Review: Selma

City Paper grade: B+

The first-ever theatrical feature about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is not a birth-to-death biopic, but a dissection of a meticulous feat that's never quite earned the historical enshrinement it deserves. In exploring the marches in Alabama — which took place after the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Nobel Peace Prize, the March on Washington and "I Have a Dream" — Ava DuVernay imbues King's legacy with newfound nuance, highlighting his skill as a strategist over the public presence that's made him a legend. That's not to say David Oyelowo doesn't crush this career-defining role clear over the bleachers — he nails King's oratory with eerie, goosebump-inducing power — but it's the machinations of protest, and not the protest itself, that prove most fascinating.

Seeking to empower disenfranchised black citizens in the deep south, King called his Southern Christian Leadership Conference into action in 1965, with plans on marching from Selma to Montgomery in support of constitutional voting rights. Granting us a seat at the planning table, DuVernay explores how the events were as tactical as they were political or spiritual, showcasing how King played non-violence against the short fuse of the law to his greatest media-aided advantage.

The war-room focus is emboldened by DuVernay's elegant filmmaking, even if King's private life with wife Coretta (Carmen Ejogo) seems to be discussed begrudgingly. Selma's most noticeable shortcoming, controversial portrayal of LBJ (Tom Wilkinson) be damned, is the lack of development of its secondary characters, all of whom were invaluable to the victory. We're barely afforded their names, but are still expected to applaud their accomplishments as they text-crawl across the screen during the epilogue.