Photo: Press
Thanks to a remarkable lead performance by David Oyelowo, the civil rights drama Selma is already one of the most talked-about films of 2015. Mancunian avant-pop producer Bipolar Sunshine attended the London premiere and reviews the film exclusively for Gigwise.
"I thought Selma was an interesting look at how Martin Luther King was such a great and important man. Of course when you’re dealing with such a great figure, it will always be difficult to capture him perfectly, as there is so much to this man that cannot just be slotted into a film regarding only the topic of the Selma voting marches. I did think the acting was brilliant though and David Oyelowo did a great job of bringing King to life.
Unfortunately the film at times did have a tendency to drag slightly: I think if it was a little more hard hitting and gruesome, you’d have gotten a better feel for what life was like around that time period. It was, however, well written and I enjoyed the original music - even if I thought something like Kanye’s ‘Jesus Walks’ would have been more suited than Common and John Legend’s track ‘Glory', The director had spoken about wanting the film to appeal to a younger audience and I feel an adjustment like that may have helped.
As someone who has watched documentaries on the civil rights movement and is aware of the level of atrocities that punctuated it, overall I felt the film didn’t always depict that the violence as well as it might. At times it felt like a soft version of events; I think the only way certain scenes would have hit home more was if they were more realistic.
Despite this, as the film progressed, I did enjoy the sentiment and the message that the film was trying to get across. If you watch from that standpoint, I think it’ll do wonders for uniting people."
Selma is out in cinemas now. Bipolar Sunshine's new single 'Daytreamer' is out 8 February and available to download at http://bipo.la/Daydreamer. Bipolar Sunshine's new mixtape Aesthetics 1.0 can be heard below.
.jpg)
