As written by Ridley and portrayed by the ever-reliable Regina King, Chisholm, a schoolteacher who represented a district in Brooklyn, is a sharp woman with one-too-many blind spots regarding political gamesmanship.
The congresswoman often presents as too self-assured for one so new to politics. But her determination wins followers; they like her boldness and the possibilities her candidacy promises.
Shirely gathers together a cadre of advisers, fundraisers and organizers (played with assurance by Lance Reddick, Terrence Howard, Lucas Hedges and Brian Stokes Mitchell), and with the support of her devoted husband, Conrad, (an endearing Michael Cherrie), launches into a campaign that is underfunded and understaffed, lacks competitive infrastructure and a message that will resonate beyond Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Ridley tracks the months leading up the Democratic Convention in Miami and Chisholm's efforts to work around the skepticism and push through the resentment of political veterans and her myopic view of the power of her image. She underperforms in every primary and finds herself with few delegates going into the convention when she joins a group of other Democratic contenders in challenging California's winner-take-all delegate rules.
If the winner-take-all rule is disallowed by the National Committee, the other candidates on the ballot stand a chance of stalling frontrunner George McGovern's ascendance on a first vote and forcing him to commit to their agenda items. In return they would pledge their delegates to him.
The outcomes, of course, is history; Shirley Chisholm did not become president but she inspired the careers of many other women and people of color to "bring a chair" to the table if none had been provided for them.
Shirley is a solid piece of filmmaking that would have benefitted, I think, from less political intrigue and more spirited interaction between the players working against impossible odds to make change.
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