Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk and Ray) is an Oscar-winning actress and a four-time Emmy winner. Two of her Emmy wins come from her involvement in American Crime (2015), an ABC anthology series, created by John Ridley, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of 12 Years a Slave (2013). Ridley pairs with King again as writer-director of this biopic. King's feature debut as director was One Night in Miami (2020), which was a biopic of sorts or a historical docudrama about some influential and famous African Americans. It makes sense that she would do another docudrama where instead of being behind the camera, she would this time be in front of it, depicting another influential African American.
King stars as Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman to be elected to the United States Congress. She represented New York's 12th district in the U.S. House of Representatives. She was born in Brooklyn, 1924, but she spent a lot of her childhood in Barbados, the Caribbean island, which is why she had a West Indian accent her whole life. She did speak Spanish as a result of studying it in Brooklyn College and living in Brooklyn itself with a large Hispanic population. She worked as a teacher and in education before entering politics. Her winning the 12th district was a big deal, but, in 1972, she became the first Black candidate to run for President of the United States and the first woman to run for the highest office as a Democrat. It's not acknowledged but Chisholm's campaign came exactly 100 years from the very first woman's Presidential run, that of Victoria C. Woodhull. This film follows Chishold through her Presidential run, culminating in the 1972 Democratic National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida.
Lance Reddick, in one of many posthumous releases, wasn't new to playing historical characters. Reddick played James Baldwin in Brother to Brother (2004). He also had a small role in King's One Night in Miami. Here, he plays Wesley MacDonald Holder aka "Mac," the campaign manager and chief advisor to Shirley Chisholm. He wasn't her campaign manager initially. He basically became as much after she lost her first campaign manager, Stanley Townsend, played by Tony Award-winner Brian Stokes Mitchell.
Stanley Townsend isn't based on a real person. He was invented for the film in order to underline some aspects of Chisholm's campaign that were problematic. The first aspect is her choice to focus only on a select few states during the primaries, which questioned her ability to collect 1500 delegates in order to get the nomination. The other aspect is her messaging on certain issues like school busing. There were discussions and debates over where she should go and what she should say. In terms of the issues both domestic and foreign, it's striking how there are still a lot of parallels to the 2024 Presidential race.
The film provides some insight in the process of running for President and specifically what Chisholm experienced in her historic and groundbreaking campaign. In a time where Black history is currently being questioned and challenged in states like Florida with the so-called "Stop WOKE Act," a film like this is ever more important to educate as well as entertain people about Black history, which is just American history. What we learn from this film and from Chisholm's experience is that she was basically ignored by so many, including the major broadcast networks, so much so that she filed a lawsuit.
Lucas Hedges (Lady Bird and Manchester By the Sea) plays Robert Gottlieb, a law student at Cornell University who became an intern on Chisholm's campaign, helping to organize other students and gathering the youth vote, eventually becoming a delegate at the 1972 convention. He came on board because the 1972 Presidential race was the first in the wake of the 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18, prompted by 18-year-olds being drafted to the Vietnam War, despite not having a say in the person sending them there. Robert is important on that front but also because he was involved in Chisholm's lawsuit against the broadcast networks for discrimination.
Ridley has a lot of shots, particularly wide-shots of Shirley sitting alone in the frame. Ridley emphasizes how Shirley was or at least felt solitary in various ways. The two times where it stands out in particular is after a moment with her husband, Conrad, played by Michael Cherrie, an actor from the Caribbean who nails Conrad's Jamaican accent. The other time is after a scene with Shirley's sister, Murial, played by Reina King, the real-life sister of Regina King. There are moments of racism that Shirley experiences from the likes of people, such as George Wallace, played by W. Earl Brown (American Crime and Deadwood), but she also experienced a bit of sexism and the most unlikeliest came from her sister.
One of the most beautiful things about this film is seeing how much of an inspiration Chisholm truly was. This is exemplified through the character of Barbara Lee, played by Christina Jackson (Swagger and Devotion). We get a lot from her about disinterest in the political system or frustration with it, but how it sometimes takes someone who looks them to motivate them into political action. The rest of the cast is brilliant and there are too many to name them all, but shout outs go to Terrence Howard (Hustle & Flow and Ray) who plays Arthur Hardwick, the fundraiser, and Amirah Vann (How To Get Away With Murder and Underground) as Diahann Carroll, the first Black woman to star in a TV series.
Rated PG-13 for strong language, including racial slurs, brief violence and smoking.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 58 mins.
Available on Netflix.
