Loving

The case of "Loving vs Virginia" is known as the supreme court case that enshrined the right to inter-racial marriage in the United States. So an awards-season biopic about the people behind the case would have to be a campaigning, rabble-rousing film full of obvious "oscar moments" and self-important speechifying, right?

Nope. This is a rare case where it really truly is about the people, not about the headline. There's very little speechifying here - Richard and Mildred Loving aren't those kinda people, they're people who just want to live their lives together in peace. And through slow accumulation of details, the relationship becomes solidified, and the dirty racist policy that kept unjust laws on the books is let tarnished all the more by rarely being directly ranted against. Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga's performances are central to this - there's very little flashy in the performances, instead communicating simple, uncomplicated decency as they go through the daily business of work, raising children, communing with friends and family - almost ignoring the wider world's cruelties until it comes crashing into their bedroom.

This is a film of more low-key pleasures than most, but it's engrossing none the less.