When we first meet McMillian, he speaks softly and resignedly, his head bowed. He does not meet Stevenson, all ideals wrapped in a neat brown suit, in the eye. Seeing Foxx and Jordan – two of the best actors working today who also happen to be longtime friends, ever since a scrawny, adolescent Jordan first starred in The Wire – play off each other onscreen for the first time is truly thrilling.

During that first meeting Stevenson rattles off his plan for seeking an acquittal. Out of nowhere, McMillian slams his hands on the table. BAM. The sound echoes through the scene, rattling audiences and Jordan alike. “You don’t know what you into down here in Alabama,” McMillian says, shaking his head. “When you’re guilty from the moment you born.”

Just Mercy does not mince its words when it comes to its morals. This is a movie about institutionalised racism and the ways in which that racism has infiltrated every corner of American society, right into the very bones of its justice system. How can justice truly exist, this movie asks, when evidence is fabricated and testimony falsified? How can anyone justify the existence of capital punishment when almost 87% of the black men on death row were convicted as a result of misconducted investigations? How can anyone justify the existence of capital punishment, period?

There are 29 states in the US that still employ the death penalty regularly. In fact, the US is the only Western country in the world that does so, executing 22 people in 2019 alone. Right now, the NAACP reports that there are 2,656 people incarcerated on death row.

Just Mercy review: Michael B Jordan and Brie Larson bring this heartbreaking true story to life