Episode Notes
This week Steve and Dana are joined by Slate senior editor Allegra Frank. First the hosts discuss the Oscar contender
Judas and the Black Messiah and the performances of its two stars, Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield. Then Slate pop critic and UVA professor Jack Hamilton joins the show to offer his thoughts on
Tina, the new documentary about the life of rock n’ roll icon Tina Turner. After that, the hosts talk to Slate writer Rebecca Onion about her re-examination of
The Beauty Myth, a modern feminist classic with an increasingly controversial author.
In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, Steve, Dana, and Allegra talk about being evangelists for the art they like and discuss whether pushing your cultural taste on other people is a good or bad practice.
Judas and the Black Messiah Offers a Surface Look at an Iconic Political Leader Directed by Shaka King
Starring Daniel Kaluuya, Lakeith Stanfield, Jesse Plemons, Martin Sheen
6
The title of
Judas and the Black Messiah sets up a biblical dynamic that the film doesn t quite do justice to. Though a good primer for those unfamiliar with Black Panther Party activist Fred Hampton and his work,
Judas and the Black Messiah is ultimately a dizzying film: it spends too much time on secondary characters and events, and not enough on the Messiah, ultimately leaving you wishing it had stuck to a singular point of view.