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Shirley (2024)
Despite a superb performance from Oscar winner Regina King in the starring role, 2024's Shirley, is still a long-winded and somewhat sanitized look at Shirley Chisholm and her 1972 campaign for POTUS, the first ever by a black woman.
The Netflix production begins with Chisholm's election to Congress and being immediately dissatisfied with her freshman congressman assignment to the agriculture committee, the last place she wanted to be, prompting her to put her hat in the ring in 1972, refusing to make an issue out of the fact that even though she was the first black female to do this, she was not doing this for blacks, she was not doing this women, she was doing this to get Richard Nixon out of the White House.
Director and screenwriter John Ridley, who wrote the screenplay for 12 Years a Slave, shows a lot of respect for his subject here, perhaps a little too much respect. The woman is painted as a saint who refuses to take any shortcuts or play any political games in order to achieve her goals. On the other hand, she is observed picking a close-knit group of advisors and often ignoring their advice. It's hard to believe that Chisholm didn't care that visiting George Wallace after he was shot would do irreparable damage to her campaign. The primary problem with Ridley's screenplay is that we never hear anyone in this story say the one thing that is never actually verbalized here and that is that in 1972, there was no way a black woman was going to be elected President.
Ridley's screenplay adds elements to the story that bring an unnecessary level of melodrama to the story. We are provided clues from jump that Shirley's husband was against this campaign from jump. According to this film, he was just getting used to his wife being a congresswoman and had no interest in being First Lady. The story of Shirley being rejected by her sister (played by King's real life, sister Reina), because when their father died he left all his money to Shirley, just seem to pad running time. And Sis' sudden change of heart as the Democratic National Convention approached just didn't ring true.
As she always does, Regina King completely immerses herself into this role, almost winning her battle with the screenplay. The late Lance Reddick is excellent as Shirley's advisor Wesley. According to the IMDB, this was Reddick's last released work but he has three other projects he completed before his death. It was nice to see Terrence Howard who I haven't seen in awhile, as Arthur, whose only purpose in Shirley's campaign seemed to be making sure she had her McDonald's every day, but the epilogue revealed that Arthur eventually became Shirley's second husband. I also believe Ridley should have put a little more thought into the title of the film. Four years ago, a film about writer Shirley Jackson called Shirley was released and it could really affect people finding this film, which I might have titled Mrs Chisholm.
Despite a superb performance from Oscar winner Regina King in the starring role, 2024's Shirley, is still a long-winded and somewhat sanitized look at Shirley Chisholm and her 1972 campaign for POTUS, the first ever by a black woman.
The Netflix production begins with Chisholm's election to Congress and being immediately dissatisfied with her freshman congressman assignment to the agriculture committee, the last place she wanted to be, prompting her to put her hat in the ring in 1972, refusing to make an issue out of the fact that even though she was the first black female to do this, she was not doing this for blacks, she was not doing this women, she was doing this to get Richard Nixon out of the White House.
Director and screenwriter John Ridley, who wrote the screenplay for 12 Years a Slave, shows a lot of respect for his subject here, perhaps a little too much respect. The woman is painted as a saint who refuses to take any shortcuts or play any political games in order to achieve her goals. On the other hand, she is observed picking a close-knit group of advisors and often ignoring their advice. It's hard to believe that Chisholm didn't care that visiting George Wallace after he was shot would do irreparable damage to her campaign. The primary problem with Ridley's screenplay is that we never hear anyone in this story say the one thing that is never actually verbalized here and that is that in 1972, there was no way a black woman was going to be elected President.
Ridley's screenplay adds elements to the story that bring an unnecessary level of melodrama to the story. We are provided clues from jump that Shirley's husband was against this campaign from jump. According to this film, he was just getting used to his wife being a congresswoman and had no interest in being First Lady. The story of Shirley being rejected by her sister (played by King's real life, sister Reina), because when their father died he left all his money to Shirley, just seem to pad running time. And Sis' sudden change of heart as the Democratic National Convention approached just didn't ring true.
As she always does, Regina King completely immerses herself into this role, almost winning her battle with the screenplay. The late Lance Reddick is excellent as Shirley's advisor Wesley. According to the IMDB, this was Reddick's last released work but he has three other projects he completed before his death. It was nice to see Terrence Howard who I haven't seen in awhile, as Arthur, whose only purpose in Shirley's campaign seemed to be making sure she had her McDonald's every day, but the epilogue revealed that Arthur eventually became Shirley's second husband. I also believe Ridley should have put a little more thought into the title of the film. Four years ago, a film about writer Shirley Jackson called Shirley was released and it could really affect people finding this film, which I might have titled Mrs Chisholm.