Despite some initial directorial missteps such as using contemporary music, shooting some scenes like a music video or overuse of shaky POV shots to make the viewer feel like a bystander/participant in the movie’s events, Boycott is a solid and riveting movie that happens to be about a historical event as opposed to mediocre movies like 42 which would be nothing without the underlying historical event.
Boycott is about the 1955-56 Montgomery Bus Boycott in which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. developed from local preacher to national figure. Boycott succeeds as a movie because the narrative takes time to set up what is considered normal and then builds up the tension as things become more intractable. Boycott does not treat the story like a group of saints obediently suffering and knowing that victory is inevitable, but treats the characters like real life people with petty and practical concerns that increase in gravity as the boycott continues, and any daily activity can be deemed as criminal when the law is motivated by racism.
Boycott boasts an amazing cast. Jeffrey Wright may be one of the best American actors alive, but it is rare to see him cast as the main character so Boycott is a rare treat. Wright’s portrayal may not be as mirror-image perfect as David Oyelowo, but Wright’s MLK has a more vulnerable, emotional nuanced take. Wright gives us an angry, scared and shaken MLK without becoming a caricature of the angry black man and shows how unnatural it is to be nonviolent in nuanced, quiet scenes where no one else is in the room. Carmen Ejogo has been playing Coretta Scott King for over a decade so of course she is as amazing as always. It is rare for actors to get an opportunity to revisit roles at different stages in that characters lives. I can only think of Peter O’Toole as Henry II in Beckett and Lion in Winter and Angela Bassett as Betty X in Malcolm X and Panther. Reg E. Cathey, C.C.H. Pounder and Iris Little Thomas have notable performances as supporting characters. Boycott almost brought me to tears for finally giving a deserved prominent place in the movie to Bayard Rustin, a Civil Rights icon that was pivotal behind the scenes, but never given a visible presence because he was a homosexual.
I would heartily recommend Boycott to anyone. My mom and I both liked it, and we have very different tastes in movies. She is notably more conservative than me, and she did not find anything offensive in Boycott.