Excellent acting, very good directing, a good tight script -- a little bit of pacing issues and... other characters are nowhere near as investing as Martin Luther King is.

If you don't mind the technical confusion it's a gripping story, and a great credit to DuVernay and co-writer Paul Webb who were unable to use King's original speeches for copyright reasons.

Ava DuVernay's Selma is a beautifully observed drama of public and private lives, of personal narratives and historic moments.

For a movie released at a time when deadly racial tensions are still very much the topic of the day in America, its measured and sanguine execution becomes all the more timely.