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Absolutely Fantastic

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

I watched a person full of hate for about ten minutes and then I switch of my tv. I think that says enough.

James Baldwin began a book called "Remember This House" but died before completing it. It intended to weave together the stories of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Medgar Evers into a tapestry of the black American experience. In "I Am Not Your Negro," Samuel L. Jackson reads the finished portion of the manuscript, and filmmaker Raoul Peck sets the words to images from the Civil Rights Movement and the current Black Lives Matter movement. The result is a bracing and deservedly angry film that captures better than anything I've read or seen yet the reasons behind the frustration and outrage of American blacks.There's a marvelous moment in the film when a philosophy professor challenges Baldwin on the Dick Cavett Show for his attitudes, and basically holds Baldwin (and by extension black people) responsible for the continuing racial divide. His message seems to be "you're the one making an issue out of this, not me." Baldwin's take down of him in eloquent words that I won't even begin to try to replicate captures the essence of the entire film and the black struggle for equality. And Baldwin's criticism doesn't stop at racial issues. He also denounces American popular and material culture in general, accusing Americans of letting consumerism anesthetize them into a false sense of happiness and contentment that allows them to ignore all that is wrong with the American way of life.This is a movie that made me furious at America for continuing to stick its head up its ass when it comes to the subject of race. Watching Baldwin's heartfelt distress over the Civil Rights Movement juxtaposed to recent images from the news made it crystal clear that America has not progressed as much as it would like to think it has. Grade: A

This documentary is without a doubt one of the greatest documentaries regarding the black (and white) experience in America. I was glued. You if you have not seen it I say it is a MUST SEE.I was riveted to it and cried through it because I remember the times of which it spoke and it spoke to me. In the end Baldwin says "Not everything that is faced can be changed but nothing can be changed that is not faced." I believe if one sees it it should speak to you. It should especially in this hour of Trump be required viewing in this nation in every school of this nation. I was so moved! This must see is profoundly brilliant. White supremacists and Trump SHOULD see it but I am sure will not. If they do it should make him and them feel profoundly guilty for the racist divide they are helping perpetuate. United we stand but divided we surely will fall. Those who view this piece of artistic excellence should heed what it has to say.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning Playwright James Baldwin charted the history of black oppression in the US, and the struggle to overcome the odds throughout his life, after returning from a period of self imposed exile in France. In 1979, he contacted his agent to propose a new novella Remember This House, about three of his friends, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., who were all killed before the age of forty in their respective struggles to attain civil rights. But Baldwin never completed this work, dying before he could finish it, and Raoul Peck's documentary is an imagining with Samuel L. Jackson's voice over, about how it might have panned out.The struggle for black equality in the US is a veritable history all of its own, that could provide countless hours of filmic content in various works. I must confess this Baldwin gentleman is someone whose name has never crossed my path before I came across this intriguing looking piece, but clearly he was a great authority on the subject of black history and the prejudice faced by the black population of his time. At times, he comes across as an overly intellectual sort, whose ramblings become a little overpowering. He spends the first part of the film dissecting the inherent racism apparently portrayed in the golden age of American cinema, with John Wayne and Gary Cooper shooting the Native Americans, creating a very particular image of the hero and the villain.In narration duties, Jackson was maybe not the best choice for the job, his voice a bit too thick and deep in comparison with his subject Baldwin, although his appeal is not lost on the viewer. What really makes it hard to digest is the unstructured style of the storytelling, which makes it hard to keep track with the numerous interesting threads the story throws up. While it highlights a great many of the terrible, genuine bigotries and inequalities that black Americans had to overcome in the past, the collision of past and present is a little hard to digest. The juxtaposition with the modern day tribulations of Black Lives Matter, a violent, criminal group that has been shown to terrorize those who do not bow to its every whim, undercuts the true struggles faced by the likes of Dr King, and ridiculously perpetuates the myth black people face the same sort of struggles today.This is an interesting idea to explore that yielded great potential, but sadly it's all a bit too weighed down and laced with false victimhood to be really great. **