Malcolm X

Denzel Washington gives an electrifying performance as the iconic human-rights activist in Lee's sweeping biopic that charts the influential black nationalist's ever-shifting identities and ideologies: from his troubled childhood and days as a small-time Harlem hoodlum to his spiritual awakening in prison and conversion to Islam. Crackling with a live-wire intensity and culminating in an appearance by Nelson Mandela, Malcolm X is no less than "one of the great screen biographies"