To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

To Kill a Mockingbird is built around a Black man falsely accused of a crime, and the film gives that man only a handful of scenes of his own. Everything is seen through Scout’s eyes and Atticus’s goodness, which keeps Tom Robinson and Calpurnia at the edges of their own story. That’s a real limit, and it’s fair to say so. It also makes the courtroom hit harder. Brock Peters gives Tom a dignity and a fear that fill the room in just a few minutes on the stand. Gregory Peck plays Atticus as a tired, decent man who knows how this trial will likely end and shows up anyway. Mary Badham is wonderfully unfussy as Scout, all scraped knees and blunt questions. Robert Mulligan shoots Maycomb in black and white heat, and the summer nights feel like memory. A 9.0 because it still asks every viewer what they would do. $22.52 says you end up digging for your old copy of the book after the credits, and it’s not where you left it.

What works: Gregory Peck’s quiet decency, Brock Peters’s powerful testimony, and Mary Badham’s natural, funny Scout.

What doesn’t: It tells a story about racism almost entirely through white characters, leaving Tom Robinson and Calpurnia with far too little of their own.

Who it’s for: Families with older kids and anyone ready for a serious, sincere conversation about justice and courage.