The Best of Enemies

It's predictable and conventional, but it has some powerful moments.

But like Peter Farrelly's road-trip dramedy, Bissell's film stretches and flattens history in ways big and small.

Comparisons will inevitably be made to Green Book for its upbeat vibe, but in terms of serious craft and admirable aspirations, this film is more in the league of 42 and Selma.

To give ally cookies to a former Klan president because he no longer believes Black people are "evil and dirty" is breathtaking. To reduce Ann's story to her friendship with this man as "a more important story," is even more so.

This tale of a KKK president seeing the error of his ways-and bonding with a civil-right activist-feels all kinds of wrong.

It's impossible to ignore that the film is yet another Hollywood narrative of racial reconciliation centered on a white protagonist-and worse, it's one that seems much more interested in the Klan's white targets than its black ones.

The film is driven by two equally big yet equally fabulous performances.

The Hollywood studio system has taken civil rights films in the direction of the exploitation genre, which doesn’t mean The Best of Enemies is bad medicine&#59; it just makes it a placebo.

The arcs are predictable and the tone never serious enough for the subject matter at hand.

The Best of Enemies has good intentions, and some potent things to say, but its novice direction and limited perspective fail it from becoming anything other than this seasons Green Book.