This very much felt like a take-it-or-leave-it kinda movie. If scheduling worked out, I’d go. If it didn’t, I wouldn’t sweat it. Since I’d seen Shazam early and needed to see Pet Sematary opening night, scheduling worked out.
Sam Rockwell and Taraji P Henson play CP Ellis and Anne Atwater. Ellis is the president of the local KKK chapter and Atwater is the leader of a local activist group. The two are hired to lead opposing sides of a “charrette”, basically a large multi-day conference/discussion group, in this instance discussing the options for integrating their public schools.
Rockwell and Henson are incredible actors and I really wanted to see these two powerhouses go head to head. Unfortunately, this felt like watered down versions of better performances we’ve seen from either of them. It just lacked oomph.
The story itself was interesting in the details, but it played out kinda dull. I just don’t think we learned anything new about the world that we hadn’t just been thru. It was like BlacKkKlansman meets Green Book, except Klansman had some scathing commentary to go with it. And we’re still debating the “we solved racism!” vibe of Green Book, so did we really need another one of those so soon? I’m thinking no
The Best of Enemies – \m/ \m/ \m/