Filmology Rating: 3.13 out of 4

 

Every year we get treated to a film that seems to come out of nowhere.  You might have heard about it briefly if you religiously follow trades like The Hollywood Reporter or Variety, but if you only follow trades like Entertainment Weekly or IMDB on Facebook you would easily miss the film due to being bombarded by films like Rogue One: A Star Wars Story or Passengers. Most of the time the smaller, more hidden films are the ones that will leave you feeling with a heart that is full and a soul feeling complete.

The space race has tensions high at NASA in 1961.  Tensions are even higher with Katherine Johnson, played by Taraji P Henson, Dorothy Vaughan, played by Octavia Spencer, and Mary Jackson, played by Janelle Monae, who are African American women in fear of losing their jobs at a moment’s notice due only to skin color and gender. However, when the Russians launch Sputnik 1 with Yuri Gagarin into space, everyone at NASA is on overdrive to launch an American and are running into failure after failure until the trio are given a chance to shine and help NASA enter the final frontier.

Most of the time I come out with outright hatred towards films that are straightforward, paint by numbers storytelling.  You normally get bland performances, generic direction, and a sense of boredom while watching.  Hidden Figures is a film that offers great performances from everyone in the cast, it offers a sense of purpose and soul from director Theodore Melfi, and I was never once bored during the two hour running time.  Honestly I was on the edge of my seat during a moment in the third act even though I know how the actually event ends because history tells us.  

The performances in this film from the three leading ladies are perfection.  Taraji P Henson, who first caught my attention with Boston Legal and then No Good Deed in 2014, offers a subtle performance for the most part, although she delivers an “Oscar mongering” performance for one scene that still works and doesn’t stand out as over the top.  Octavia Spencer, who became a familiar face with The Help and then continued to charm audiences with her role in Red Band Society, is actually the weakest member of the trio.  Spencer is great, I don’t want anyone to think otherwise, however I feel that she continues to play the same character in every film: the fierce maternal figure.  The standout star of the film has to be Janelle Monae, who was seen making her big screen debut in Moonlight last year.  Monae brings a sense of empowerment with every glance she takes and uses that sense of empowerment to slightly outshine Henson and Spencer in the film.

Even the supporting cast brings a sense of importance to each role that they have.  Kevin Costner, who was rather terrible in last year’s Criminal, is a likeable, moral character who has ambition to be better the world not for fame but because it needs to be done.  Kirsten Dunst, who lately has decided to not do major blockbusters, is even good in this film as the prejudiced supervisor who wants to keep everything status quo.  Glen Powell might be one of my favorite up and coming actors after Everybody Wants Some!! and Hidden Figures.  Powell brings a sense of earnestness to the role of John Glenn, who feels like the most optimistic trusting person on the planet.  

Most years a film like Hidden Figures would be forgotten with all the other awards films coming out, but at this moment in time, here at the beginning of 2017 with everything in the world being so uncertain, it feels good to have a film that captures a sense of accomplishment and a progressive step forward for the world.

Rating: See It

-Jonny G

Hidden Figures is the untold story of Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, brilliant African-American women working at NASA, who served as the brains behind helping launch astronaut John Glenn into orbit.

I was finally able to see Hidden Figures! I'm sorry that it took me so long. By now most of you who will have wanted to see this movie by now will have and the rest of you that didn’t plan on seeing it or were on the edge, you need to go see it. Hidden Fig...ures is one of the most powerful and entertaining films that has to deal with sexism and racism within the workforce. Hidden Figures is more than just the battle of civil rights, but it is the story of humanity and the struggle for basic human rights; the ability to have the same chance and opportunities as everyone else. This movie doesn’t try and push many boundaries but rather just tells a good story. It does it so well that it feels like it’s a story that has never been told before. This for me was one of the best Civil Rights/ Sexism/Racism movies that I have ever seen.

Hidden Figures would be nothing without its fantastic cast. Octavia Spencer has received an Oscar nomination for best Supporting Actress which was to be expected (She won’t win). She is really the people’s choice when it comes to this category because with all honesty, she was outdone by the other two supporting ladies Taraji P. Henson and Janelle Monáe. Not to take anything away from Octavia but the other two ladies simply had more to work with and were much more powerful emotionally than she was. I was very surprised by the Academy’s pick but I'm just glad someone got recognized. Alongside the main ladies we have the man that should win best Supporting Actor Mahershala Ali (Moonlight), Kevin Costner (which it was great to see him doing something good again), Jim Parsons (Bazinga), and Kristen Dunst. This amazing group of actors and actresses deserved to win the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, they truly deserved it.

I am very happy to see how well Hidden Figures has done in the box office. It recently crossed over the 100 million mark (25 million to make) which it really good for a cast that focuses on leading ladies to do the heavy lifting. For some stupid reason, female lead films never seem to do as well in the box office but I am very happy to see that wasn’t the case with this film. Hidden Figures deserves all the recognition that it is getting.

Rating: See It

-Nick