The defence The Auteur Devotee
“Ambition earns the room.”
The film reaches for consequence and scale, accepting the risk of seriousness instead of shrinking from it.
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Just Mercy
Drama · Crime · History · 2019
The powerful true story of Harvard-educated lawyer Bryan Stevenson, who goes to Alabama to defend the disenfranchised and wrongly condemned — including Walter McMillian, a man sentenced to death despite evidence proving his innocence. Bryan fights tirelessly for Walter with the system stacked against them.
Movie details
Just Mercy
“Every generation has its hero. Meet ours.”
2019 Drama · Crime · History 2h 17m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
7.8 / 10
Community rating
The powerful true story of Harvard-educated lawyer Bryan Stevenson, who goes to Alabama to defend the disenfranchised and wrongly condemned — including Walter McMillian, a man sentenced to death despite evidence proving his innocence. Bryan fights tirelessly for Walter with the system stacked against them.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Just Mercy?
For the defence
The Auteur Devotee
“You watch the director, not the movie.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Popcorn Loyalist
“Big screen, big feelings, no apologies.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
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Glory Road
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Quiz Show
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Herbert Stempel's transformation into an unexpected television personality unfolds as he secures victory on the cherished American game show, 'Twenty-One.' However, when the show introduces the highly skilled contestant Charles Van Doren to replace Stempel, it compels Stempel to let out his frustrations and call out the show as rigged. Lawyer Richard Goodwin steps in and attempts to uncover the orchestrated deception behind the scenes.
JFK
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Shattered Glass
Drama · 2003
Stephen Glass is a staff writer for the respected current events and policy magazine The New Republic and a freelance feature writer for publications such as Rolling Stone, Harper's and George. By the mid-90s, Glass' articles had turned him into one of the most sought-after young journalists in Washington, but a bizarre chain of events - chronicled in Buzz Bissinger's September 1998 Vanity Fair article - suddenly stopped his career in its tracks.
Ghosts of Mississippi
Drama · 1996
A Mississippi district attorney and the widow of Medgar Evers struggle to bring a white supremacist to justice for the 1963 murder of the civil rights leader.
Knock on Any Door
Drama · 1949
An attorney defends a hoodlum of murder, using the oppressiveness of the slums to appeal to the court.
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Destin Daniel Cretton
Written by
Destin Daniel Cretton · Andrew Lanham
Michael B. Jordan
Bryan Stevenson
Brie Larson
Eva Ansley
Jamie Foxx
Walter McMillian
O'Shea Jackson Jr.
Anthony Ray Hinton
Rafe Spall
Tommy Champan
Rob Morgan
Herbert Richardson
Tim Blake Nelson
Ralph Myers
Court is in session
Put Just Mercy on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist
“Importance has entered the chat.”
The production keeps announcing its significance, as though awards-season posture were proof of insight.