This is my first movie review in my life, because I felt compelled to share.

I thought this movie was great because it is so relevant to what has been happening for years and sheds both light and insight on issues in this country that sadly run very deep within communities of color, within law enforcement and between both parties. The distrust is real, yet unreal and disheartening….. on both sides of the perspective coin. I love how dynamic the movie was, because the bottom line is that we should not have to choose to put ourselves in a box or category, when we are all human. She was both black and blue, both an individual and community member, both a victim and a hero, both ostracized and included, an insider and an outsider, a protecter and one needing protection.

As an African American woman from New Orleans, I have not personally had any negative experiences with any police to expand on (in New Orleans or other places I have lived) but I do know people who have been profiled, harassed, etc. Also, it only takes a quick Google search to find situations occurring on a daily basis that are so deeply heart breaking, regarding blatant abuse of power, marginalization, disenfranchisement, lack of understanding, willful disregard and disconnection….especially if one thinks this was all fiction. The fact is that there are good and bad people on both sides of the law, which must be acknowledged and dealt with.

I can only imagine what it’s like to be a police officer in today’s time, but I also know that there are tragic wrongful murders happening at the hands of people who have no business with power or a weapon. From an “entertainment” perspective, most of the people in the movie who died were not “innocent”, but other than real self defense (not made up defense, extreme measures of self interest or corruption protection), why do people think it’s okay to literally remove a whole person from this realm…..it is truly beyond me.

There is a part of the movie when Naomi’s character explains that she came to a point where she realized life is not about judgment or race or any of the reasons we find to rationalize division…. It is simply about living and respecting differences, valuing human life, standing for what is right, and clear delineation of what is wrong. If more people thought this way, we would have less dehumanization of one another and more respect for people’s right to exist, regardless of anything that makes us different.

I would highly recommend this movie, and encourage anyone who goes to see it to do to so with an open mind. In my opinion, this movie is so much more than “entertainment”, “acting”, who is in it, or assumed exaggerations, because every scene in this film is or has been someone’s reality (literally or metaphorically)….one shouldn’t have to had any of these realities as your own, in order to acknowledge what is happening every day somewhere, on some level…to me it’s about the message.

Review by Lynnique Chopin