Just Mercy (2019)

Netflix and Amazon Prime 

The books and movies I like best are those that change me – those that are able to change the way I think or feel about an issue or motivate me to take action on an issue I had cared about in the past.

Just Mercy had such an effect on me. Written and directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, this 2019 movie dramatizes the story of Brian Stevenson, an African-American, Harvard-educated civil rights lawyer that sets up shop in Alabama to defend death row inmates in 1989. The movie is about one of his triumphs, securing the exoneration of Walter McMillian, who spent 6 years on death row for a murder he very obviously didn’t commit.

Although the movie was touted by some to be about Black Lives Matter, I saw it as an indictment of the criminal justice system and the way it is systemically opposed to reversing any convictions, regardless of the race of the convicted.

It stars Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx. Foxx’s performance is riveting.

From Rotten Tomatoes: Just Mercy dramatizes a real-life injustice with solid performances, a steady directorial hand, and enough urgency to overcome a certain degree of earnest advocacy.

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