Selma (2015, 99%)
Critics Consensus: Fueled by a gripping performance from David Oyelowo, Selma draws inspiration and dramatic power from the life and death of Martin Luther King, Jr. — but doesn’t ignore how far we remain from the ideals his work embodied.
While Ava DuVernay’s film focuses on a brief but pivotal period in the American civil rights movement, the man at the center of it is inarguably one of the most influential figures in American history. David Oyelowo stars as Martin Luther King, Jr., who helped organize and lead a march from Selma to Montgomery that resulted in the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. But MLK’s desegregation efforts and methods of nonviolent protest have forged a lasting social and political legacy.
