Just Mercy

2019 Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton

Every generation has its hero. Meet ours.

The powerful true story of Harvard-educated lawyer Bryan Stevenson, who goes to Alabama to defend the disenfranchised and wrongly condemned — including Walter McMillian, a man sentenced to death despite evidence proving his innocence. Bryan fights tirelessly for Walter with the system stacked against them.

Michael B. Jordan Brie Larson Jamie Foxx O'Shea Jackson Jr. Rafe Spall Rob Morgan Tim Blake Nelson Rhoda Griffis J. Alphonse Nicholson Karan Kendrick Hayes Mercure Lindsay Ayliffe Dominic Bogart Tim Hooper Andrene Ward-Hammond John Lacy Michael Harding Ron Clinton Smith C.J. LeBlanc Kelly Mumme Mallory Hoff Terence Rosemore Charlie Pye Jr. Christopher Wolfe Adam Boyer Jacinte Blankenship Bryan Stevenson Brad Sanders Charmin Lee Show All…

Alternative Titles

不完美的正義, Luta por Justiça, La Voie de la Justice, Buscando Justicia, צדק ורחמים, Il diritto di opporsi

drama

136 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by matt lynch ★★★ 5

You know how you go to like Denny's and the menu is full of pictures and the Moons Over My Hammy you ordered looks pretty much just like the photo and it's nothing special but tastes exactly like it should?
Review by maria ★★★★ 3

why am i crying in the club right now
Review by 🎃🔥Mr. Like🔥🎃 ★★★★ 14

Rotten Tomatoes: 83%
Metacritic Metascore: 68
IMDb: 7.5
86/100
Release Date: 10 January 2020
Distributor: Warner Brothers
Budget: $25M
Worldwide Gross: $50.4M
Total Film Awards: 7
2019 Ranked
Bryan Stevenson: "The first time I visited Death Row, I wasn't expecting to meet someone the same age as me... from a neighborhood just like ours ... coulda been me, momma."
SYNOPSIS: World-renowned civil rights defense attorney Bryan Stevenson works to free a wrongly condemned death row prisoner.
- Source: IMDb
Wow. What a ride.
The book "Just Mercy" is essentially a memoir from Bryan Stevenson about his life, post-Harvard, aiding death row inmates in the South. He spends the bulk of the book on the specific case of Walter McMillian and…
Review by kevinyang ★★½ 4

If we have to sit through these mediocre films as a consequence for getting to watch Short Term 12, then so be it
Review by Steve G 🐝 ★★★★ 2

Sometimes there's necessity in predictability.
It's very easy to criticise Just Mercy for being similar, maybe overly so, to so many legal dramas that have proceeded it. Such criticisms are not unwarranted and viewed purely as a piece of entertainment, it's unlikely you'll find anything in Destine Daniel Cretton's film that you haven't seen before.
In terms of its story, however, it carries a message that bears repeating. And it should be repeated, tirelessly, until the world in which we are living in changes. There's a superb moment in this where Michael Harding, playing sheriff Tom Tate, warns Michael B. Jordan (as Bryan Stevenson) that he isn't cruising into his "redneck town" to rid himself of no "racist sheriff".
There's…
Review by Austin Burke ★★★★ 4

✅76%
YouTube review - Click HERE
2019 list - Click HERE
Maybe I’m just a sucker for a good, heartfelt, and feel-good story (if it’s handled well). This film will not be winning awards anytime soon, but sometimes a movie doesn’t have to be built for that. They may believe they deserve an award, but it just isn’t going to happen. Nevertheless, Just Mercy did exactly what it was created to do, and that is to tell this story in a (hopefully) true and authentic way. Destin Daniel Cretton showed such promise with Short Term 12. No film from him since has captured that magic, but this does what it intends to do. Is it cliché? Absolutely, and it’s also one of…
Review by Houston Coley ★★★½ 3

I’m surprised this hasn’t garnered more attention. Undoubtedly, the screenplay is heavy on expository sequences and unsubtle imagery, but I was still tremendously moved - and tremendously angered by the injustice, even though I knew most of the story beforehand anyway. And even in the unsubtle imagery, there was such a strong commitment to telling the true story accurately that everything unbelievable becomes more infuriating because it did happen.
Daniel Destin Cretton is not a particularly stylish director - and the direction here lacks some of the quirks and idiosyncrasies of something like Short Term 12 - but his greatest strength lies in his guiding hand over actors. Just put Michael B Jordan and Jamie Foxx in a room, and I’m all in. It’s powerful and drastically empathetic filmmaking from minute one.
Review by <Todd> ★★½ 20

"It's not my job to make people happy, it's my job to get justice for my client" - Bryan Stevenson,
Good for him... but, I wish that this film did more and that the style felt more current. It feels like a film you'd show to middle-schoolers.
Read the wikipedia entry on Bryan Stevenson instead... he's an amazing man.
Review by Griffin Stenzel ★★★★ 7

I’d like to start off by saying that I will never understand the pain that the black community has faced. I will continue to emphasize with you all. I also don’t want to seem too preachy, and I’m sorry if I do.
To those who are privileged, please use it. Use it to learn. Use it to listen. Use it to take direct action. Don´t silently like tweets. Go to (peaceful) protests. Spread awareness. Don’t simply post a black square and think ‘welp, my work is done for today.’ Nobody should ever think that. This is not a sprint, it is a marathon. We all must fight for justice today, tomorrow, and for the rest of our lives. If you’re…
Review by siobhan ★★★½ 3

tbh the trailers for this did the film a huge disservice and made it look a lot more corny and bland than it ended up being so i was pleasantly surprised!
Review by Brian Tallerico ★★ 1

It’s so well-intentioned and earnest that I hate how superficial I found it. A movie can mean well but it’s not going to connect without some true grit and emotion. It’s one of those awards bait prestige dramas that leaves me...just drowsy. (Sorry.)
Review by Tara ★★★½ 12

2020 Films Ranked | The 2020 Adventure
How in world did Joker got 11 nomination, The Irishman got 9 nomination, and Parasite got 6 bloody Oscar nomination BUT THIS MASTERPIECE GOT NO RECOGNITION? LORD HAVE MERCY.
VERY UNDERRATED FILM.

Recent reviews

Review by Daniel O'Connor ★★★½

Destin Daniel Cretton mutes his directing voice to let this moving story of truth, racial inequality and systematic injustice speak for itself.
Review by ironsonman ★★★★

mbj carregou o filme.
jamie foxx impecável e a atuacaoda brie esteve no ponto também, so nao tem um 5 por algumas falhas no roteiro
Review by frencis ★★

Yet another proof of the fact that a good theme is not enough to make good cinema. Rhetorical, didactic film that, even if with good intentions, completely fails
Review by Marin22 ★★★

Nothing new here but it's well made.
Review by Lindsey Paulette ★★★★★

This hurt. Had some truly heartbreaking scenes mixed in with everyone’s beautiful performances. Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx are outstanding actors and they had a wonderful ensemble to compliment them through the entire film. This is an important movie and I highly recommend everyone give it a watch. One of those movies that sticks with you long after credits roll.
Review by Carlos Narro ★★★★½

estupendo recordatorio de que el racismo en usa no es un problema resuelto, con muchos paralelismos a Matar un Ruiseñor, novela de los 30, pelicula de los 60, libro de los 90, pelicula de 2019
Review by jrm555 ★★★½

The death penalty is wrong, and it's weird to give this a rating. Tim Blake Nelson outdid himself in this one. So did Jamie Foxx. MBJ forever.
HBO Max.
I almost went and watched this in the movie theater a half a dozen times. But it was the 2-hour and 17-minute runtime and the 10:30 p.m. start time that dissuaded me. Might have been the last movie I saw before pandemic if I'd made it over there.
Review by mugoogio ★★★½

A bit too true to the formula. Such a movie can still be entertaining and powerful without being groundbreaking, and that's how I see this.
Review by ccorwin3 ★★★★½

Very well acted and a sad but inspiring depiction of life and the horrors still present in our prison system.
Review by Chilly5167 ★★★

good
Review by drobbie04 ★★★★

This movie is a faithful adaptation to the book that also changes some events around to make it play out like a movie, it is well acted with great emotion shown from all of the cast and has a great soundtrack accompanying it
Review by kferver ★★★★

Law school film class, film #4
While easy to dismiss as a by-the-numbers legal drama, this film does way more to highlight systemic racism than most of its kind, including To Kill a Mockingbird. Atticus Finch is a reluctant fictional hero; Bryan Stevenson is a real, devoted lawyer who has changed lives.