On B List of Movie Reviews
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Boycott (2001)
Rate:
3
Viewed:
7/21
7/21:
Boycott is a hard-to-watch replay of what happened during the 1955-56 bus boycott in Birmingham, Alabama,
given that it had already been covered in King with Paul Winfield.
I don't know what's worse: the drunk handling of the camera or Jeffrey Wright's fake acting. I guess the former takes the
cake because trying to watch every minute of the film has been challenging. There's no reason for it
because the acting for this sort of material should be enough to shine through.
Nobody will ever top Paul Winfield's magnificent portrayal of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. What Jeffrey Wright is trying
to do is a big step down. The performance of his right-hand man by Terrence Howard is awful and not ministerial enough.
Having been completely absent in King because of his homosexuality, the
addition of Bayard Rustin as King's key adviser is interesting here.
I've been hating recent films that cover events that happened decades ago because of the robotic behavior shown by the cast.
People were calm and natural in King while everybody is so damn serious and gung ho in
Boycott. It's ridiculous and artificial. The visual gimmicks don't help, either.
All in all, you're better off seeing King than Boycott.