My wife had wanted to watch Sidney Lumet’s 1957 12 Angry Men for ages, so we started it after an aborted viewing of the horrendous Love Hurts (all I can say about that movie is that I feel bad for Ke Huy Quan for thinking that this was a project he—or his agent—thought was a good follow-up to the stellar Everything Everywhere All at Once).
12 Angry Men deserves the 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating. A perfect storm of cinematography, storytelling, and performances makes this a compelling watch from beginning to end. Still valid and resonant today, Lumet captured a timeless story of perception and bias that sits comfortably on the same shelf as Kurosawa’s Rashomon.
Do yourself a favor and watch it.
2025.04.25