Selma brings forth a decisive episode of Martin Luther King's (charismatically interpreted by an intense David Oyelowo) led civil rights movement during the 60's. The subject dealt with by Selma is a hard one to work in cinema. There are many traps in its genre and an almost mandatory temptation to get the easy tear, the feeling of pity towards the characters, in short, to romanticize the anti-racism theme to please a wider audience. The other side of the problem also exists: sometimes the excessive demonstration of violence and racist actions towards the black community ends up provoking an easy repulse to the subject instead of exploring it (the so called shocker movie). Selma has the necessary ability to effectively use the best from these two approaches and the intelligence required to understand that a social movie like this lives from creating emotions on the audience. Ava DuVernay, the afro-american director, doesn't take advantage of it for commercial purposes (the proof of that is how no one knew about Selma until it was nominated for the Oscars), but she knows how to use that method to grab some attention, some well informed attention, on those that go to the theatres to watch her movie. That is Selma's biggest victory. We leave the theatre and the film comes with us, demonstrating that maybe there is still something left to be done on the equality subject, 50 years away from Marting Luther King's speech. Selma is a cinematographic effort that is worth it, and even if it comes from the line of "alert" movies that have been getting the Academy's attention in the past few years, the film has the needed quality skills to be objectively considered one of the best of the year.
Trailer follows:
