Synopsis
Centers on the unlikely relationship between Ann Atwater, an outspoken civil rights activist, and C.P. Ellis, a local Ku Klux Klan leader who reluctantly co-chaired a community summit, battling over the desegregation of schools in Durham, North Carolina during the racially-charged summer of 1971. The incredible events that unfolded would change Durham and the lives of Atwater and Ellis forever.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Taraji P. HensonAnn Atwater
- Sam RockwellClaiborne Paul Ellis
- Babou CeesayBill Riddick
- Anne HecheMary Ellis
- Wes BentleyFloyd Kelly
- Nick SearcyGarland Keith
- Bruce McGillCarvie Oldham
- John Gallagher Jr.Lee Trombley
- Nicholas LoganWiley Yates
- Gilbert Glenn BrownHoward Clement
Recommendations
- 88
Movie Nation
Bissell has made a film where the casting isn’t the only thing that’s “on-the-nose.” The message, where the film’s sympathies lie and its emphasis on the character with the bigger journey to make could earn it some “Green Book” styled blowback. - 75
Chicago Tribune
It’s a surprise and a small wonder, then, when The Best of Enemies starts getting good and pretty much stays that way to the end. This may be an apples/oranges comparison, but: For a true-ish story of racial animus, bone-deep prejudice and the American South in the civil rights era, it’s a better, more nuanced and more interesting feel-good movie than a certain, recent, less interesting Best Picture Academy Award winner we could mention. - 75
San Francisco Chronicle
The movie also benefits from the presence of Anne Heche as Ellis’ wife. Heche doesn’t say much, but she conveys a lot. - 70
Variety
The Best of Enemies while not nearly as good as “Green Book,” is a rock-solid movie: squarely deliberate, a little long and predictable, but honest and thoughtful enough, precise in its period and locale, with very strong performances. - 67
Austin Chronicle
Leads Henson (barely recognizable under a mountain of Tyler Perry-esque practical makeup) and Rockwell turn in top-notch, emotion-laden performances, buoyed by a supporting cast of equally fine character actors. - 63
Washington Post
The Best of Enemies is perhaps the first account of the United States’s traumatic racial history that could be adapted into a sitcom. - 60
The Hollywood Reporter
While it lacks the ambition to turn its obvious plot into a film that feels new, it also avoids the pitfalls of moral smugness and stereotyping. It flows along easily, bolstered by Taraji P. Henson’s and Sam Rockwell’s vibrant performances. - 50
The New York Times
Rather than illuminating the politics of the present by examining the struggles of the past, Bissell lurches from folksy comedy to clattering melodrama, producing the opposite of enlightenment. To quote an old protest song: When will we ever learn?
