Lincoln (2012)

Almost everyone with a big speaking part in Lincoln is a white politician, and in a movie about ending slavery, the people who were enslaved mostly watch from the gallery. That’s the honest problem. Spielberg keeps the camera on the deal-making, and the film’s few Black characters, like Gloria Reuben’s Elizabeth Keckley, get moments rather than full stories. Within that frame, it’s remarkable. Daniel Day-Lewis plays Lincoln as a soft-voiced, stooped storyteller who can silence a whole room with one hard sentence. Tommy Lee Jones is great as Thaddeus Stevens, a man forced to soften his words to win the thing he’s fought for his whole life. At 150 minutes of near-constant talk, it asks for patience, and it pays it back. It made $275.3 million worldwide on a reported $65M. An 8.5 because it’s a serious, moving look at how hard it was to do the right thing, even if it keeps too many of the people it’s about at the edges. $19.98 says you go read up on Thaddeus Stevens before the night is over.

What works: Daniel Day-Lewis is astonishing, Tommy Lee Jones is a force, and the vote-counting drama is gripping from start to finish.

What doesn’t: The Black Americans whose freedom is at stake are mostly kept at the edges of the story, watching rather than acting.

Who it’s for: History fans who love sharp political dialogue more than battle scenes.