As piercing and relevant today as it was almost two decades ago, Malcolm X is an unflinching character portrait that shows every bit of what made Malcolm a great man and a revolutionary, never demonizing him but also never flattening him. Denzel does his evolution so seamlessly; the Malcolm at the end of the movie is so different from the one at the beginning, and yet they feel like the same man. That is anchored by his performance; his wry little smile in his final scene is pitch perfect. And when Spike Lee is on, the brother is _on_. His searing, confrontational style was made for this film. You are going to reckon with it, dammit. And reckon with it I did. I've always had Malcolm's autobiography on my to read list, but this film instantly compelled me to finally get it, because it so thoroughly displayed the man's importance, eloquence, passion, and heart. I can think of no higher praise than that.