Who better to check in with than John Lewis as
the country undergoes this seismic shift? But of
course, “John Lewis: Good Trouble” was filmed
before the past month. And thus, through no
fault of its own, this historic moment makes
Dawn Porter’s film feel both immensely timely
and like a time capsule. At the very least it
probably could have used and benefited from a
postscript about what is happening right now.
Porter uses a mass of incredible archival footage
to flesh out the life of this “boy from Troy” (which
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called him), who “read
everything” growing up, became a Freedom
Rider, spoke at the March on Washington,
crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge (where his
skull was fractured) and went on to get elected
to the House of Representatives where he is
currently serving his 17th term.
The film, which is largely celebratory, relies
heavily on talking head interviews from the
late Elijah Cummings (to whom the film is
dedicated), his family, Hillary Clinton and younger
representatives like Ayanna Pressley, Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar,
who try to contextualize his importance.
But it stays oddly surface level, despite having
what looks like a lot of access to him and his
family as he goes about his business around D.C.
attending speaking engagements. It opens with
Lewis watching protest footage from the 1960s,
which is itself a powerful image, but doesn’t lead
to anything else: Reflection, introspection or
even anecdotes.
The focus returns often to the 1965 Voting Rights
Act, which was weakened by the 2013 Supreme
Court decision Shelby County v. Holder.