Selma

Ava DuVernay's latest film Selma is probably one of the best movies about the Civil Rights movement of the 60s and probably the most honest in its portrayal of the brutality suffered by African-Americans in the South at this time. It also shows the outright racism that was accepted at the time and even leaders like Governor George Wallace doing nothing to stop it.

After receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) returns to his home in Atlanta, Georgia to find the next step in his Civil Rights movement. He finds it in the town of Selma in Alabama, where black people are still unable to register to vote, despite legally being able to. King is joined by fellow members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to tackle this issue. Meanwhile, President Lyndon B. Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) is nervous about about the tension King being in Alabama is having with racist governor George Wallace (Tim Roth). King and his followers eventually decide to walk from Selma to Montgomery as a peaceful protest.

DuVernay's film is masterfully created and captures the feeling of the time perfectly. Martin Luther King is such an important figure of the twentieth century and it's movies like this one that help expose certain parts of history to mainstream audiences. One problem I do have (and it's only minor), is that the film overuses brutal violence to get it's point across. Whilst it's not absolutely excessive I felt like you could maybe cut out one or two scenes of this and still get the point across about how terrifying it was to live as a black person during these times.

This movie has a huge cast and all of the performances are so amazing. David Oyelowo is so amazing as King that I forgot about all other movies he had been in and could only focus on him. It is so disappointing that he is not up for Best Actor for this movie because I would have chosen him in an instant. While President Johnson's portrayal is slightly inaccurate (he championed the Civil Rights movement and was not against it), Wilkinson brings his talents to the fore and is wonderfully followed round by Giovanni Ribisi.

Carmen Ojogo is superb as King's weary wife and Oprah Winfrey makes a superb cameo as a woman who just wants to vote and demonstrates a mean right hook. Tim Roth made my skin absolutely crawl as George Wallace, but also backs up his ability as a great dramatic actor. Stephen Root is just as despicable as Major Al Lingo who orchestrated some of the more brutal attacks on the peaceful protestors.

Selma is deserving of all the praise it has received. It isn't just an affirmative action film because it justifies the reasons for the Civil Rights movement. Ava DuVernay and David Oyelowo make a superb team and are supported by a fantastic cast.

Let's take a look at the Suicide Squad cast

I know that the casting of Suicide Squad isn't exactly news, DC Entertainment has been slowly releasing the news of who is going to be in the movie steadily over the past few weeks, but I thought that now we have a fair few names attached to the movie, it would be a good opportunity to talk about the movie as a whole.

I can imagine a fair few of you are probably thinking who or what is the Suicide Squad. This group is made up of super-villains from the DC universe who are made to do missions by the government that the regular superheroes won't do, mainly because they involve killing dictators, terrorists, drug barons or any similar bad guy. I also say they are made to do this because if they don't achieve their directives, they are killed by an explosive bracelet on their wrists.

This team is made up of some members who may seem familiar and others that sound like I'm just making them up. But let's have a look. First is someone who everyone should know due to her popularity. Harley Quinn (AKA the Joker's girlfriend) is going to be played by Aussie actress Margot Robbie, known for her lead role in The Wolf of Wall Street. Harley Quinn is a beloved character and it will be interesting to see Robbie's interpretation.

Next on the list is the assassin Deadshot, a frequent enemy of Batman and is known to never miss one of his targets. He will be played by Will Smith, a choice that is strange for his famous face as Deadshot's face remains covered in bandages.

Aussie actor Jai Courtney will play Captain Boomerang which is good because we wouldn't want to see an American playing an Australian character. Captain Boomerang is known for using a vast array of deadly boomerangs, much in the same way Hawkeye from The Avengers uses different arrows. I am really excited about the roles that Courtney has been doing of late and I know this will be a good one for him.

Tom Hardy will play the operational leader of the Suicide Squad, Rick Flag. As far as I can tell Flag is just a mentally unstable soldier, but watching Tom Hardy in a role like this should be fun. Model turned actress Cara Delevingne will play the witch of the group, Enchantress.

Jared Leto has been cast to play the Joker, which could be a good or bad thing, I'm not sure. I'm also not sure of how this will play into the plot. The Joker isn't a member of the team and could possibly be a target of the Squad.

Now we get into rumour territory. Apparently Oprah Winfrey's name has been put out there to play the leader of the group, Amanda Waller. I think it would be a lot of fun to see Oprah in a movie like this, rather than the ultra-serious roles that she normally plays. Another name that has been thrown into the mix is Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, but I'm not sure what to think of that.