Shirley
In 1972, a former school teacher from Brooklyn campaigns for the “highest office in the land” in John Ridley’s solid, eloquent and well-meaning biopic.
A candidate for the people of America: Regina King as Mrs Chisholm
There was a time when the top dogs in American politics were both male and of a certain age. In 1968, there were 435 elected representatives of the House of Congress. Just eleven of those representatives were women. Five of them were black. None of them were black women. Then, in the summer of 1968, a black schoolteacher from Brooklyn became the first woman of colour to sit in the United States Congress. Her name was Shirley Chisholm. Today, the constitutionally mandated leader of Congress is one Kamala Harris. But it took ‘Fighting Shirley’ to open doors previously shut tight for women, let alone African-American women.
Recently there have been a number of articulate and passionate biopics of salient black figures in American politics. Shirley is a worthy addition to the canon, highlighted by a trailblazing turn from Regina King in the title role. Best known for her Oscar-winning performance in If Beale Street Could Talk, King brings Chisholm vividly to life, particularly with her knack for oratory. When flustered, the activist would slip into the Bajan accent of her childhood (she was partly raised by her grandmother in Barbados), but for the most part this Shirley would appear to have nerves of steel. “I don’t know how not to try,” she’d say while canvassing for the US presidency. There’s excellent support from the late Lance Reddick as her campaign advisor Wesley McDonald ‘Mac’ Holder, and there’s a priceless scene when Amirah Vann as the actress Diahann Carroll engineers a meeting between Shirley and the founder of the Black Panthers, Huey P. Newton (Brad James).
The writer-director John Ridley, who scripted 12 Years a Slave, has a knack for muscular dialogue and King and Reddick milk the best out of it. As to be expected, the period detail is also of the highest order, while newsreel footage of real-life figures (Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, etc) brings an immediacy to the proceedings. But there is something missing from the plate. Shirley Chisholm would seem to be a more remarkable woman than her story. There is a thwarted attack on her life by a knife-wielding racist and a couple of heart-to-hearts with her mild-mannered husband Conrad (an uncertain Michael Cherrie), but there’s nothing really to stir the gut. This is solid filmmaking with a noble agenda but the campaign trail (‘the Chisholm Trail’) is a complicated game and a working knowledge of American politics would seem to be imperative.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Regina King, Lance Reddick, Lucas Hedges, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Christina Jackson, Michael Cherrie, Dorian Crossmond Missick, Amirah Vann, W. Earl Brown, Reina King, Brad James, André Holland, Terrence Howard.
Dir John Ridley, Pro Regina King, Reina King, Anikah McLaren, Elizabeth Haggard and John Ridley, Screenplay John Ridley, Ph Ramsey Nickell, Pro Des Dina Goldman, Ed JoAnne Yarrow, Music Tamar-kali, Costumes Megan 'Bijou' Coates, Dialect coach Erin Nicole Washington.
Participant/Royal Ties Productions-Netflix.
116 mins. USA. 2023. UK and US Rel: 22 March 2024. Cert. 12A.
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