dex14

DJariya

Maria Bello came up with the story? Interesting. She’s listed on IMDB as a producer, but no writing credit.

dex14

Opens next week. Reviews from TIFF: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_woman_king

Dr. DVD

Does this story take place after the Atlantic slave trade was abolished? My understanding is that while it was officially "gone" in the early 1800s, illegal trafficking continued well into the days of the Civil War.

Dr. DVD

Caught this today. Not really worth all of the great reviews, but a nice big screen spectacle.

Throwing Copper

I thought this would be a small indie.

But wow. Look at this thing.

It’s amazing to be even in the public interest. Seriously.

Selling Black anything, especially Black women is incredibly tough.

TomOpus

Next thing you know, they'll have a black mermaid. The madness won't stop, right?

RocShemp

Ads make it look promising. So is it only watchable for the action or is the rest also good? Just wanna know how to temper my expectations.

Dr. DVD

Don't go in thinking it's going to be non-stop action. It's mostly character driven, but the action they have is pretty cool. My only real gripe aside from the history fudging is that this looks like it was shot to have a hard R rating and they did some editing to get a PG-13. Plot wise this movie seems to have been inspired, interestingly, by An Officer and a Gentleman, even keeping one of its trademark lines. The acting is also top notch, and Viola Davis is every bit her Amanda Waller bad a$$.

Artman

I had just assumed it was an R film, realizing it was PG-13 actually changed my mind about seeing it. Yes, great films don't need to be R but my interest in this was really only for potentially brutal battle scenes.

Boba Fett

Really enjoyed it. Fantastic cast, with Viola Davis, of course, turning in a fantastic performance. The movie itself was 20 mins too long and there’s a plot twist that is pretty lazy. As a pure action-drama it’s phenomenal. I can’t weigh in on historical accuracy.

That said an early Sunday evening showing had only four people, myself included. Really sad to see a Black female led cast in a film written and directed by women seemingly not make a huge opening weekend impact, when seven people ahead of me were in line to see Maverick.

Throwing Copper

It did almost 20 million this weekend. For a movie with no stars, Viola Davis isn’t popular, that’s an amazing turnout in September

Noonan

Viola Davis isn’t popular? That’s news to me.

DJariya

I just rented the DVD from Red Box and watched it today. Wow, this movie was incredible. I regret not seeing it last Fall. Amazing sets, costumes, hair and makeup. And a great cast. Also, a very wise decision to actually shoot this on location in Africa than trying to fake it in the U.S. somewhere. The bonus material on the DVD talks about that a little. Viola Davis as Nanisca was badass and also showed a lot of vulnerability. Thuso Mbedu was also great as the secondary character Nawi, who has a connection with Nanisca. I also thought the action, war sequences were very well directed by Prince-Blythewood. I never thought she was capable of doing a movie like this. I mean she did Love and Basketball and Beyond the Lights.

I think this was one of the best of 2022. I recommend checking it out. These kind of stories don't get told very often in Hollywood. Not a movie I would buy and rewatch, but it's definitely worth seeing at least once.

OldBoy

^ this review put me over the top in renting this thing. I knew the reviews were stellar, but didn’t know anything about what it’s about.

Holy shit was this pretty fucking great. It was refreshing to see an elite all women’s security. Kinda reminded me of Wakandans in Black Panther. This was just beautiful to look at and engrossing for entire runtime. In fact I didn’t check time once with this one. It was gripping.

Davis will definitely get a nom, but the girl who played Nawi was great as was Lynch. She seems to be in everything now. But, it was a new twist on a tried and true formula. Just a kick ass blast.

OldBoy

It also said story by and produced by Maria Bello. Is that the actor we all know and love?

Decker

Actually yes it is.

OldBoy

That’s so cool when actors unexpectedly branch out like they. EP is one thing, but to write the story with a co-writer is remarkable. And, that it turned out so well.

OldBoy

So weird, that I knew I’ve seen the directors name before, but couldn’t place it. Her name is Gina Prince-Bythewood. I mean that’s a hard name to forget. But, I just started to rewatch the tv show Felicity and boom she was an EP on that show. So coincidental.

TomOpus

Streaming on Netflix now.