Film Review: <em>Widows</em>
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Widows is the kind of high quality studio fare adults have been begging for in the age of the big blockbuster. It’s whip smart, flawlessly directed, and ferociously acted, all the platitudes you can label on a good film. But it’s the emotional depth and layers of topical issues that make this movie amazing.
The plot of the movie is simple, when a bank job goes wrong, four women are left both grieving their loved ones and damn near destitute. Veronica (Viola Davis) is being threatened by a gangster who wants to go legit (a brilliant Bryan Tyree Henry) in his race to be the alderman against his rival, the son of political dynasty (Colin Farrell). Meanwhile, Alice (Elizabeth Debicki) is being encouraged to lead a life of escorting, Linda (Michelle Rodriguez) has lost her store due to her husband, and Amanda (Carrie Coon) wants nothing to do with them. But none of these women take shit lying down and Veronica rounds the first two up, plus a game Belle (Cynthia Erivo), and decides to pull off a final job that will get them out of this mess.
So yes, Widows is simple. However, when you’re in the hands of the kind of talent Fox amassed for this picture, you know the movie won’t JUST be about those things. Steve McQueen and Gillian Flynn are a dream collaborator team in that both delight in bringing real world pathos to heightened situations and complicated characters. How great to get a director like McQueen to play in the Flynn complicated woman sandbox, because his skills as an actor’s director gives us prime performances from everyone. They both also realize that we as humans are a byproduct of our surroundings and Chicago, and it’s long history, becomes a character incredibly integral to the story. I mean the movie’s best shot, which I will not spoil for you here, paints such a brilliantly stark picture of the city and its inhabitants that my head spun. McQueen puts as much thought as any to how scenes are blocked and how the camera moves about a space that it’s no wonder the movie is perfectly balanced.
Providing the counterweight to all the technical and script wizardry is the core group of actors. There’s not a bad performance in the bunch. I was most struck by Viola Davis, getting to use all of her natural strength and grace in a modern setting. Anyone who has seen How to Get Away with Murder knows that she can lead a group of rambunctious youngsters while wearing fabulous clothes, and this time she gets to do it while attempting robbery! What a treat for us as viewers. Of the myriad of actors in her orbit, Daniel Kaluuya as the fierce right hand man to Jamal is amazingly terrifying (I literally shrunk down in my seat when he was on screen) and Elizabeth Debicki, whose turn as the pretty, “dumb” girl of the group gets an amazing boost of humanity through her performance.
Widows is truly a delightful movie that maintains its sense of fun and duty to the characters, to the genre, and ultimately to the viewers.
Rating: 4/4 stars
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3 thoughts on “Film Review: <em>Widows</em>”
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Wow, you have reviewed this movie as an unequivical social masterpiece and negatively reviewed Roma is mind boggling. I guess Roma didn’t have enough murders or car chases for ya. If Widows had a iota of social conscience it would never have allowed such extremely low brow lines like “They don’t think we have the balls to pull it off.” Hahahahahaha! Alex, I’ll take” Embarrassingly Ironic” for 200 please.
Just another money grab by Hollywood. So I’m sure we can’t be far from a movie where Jenifer Lawrence gets a pair of balls surgically implanted and takes over the world. Women can do so much better than these phony attempts of inclusion. Instead of just doing remakes of movies previously made for men only.
Please do a search for me and tell me where I used the words “unequivocal social masterpiece.” One movie has nothing to do with the other. Widows can be good and Roma disappointing
“But it’s the emotional depth and layers of topical issues that make this movie amazing.” Ok I exaggerated a bit.
Sorry but making movies about women and under-represented races will only help a small number in those groups. Actors, directors, writers, etc… While Shonda is worth hundreds of millions of dollars there are hundreds of millions of women of color wasting away in this screwed up world.
But looking at your favorite movies this year, 2 that come to mind, Mission Impossible and Rampage???? These movies are lowbrow escapism. Do you think that’s “real life?” Or do you critique Cuaron with a different standard.
Sorry but taste matters. And considering that there are now about a million film critics (there I go again) it’s now nothing more than a popularity contest.
And although Roma may not be a masterpiece, if it were 2 hours of nothing but dog poop it would still be closer to an adult form of entertainment than anything that “The Rock (ahahahahahah)” has ever been in. The Rock??? Really?? Sad my friend. To think Brando, Duval, Hackman, Pacino, and Hoffman have been replaced with The Rock, Paul Dano, Jesse Eisenberg, Leo “the boy toy” DiCaprio, and Michael Jordan?? I’d love to see the latter crew in The Godfather, Raging Bull, etc… And thanks to all the low brow critics Hollywood will keep pouring out pablum for our dumbed down country. I’d even say that Donnie boy Trump is a beneficiary of our collective brains being numbed by this crap.
Good or bad, Roma is a movie about humans not superheroes or women wanting desperately to be men. But critics don’t have the “balls” to stand up to the real Super heroes – The Hollywood Studios which is your bread and butter.