Spike Lee's discerning vision & Denzel Washington's boundless performance results in a cinematic multifaceted reflection of a public figure and an open dialogue of the world, how it has been built, who benefits and those that are left with work to do.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 12, 2025

Denzel Washington shines as Malcolm X in a powerful, poignant epic. Few films justify their length like this—expertly paced, timeless, and sadly, still relevant today.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 12, 2025

Stately and respectful rather than particularly radical film-making, this is a triumph all around for Lee's creative team, from its million-dollar opening shot to its memorable closing montage.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 18, 2024

Once again, Washington proves he is an Oscar-caliber actor. It's nearly wasted. "X" is an OK film that could have been great.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 26, 2024

…a well-assembled film that reflects the source material with genuine fidelity…Equality can’t just be assumed or declared, it has to be lived, and Malcolm X is a striking depiction of just how unfair American society has been in the not-so distant past.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 2, 2024

Unusually rich, absorbing and often brilliant film-making, an epic deserving of the description. But that doesn't stop it from being worryingly ambiguous.

| Dec 14, 2023

The film has no psychological depth and not much sense of history. It takes a purely surface view of people and events.

| Dec 14, 2023

The movie is long -- 202 minutes -- but Lee earns every tick of the clock, illuminating the many developmental moments in Malcolm X’s personality.

| Original Score: A- | Oct 9, 2023

Washington’s commanding central performance and the intensity with which the story is told make the film feel both brisk and invigorating, challenging our notions of history and what it means to be black in America, then and now.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 27, 2023

In Malcolm X, Denzel Washington delivered the best lead male performance of the 1990s.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 15, 2023

Only a director like Lee could have produced this saga and feature a strong supporting cast with Delroy Lindo, Angela Bassett, Albert Hall, and a slew of cameos.

| Feb 14, 2023

Righteously confrontational though Lee’s film can be regarding the historical record, there’s an embedded idea that collective examination of past history can help us think through the present and lance lasting pathologies.

| Jan 24, 2023

Spike, never shy about courting and confronting controversy, directly engages with the leader’s initial commitment to armed resistance, his conflict with the Nation of Islam, and his philosophical differences with Martin Luther King...

| Dec 3, 2022

Spike Lee's Malcolm X is a curiously conventional biopic of an extraordinary individual, dutifully laying out his life story, but ultimately saying little about the man himself.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 21, 2022

While not coded as an anniversary release, the included materials and the timing of release as both 4K UHD and Blu-ray certainly do imply a celebration, both of the film and the people who created it.

| Nov 21, 2022

I look at Malcolm X as being one of the most important films not to be nominated for Best Picture. Of course, that hasn’t stopped its legacy from building over time.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 21, 2022

It’s an amazing story, and one absolutely done justice by Lee

| Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 21, 2022

Spike Lee’s epic-sized biopic covers a lot of ground. The first half is a bit long even though none of its scenes feel wasted. It’s the second half where things really pick up, and the complexities of Malcolm X take shape.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 23, 2022

Malcolm X is a masterpiece, plain and simple. It represents Spike Lee's apex as a filmmaker, the peak for Denzel Washington as an actor, and the career highlight for the rest of the actors and artists involved.

| Original Score: 10/10 | May 17, 2022

Probably Spike Lee's best and most mature film to date. Malcolm X's story is as compelling as Denzel Washington's portrayal of him. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 9/10 | Sep 30, 2021