USA TODAY on MARSHALL

by Brian Truitt

‘Marshall’ (Oct. 13)

Stars: Chadwick Boseman, Josh Gad, Kate Hudson

Director: Reginald Hudlin

The skinny: Marshall is an origin story of sorts for the future Supreme Court justice, when Thurgood Marshall was a young NAACP attorney in 1940 tasked with helping Jewish lawyer Sam Friedman (Gad) defend an African-American man (Sterling K. Brown) accused of the rape and attempted murder of a rich white woman (Hudson). While maybe not on the level of fame of Brown v. Board of Education, the case showed a period in history where the war for white supremacy happening in Europe mirrored what was happening in parts of America. “On one hand, we see ourselves as superior to Nazis. On the other hand, you have this racism and anti-Semitism in our own country,” Hudlin says. “By having the two (lawyers) paired together, you really feel the contradiction of the American character and you also see the importance of allies.”