‘Selma’ best movie ever made about the Civil Rights Movement

You know exactly what’s going to happen in “Selma,” the new movie about Martin Luther King Jr. and the struggle surrounding the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but you don’t know how it’s going to unfold.

“Selma” is clearly one of the best movies of the year and it’s one of the best movies ever made about the Civil Rights Movement.

The acting and the directing is, for the most part, outstandingly done.

I cannot praise Ava DuVernay, the director of this film, highly enough. There’s a sense in which you’re dealing with well-known historical figures and well-known historical events. But there’s also a sense that you’re watching a Madame Tussauds waxworks museum. It’s all static. Still, the film manages to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Likely in the running for a Best Actor Oscar is British actor David Oyelowo who plays King, not as a sort-of-statue or a man of marble. He’s someone with doubts, fears, and imperfections. It even alludes to some of the marital difficulties he had.

King’s wife is played by Carmen Ejogo and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better performance. She’s absolutely wonderful and she has the great gift of having a striking resemblance to Coretta Scott King.

There is only one false note on screen: Oprah Winfrey. Nothing against Oprah, I know she’s an incredible person and she’s one of the producers of the film. I give her a lot of credit for bringing this movie to the screen.

I think Oprah can be a fine actress, and she generally is, but here she’s just out of place. She overacts. It’s Oprah and it’s distracting.

Listen to Michael Medved’s review below to hear his discussion with Dave Ross about the controversy surrounding how Lyndon B. Johnson is portrayed in the film: