Even our goodly heroine finds herself between his sheets while the sporting lord of the realm tries to figure out which lass will end up with his crown.

Some may say that slip in virtue is only a small blunder in an oft-told tale. I say it’s a disappointing update. It certainly muddies the happy ending and mocks all those admirable moments of love and integrity family viewers will also take away from it.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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‘Civil War’: What you need to know about A24’s dystopian action movie

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A24’s “Civil War,” the latest film from “Ex Machina” and “Men” director Alex Garland , imagines a third-term president ruling over a divided America and follows the journalists driving through the war-torn countryside on a mission to land his final interview. The movie is pulse-pounding and contemplative, as the characters tumble from one tense encounter to the next and ruminate on the nature of journalism and wartime photography.

In his review of the film, The Times’ Joshua Rothkopf wrote, “‘Civil War’ will remind you of the great combat films , the nauseating artillery ping of ‘Saving Private Ryan,’ the surreal up-is-down journey of ‘Apocalypse Now.’ It also bears a pronounced connection to the 2002 zombie road movie scripted by its writer-director Alex Garland, ‘28 Days Later.’”

Starring Kirsten Dunst and Cailee Spaeny as photojournalists, alongside Wagner Moura and Stephen McKinley Henderson (and a scene-stealing, nerve-racking Jesse Plemons ), the film carries a reported production budget of $50 million and has already started to recoup the costs at the box office, earning $25.7 million in ticket sales in its first weekend in North America.

“Civil War” has also been a discourse juggernaut. Conversation on social media has focused on the lack of context given for the conflict at the heart of the film. In a recent column, The Times’ Mary McNamara wrote that “forcing the very real political divisions that plague this nation into vague subtext doesn’t even serve the purported pro-journalism nature of ‘Civil War.’”

Catch up on our coverage of the film below.

Review: ‘Civil War’ shows an America long past unraveling, which makes it necessary

Starring Kirsten Dunst and Cailee Spaeny as journalists chronicling a war at home, writer-director Alex Garland’s action film provokes a shudder of recognition.

April 11, 2024

Kirsten Dunst and Cailee Spaeny on the nightmarish ‘Civil War’: ‘No nation is immune’

Writer-director Alex Garland’s controversy-courting political fable about a violently divided America brings together two generation-defining actors.

April 4, 2024

What ‘Civil War’ gets right and wrong about photojournalism, according to a Pulitzer Prize winner

Carolyn Cole, a veteran L.A. Times photographer who won a Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of civil war in Liberia, breaks down the depiction of her profession in A24’s ‘Civil War.’

April 16, 2024

Inside the most unnerving scene in ‘Civil War’: ‘It was a stunning bit of good luck’

With a deeply disturbing turn by Jesse Plemons, one scene in “Civil War” encapsulates the film’s combustible political balancing act. It almost didn’t happen.

April 12, 2024

In trying to hedge its politics, ‘Civil War’ betrays its characters — and the audience

Alex Garland’s powerful war drama is ostensibly a tribute to the fourth estate. But the film is absent the examination of causes and consequences central to great journalism.

April 15, 2024

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The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time.

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Zendaya's new sports drama just beat ‘Dune Part Two’ as my favorite movie of 2024

“Challengers” is an engrossing drama with three grand slam performances

When I walked out of my local theater after watching a midnight screening of “Dune Part Two” in early March, I knew it would take something special to challenge the blockbuster sci-fi epic for the title of my favorite movie of 2024. And that movie has arrived in the form of “Challengers.”

This romantic drama set in the world of professional tennis was on my radar partially because I love a good sports movie, and also because I’ve been playing a load of TopSpin 2K25 on PS5 lately, so I’m in a real tennis-y mood right now. 

However, even with very positive early buzz from critics, I didn’t expect “Challengers” to be so good that I’m debating if it’s my No. 1 pick for my favorite movie of 2024 (so far). Here’s why “Challengers” is giving “Dune Part Two” a run for its money in my personal ranking.

‘Challengers’ is more dramatic than a Wimbledon final 

“Challengers” centers on the shifting dynamic between three people: Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) and Art Donaldson (Mike Faist).

Art is a former top tennis player enduring a dry spell, trying to get back on his game, while Tashi is his wife and coach, as well as a former prodigy herself whose potential was curtailed by a career-ending injury. Patrick is Art’s former best friend and Tashi’s former boyfriend. Oh, and Art and Patrick are facing off in a tournament final. 

That’s a setup ripe for plenty of drama, and I especially love the way “Challengers” presents its story. The movie opens during the first set of Art and Patrick’s tennis match, and then frequent flashbacks fill in the details and explore how each character came to be in their current headspace . While this story structure is hardly original (lots of movies use flashbacks), it’s used effectively to slowly peel back the layers and drip-feed the audience new information that adds to the overall picture.  

Directed by Luca Guadagnino, “Challengers” isn’t really about the sport of tennis, but more of a character study of three seriously fascinating characters. The standout is Tashi, probably because Zendaya is among the best working actors in Hollywood right now. Her fantastic character arc takes priority, but O’Connor and Faist are also given solid material. Faist adds a whole lot, and gives a subtly strong performance. 

“Challengers” builds to a thrilling, and deliciously tense, final act, and it’s also here that Guadagnino gets to stretch his filmmaking muscles with some highly inventive camera work. The Italian has claimed he doesn’t watch tennis and even finds it “boring” but he’s got a real knack for presenting the sport in the best possible light. After watching “Challengers” I’m eager to watch the French Open next month! 

However, whether you’re a tennis fan or not is irrelevant, “Challengers” is a tightly constructed and remarkably well-acted drama. It squeezes out every ounce of melodrama from its compelling setup and also packs an engaging romantic element. It’s a movie I can’t wait to rewatch and will be recommending all year long. 

‘Challengers’ reviews — critics also love this movie 

“Challengers” has served up an ace with critics. The movie currently holds an extremely impressive 96% rating on the review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes , and this score comes from more than 110 individual reviews. 

“A funny, tempestuous, and exuberantly lusty story about how three athletic demigods see their destinies upended. And Guadagnino tells it the way he knows best, with a sometimes exasperating but ultimately irresistible surfeit of style,” said Justin Chang of the New Yorker . 

David Sims of The Atlantic felt there was more to the movie than your standard sports drama, they said “It’s far more thrilling, and triumphant, than a simple tale of someone lifting a trophy, or love conquering all.” Vanity Fair ’s Richard Lawson notes its “humble ambition is to charm and entertain” making it “a refreshingly sincere and uncynical movie.” 

A more mixed verdict came from Angelica Jade Bastién of Vulture who said, “The details of these people’s lives and their interiorities are so thinly drawn they feel more like beautiful ideas crashing into one another and leaving little messes that are too easy to clean up.” 

Go see ‘Challengers’ in theaters this weekend 

If it wasn’t already clear, I really like “Challengers.” I desperately hope it does well not  merely because it’s always pleasant to see good movies find an audience. “Challengers” is also an original drama created for an adult audience, and we simply don’t get enough of those in a theatrical landscape dominated by tentpole blockbusters, stale superhero flicks and relentless remakes/reboots. 

More than ever we need original movies like “Challengers”, so if you have even the slightest interest then I encourage you to make the effort to catch this one in theaters. The well-crafted tennis scenes shine on the big screen, and if this is a box office success hopefully it sends a message to studio executives to greenlight more movies like this. 

"Challengers" is scheduled to release in theaters on Friday, April 26 in the U.S. and U.K. 

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Rory is an Entertainment Editor at Tom’s Guide based in the UK. He covers a wide range of topics but with a particular focus on gaming and streaming. When he’s not reviewing the latest games, searching for hidden gems on Netflix, or writing hot takes on new gaming hardware, TV shows and movies, he can be found attending music festivals and getting far too emotionally invested in his favorite football team. 

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Evil Does Not Exist is an eerie, modern-day fable by Oscar-winning director Ryusuke Hamaguchi

Eerie and entrancing in equal measure, this contemporary sylvan fable from Ryusuke Hamaguchi is one of the most deceptively beautiful movies of the year so far.

Its glacial, near-wordless opening act documents the routines of Takumi (Hitoshi Omika), a widower keenly attuned to a lifestyle of quiet subsistence. In the icy mountains surrounding Mizubiki (a fictional Japanese village that's driving distance from Tokyo), Takumi spends his days chopping wood for his hearth and gathering crystalline spring water for the local udon shop.

Hamaguchi's depiction of this picture-book idyll gently unravels: first, with the distant gunshots of unseen deer hunters; second, with the realisation that Takumi's forgotten to pick up his daughter Hana (Ryo Nishikawa) from school again.

The film's story soon comes into focus with the announcement of a more pressing existential threat: the creation of a glamping site in Mizubiki for nearby city-slickers.

While the set-up suggests a familiar David-versus-Goliath battle across city lines and class divisions, the resulting social drama fractures into a series of unexpected, increasingly precarious turns – all culminating in a disquieting finale that evades straightforward interpretation.

At the centre of Evil Does Not Exist is an extended community meeting between the village's inhabitants and two representatives of the proposed development, Mayuzumi (Ayaka Shibutani; Happy Hour) and Takahashi (Ryuji Kosaka). In a brief dig at showbiz, it's revealed that both are employees of a talent agency whose boss is looking to cash in on a pandemic subsidy; needless to say, they're in embarrassingly over their heads.

Ryusuke Hamaguchi's films share a keenly observational quality. His previous feature, Drive My Car (which took home best international feature film in 2022 and earned the very first best picture nomination for a Japanese film among its four Oscar nominations), follows another quietly grieving widower who directs a production of Uncle Vanya.

The auditions and rehearsals in the film are played out with a documentary-like attention to procedure that often recalled Louis Malle's recording of Vanya on 42nd Street.

The community meeting in Evil Does Not Exist has a similar effect in its unfussy filming, which employs longer takes and minimal camera movement — though the spectacle of Mizubiki's inhabitants excoriating the agency's ill-conceived plans crosses over into cringe comedy.

Beyond the inherent contradiction of conducting a serious dialogue about glamping – a deeply unattractive portmanteau with no Japanese equivalent – the session sees arguments erupt over fire risks, promises of boosting the local economy, and the amount of sewage that should be allowed to pollute a town's fresh water supply.

While there's more than a tinge of schadenfreude to the near-ritualistic humiliation of the representatives, it's undercut by a disheartening inevitability. Impassioned pleas are stonewalled by feeble pledges to take feedback on board; the conversation is all but a formality.

The film isn't unsympathetic to Mayuzumi and Takahashi, though, whose actions drive the film's second half. Hamaguchi understands that his audience's perspective (as well as his own) is better reflected by the hapless urbanite reps than a self-sufficient survivalist like Takumi.

Evil Does Not Exist can be funny in the director's signature offhand manner – a quality evoked from the title itself – and its commentary is made stronger by his resistance to caricature. Even its most overt antagonist, a team project leader fluent in corporate speak who's glimpsed calling into a Google Hangout from his car, is presented with a scathing accuracy.

As the film progresses, concerns over the immediate threat posed by the agency are eclipsed by a troubled reflection on Mizubiki's delicate ecosystem. The camera lingers on the mountain's suffocating vastness, its rotting animal corpses and its piercing thorns, lacing the lush imagery with a subtle but unmistakeable menace; the methodical pacing gradually oozes with dread.

Evil Does Not Exist was initially conceived as a visual accompaniment to a live performance by musician Eiko Ishibashi so, unsurprisingly, her music is intrinsic to the film's uniquely haunting tone. Initially recalling the sonorous string compositions of Max Richter, the score descends into jarring dissonance and incorporates sparse electronic sounds. Just as important to the score is the film's sudden, razor-sharp cuts, which mercilessly disrupt its lull.

At times, the film recalls The Curse, Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie's recent Paramount+ miniseries. Despite being completely different in tone, both narratives of class warfare, guilt and a perversion of the natural world are approached with a refreshing strangeness. Such themes have become rocket fuel for the recent cultural landscape, yet rarely is this material allowed to feel genuinely, menacingly abstract.

It's hard to imagine that Evil Does Not Exist will attain the status of Hamaguchi's previous Oscar darling film – which is precisely what makes the film so exciting. It's a daring creative pivot that spells out a rich future for the director.

But for all its surprises and enigmas, it's not an inaccessible film. Audiences who let themselves submit to its irresistible, hypnotic rhythms will be rewarded by a film that inspires genuine contemplation, however troubling its conclusions may be.

Evil Does Not Exist is in cinemas now.

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‘stellar blade’ review (ps5): eve protocol uplink in bio.

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Stellar Blade

I’ll admit I did not have all that much interest in Stellar Blade initially, passively observing the butt-focused marketing campaign and the extremely annoying discourse that followed. I didn’t play the demo, but I found myself with a review code, and after putting a frankly absurd amount of time into almost 100%-ing the game, yeah, it’s uh, pretty good after all.

I enjoyed my time with Stellar Blade, a sometimes-linear, sometimes-not actioner that’s more Sekiro than Devil May Cry which does indeed have engaging combat, albeit with perhaps not enough tools in its box. The worldbuilding is better than the script. The character modeling is better than the environment. But there’s a lot to like here, and I think it’s going to do well.

I do not really see the point in dancing around this for twelve paragraphs, so let’s just dive into the Eve of it all, the central heroine who is a member of an elite fighting force sent to help earth defend itself against the monstrous Naytiba who roam the landscape. Think Dead Space’s gangly aliens mixed with Halo’s Flood. Though the exact nature of what the Naytiba is one of the game’s central mysteries. And the same is true of Eve herself.

The driving force of the discourse around this game pre-launch is almost wholly consumed by Eve’s appearance, crafted from scans of a real-life Korean supermodel and given clothes to match. One thing you’ll quickly learn is that Eve is not Bayonetta, exploding out of her clothes for super-moves and oozing sex with each step. Despite her appearance, Eve is not a sexual character in the same sense at all. I am not sure anyone in this game has ever even heard of sex.

As such, Eve’s body and the outfits that show it off are purely for the player. The same is true for voluptuous androids and lingerie wearing city guards. Everyone in this game is either hot, wearing a mask, or has a robot head. Those are your three choices.

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A large part of the pursuit of the game is collecting little outfits for Eve that require somewhat pricey crafting materials, but offer no combat benefit. There are a few dozen of these, and I was actually surprised at the range. Yes, of course there are ultra-revealing ones, but if you want to focus less on Eve’s…attributes, there are more normal clothes as well. A jacket and jeans. A Kill Bill-inspired sweatsuit. There are also glasses, earrings, hairstyles and colors. So Eve is really whatever you want to make of her from a visual perspective. Though again, her hyper-attractive appearance is totally detached from any story components whatsoever. She is hot for its own sake, though I suppose that’s hardly a new concept across the media landscape.

I don’t think this detracts from the game other than some of these outfits being so over the top it’s a bit goofy for cutscenes, but you don’t have to wear them. So, whatever. A longer debate about all this is probably best saved for separate articles. I think the point is that it’s fine for Eve to exist and look like this, but not every woman in a video game needs to, and the overall diversity we’ve seen in character design lately is welcome.

I’d say I only got really interested in the story of Stellar Blade about halfway in, where we get deeper into the “everything is not what it seems” conspiracy, and there are some genuinely interesting reveals by the end. But I don’t think the game does much with character development until perhaps its final moments. Eve is mostly a blank slate and her banter with her two crewmates is overwhelmingly surface level. There are a few compelling sidestories with game-spanning sidequests like a shopkeeper trying to find her sister or a singing android with a partner trying to rebuild her body. But this is hardly a top 10 cyberpunk apocalypse storyline, to be sure. I’m told it pulls way, way too directly from NieR: Automata, but as I haven’t played that, I’ll leave those comparisons to others.

I enjoyed combat and hunting down secrets in the different locales of the game. Yes, the structure here is compared to Sekiro or even (sigh) Dark Souls with “save camps” where death will set you back a ways. But it’s not nearly as difficult as any of those games, particularly if you’re keeping up with massive XP boots that completing sidequests give you, and in death you won’t lose found materials or XP progress. By the end, my Eve was maxed in every way possible, almost overpowered for the final stretch of the game. But I can see how it would be much harder if you didn’t grind all the other content out or explore every nook and cranny like I did, which made for a longer experience, probably pushing 25-30 hours.

I did enjoy “buildcrafting” Eve to a certain extent, even if options are somewhat limited. I went with a whole lot of upgrades to constantly allow me to output beta attacks, special moves that charge on hit or parry, and do the most damage to enemy health bars, shields and stances (erase shields and enemies take more damage, deplete stance charges and enemies will be open for a huge, gutting super attack). Another body upgrade let me increase the timing on my parry windows so they were practically automatic.

Some aspects of combat work less well. You get a gun-like thing at a certain point in the game and it just does not flow when used in combat along with your central sword. It also requires constantly buying ammo, ammo which does not get returned to you if you die, so managing that was just sort of annoying and I rarely used it. Also, I found the game’s “super saiyan" mode it eventually gives you to be less compelling than it could be, and often less useful than my normal parry and strike play as it doesn’t charge your beta attacks while using it.

Eve having essentially just a sword and a not-great gun gets a little repetitive. Almost every fight is just about getting as many perfect parries as you can, whereas perfect dodges are much more annoying to execute and half the time during “dodge window” attacks from bosses, I just found myself sprinting away rather than trying to bother. Combat is fun however, and the things that it gets wrong are overwhelmed by it being quite enjoyable in moment-to-moment play.

Many of the linear sections are pretty good and I enjoyed making my way through them, finding secrets as I went. But these sections don’t have maps, and when you are asked to return to them for sidequests later, re-navigating is irritating. This is in contrast to the open world zones, which are a lot better for exploration (thankfully they have actual maps), but there are only two of those, and both are just Desert 1 and Desert 2, so there’s not a ton of biome diversity there. Still, there are some beautiful sequences in the game, especially toward the end, and as you may have already seen, a ton of work has gone into character modeling here. Both for Eve (outside of what they reveal, her outfits are beautifully crafted), but also with most characters you meet.

I enjoyed my upgrade hunting, buildcrafting, combat, secret-finding and lore unraveling. I didn’t enjoy somewhat limited tools, mostly forgettable characters and a less-than-enthralling script. I liked collecting the little outfits. So sue me.

Stellar Blade is a good game, not a (don’t say stellar) fantastic one. Its peers do a lot of the things it does but better, though that doesn’t mean it’s not enjoyable in its own right. Don’t go in expecting a revolution, but this may be the start of a solid series and could make Eve a Bayonetta/2B-esque star. The ensuing discourse about this game is going to be exhausting, as it has been already, but divorced from that, the game itself is solid, and that’s what matters the most.

Score: 8/10

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Just Mercy Reviews

While succumbing to a small amount of melodrama, Just Mercy is ultimately a moving film about integrity, injustice, and the indictment of our criminal justice system.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 24, 2022

There can't be any doubt about the sincerity of Just Mercy, though it did not need to exceed two hours' running time to establish these points.

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The movie doesn’t feel particularly fresh or new, but it’s unwavering in its honesty and dedication to its characters...

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This is still an important story to tell, and if the film doesn’t do anything interesting or exciting with the material, it is still solid and ends on a high note. It works, and there’s nothing more it needs to do than that.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | May 13, 2022

Although Just Mercy is a little long at more than two hours it may have been better told as a miniseries and takes a while to get going, its worth persevering with for the heartfelt portrayal of this remarkable man.

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Just Mercy is a great companion to the ongoing discussion regarding the death penalty, bringing a relevant and integral view to the topic.

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Jamie Foxx - stellar turn in his performance.

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Just Mercy is one of those films that reminds us why some movies are more than just vehicles for financial gain.

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Just Mercy easily solidifies its main point about a system that fails to protect the innocent.

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...what's left is a fine, crowd-pleasing piece of cinema made from masterpiece-worthy source material. It's capable of being far greater than this...

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Michael B. Jordan's stirring legal drama packs a powerful, emotional punch...

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Just Mercy is another great showcase for Jordan, Larson, Foxx, and Cretton, and a reminder that advocates like Stevenson are needed to ensure our justice system remains fair for everyone.

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A graceful, sharp and impeccably acted film that packs an emotional punch in the quietest and most profound ways possible.

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Filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton has infused Just Mercy with a matter-of-fact sensibility that suits his and Andrew Lanham's familiar screenplay quite well.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 11, 2021

The film shows us how the legal system can be manipulated by the rich and privileged across the globe. Although Just Mercy takes its time to get there, the conclusion is unquestionably impactful.

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Just Mercy isn't a groundbreaking film, but it's an optimistic one. If you need a little hope and emotional release these days, this movie will give you some.

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Foxx does his best work in a decade. For the charismatic Jordan, who puts in a tone-setting nuanced turn here, Just Mercy arrives between Creed II and Tom Clancy's Without Remorse. Let's hope he sticks with the "one for them, one for me" formula.

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"Just Mercy" is solid, meat-and-potatoes docudrama filmmaking, if you don't mind a first-rate story of systemic injustice undercut by second-rate dialogue.

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Unlike many movies "based on a true story," "Just Mercy" sticks close to the facts of the case - for the simple reason that the facts are drama enough.

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Sacha baron cohen camp claims vindication as uk publisher redacts rebel wilson’s barbed memoir, ryan gosling on reason ‘the nice guys’ didn’t get a sequel: “‘angry birds’ just destroyed us”.

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Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe starred in The Nice Guys in 2016, but the movie didn’t get a sequel despite its positive reviews.

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The Nice Guys is set in 1977 L.A. and centers on private eye Holland March (Gosling) and enforcer Jackson Healy (Crowe) who team up to investigate the disappearance of a teenage girl.

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Movie Reviews

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"Just Married" is an ungainly and witless comedy, made more poignant because its star, Brittany Murphy , made such a strong impression as Eminem's sometime girlfriend in " 8 Mile ." With her fraught eyes and husky voice, she has a rare and particular quality (I think of Jennifer Jason Leigh ) and yet here she's stuck in a dumb sitcom.

She and Ashton Kutcher play newlyweds in a plot that proves that opposites repel. She's a rich kid named Sarah, expensively raised and educated. He's Tom, an example of the emerging subspecies Sports Bar Man. They have a perfect relationship, spoiled by marriage (I think that may even be one of the lines in the movie). They're too tired for sex on their wedding night, but make up for it on their honeymoon flight to Europe with a quickie in the toilet of the airplane. There is perhaps the potential for a glimmer of comedy there, but not in Sam Harper's overwritten and Shawn Levy's overdirected movie, which underlines and emphasizes like a Power Point presentation for half-wits.

Consider. It may be possible to find humor in a scene involving sex in an airplane restroom, but not by pushing the situation so far that Tom's foot gets caught in the toilet and the bitchy flight attendant suffers a broken nose. Later, in their honeymoon hotel in Venice, it may be possible that energetic sex could break a bed frame--but can it actually destroy the wall of the adjoining room? And it may be possible for an improper electrical device to cause a short in a hotel's electrical system, but need the offending device be a vibrator? And for that matter, isn't it an alarming sign of incipient pessimism to take a vibrator along on your honeymoon? Europe was not the right choice for this honeymoon. He should have gone to Vegas, and she should have stayed single. Sarah wants to visit every church and museum, but Tom abandons her in the middle of Venice when he finds a bar that's showing an American baseball game. This is as likely as a sports bar in Brooklyn televising boules in French.

Sarah and Tom have nothing to talk about. They are a pathetic stupid couple and deserve each other. What they do not deserve, perhaps, is a screenplay that alternates between motivation and slapstick. Either it's character-driven or it isn't. If it is, then you can't take your plausible characters and dump them into Laurel and Hardy. Their rental car, for example, gets a cheap laugh, but makes them seem silly in the wrong way. And earlier in the film, Tom is responsible for the death of Sarah's dog in a scenario recycled directly from an urban legend everyone has heard.

Would it have been that much more difficult to make a movie in which Tom and Sarah were plausible, reasonably articulate newlyweds with the humor on their honeymoon growing out of situations we could believe? Apparently.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film Credits

Just Married (2003)

Rated PG-13 For Sexual Content, Some Crude Humor and A Brief Drug Reference

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