79
Metascore
52 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100TheWrapJames RocchiTheWrapJames RocchiSelma is one of the best American films of the year — and indeed perhaps the best — precisely because it does not simply show what Dr. King did for America in his day; it also wonders explicitly what we have left undone for America in ours.
- 100The PlaylistCharlie SchmidlinThe PlaylistCharlie SchmidlinSelma is vital correspondence, filmmaking lived on the streets where brutal facts were ignored then reported, and now snatched back from history to sustain a spirit few films can or will possess. It is stunning humanistic cinema on a mainstream scale... It has inventiveness, urgency, humor, and most of all emotion that draws effortless parallels rather than leaving its lesson up on the screen.
- 91HitfixHitfixIn a year of remarkable performances, Oyelowo is simply magnificent as Dr. King.
- 75ObserverRex ReedObserverRex ReedAs vital as it is, racial strife is a subject that cries out for a more volatile treatment than this. The Alabama marching sequences and resulting violence, filmed in Selma, where they actually happened, are too understated for my taste. And the home life of King and his vacillating wife Coretta are muted.
- 75Slant MagazineSteve MacfarlaneSlant MagazineSteve MacfarlaneWhat will make the film essential for future generations isn't mere flashpoint topicality, but the way it aligns an old struggle with a current one.
- 70The Hollywood ReporterStephen FarberThe Hollywood ReporterStephen FarberIntelligently written, vividly shot, tightly edited, sharply acted, the film represents a rare example of craftsmanship working to produce a deeply moving piece of history.
- 70VarietyScott FoundasVarietyScott FoundasDuVernay’s razor-sharp portrait of the Civil Rights movement — and Dr. King himself — at a critical crossroads is as politically astute as it is psychologically acute, giving us a human-scale King whose indomitable public face belies currents of weariness and self-doubt.
- 70The New YorkerDavid DenbyThe New YorkerDavid DenbyThis is cinema, more rhetorical, spectacular, and stirring than cable-TV drama: again and again, DuVernay’s camera (Bradford Young did the cinematography) tracks behind characters as they march, or gentles toward them as they approach, receiving them with a friendly hand.
- 60The GuardianThe GuardianUnimpeachably important, ambitious in its scope and handsomely presented, it has all the hallmarks of a trophy winner, for better and worse.