92% on Rotten Tomatoes
Chloe's thoughts: A must-see
Watch it if you: Are interested in the subject matter (true story, racism, NASA);
Want a refreshingly upbeat movie in the face of all these depressing Oscar films
Hidden Figures tells the true story of three African-American women working at NASA and playing separate, but integral, roles in the Space Race. We have Katherine Goble, a computer/mathematician who gets placed on the team that calculates the flight trajectory of the astronaut; we have Mary Jackson, another computer who aspires to be an engineer but cannot because of new regulations that seem only to favour white males; and Dorothy Vaughan, an unofficial supervisor for the coloured computers struggling to get a promotion while also being concerned about being made redundant in the face of new IBM technology entering NASA.
Apparently this film was pretty accurate to the true events, although they did condense the three women's stories into the same timeline whereas in real life they took place at different times within the same decade. And I thought the film did an excellent job at telling this unfortunately not-well-known story about these three hidden figures of history, who were looking for hidden mathematical figures for NASA.
Firstly, I think what struck me the most was how the film portrayed the different levels of racism and segregation you could see here.
One, you had the people who just didn't see race. They didn't see colour. They would go out of their way to talk to you or to shake your hand purely because that was what they would do to anyone, black or white. At NASA, it wasn't about the Whites against the Blacks, it was about the Americans against the Russians, and some people knew that the only way they could succeed was if they allowed anyone worthy, regardless of colour and gender, to aid where necessary.
Unfortunately, not everyone at the time was like that, though. In fact, most people weren't, so you had people who were blatantly racist. People who would stare at a black woman just because she got up to get coffee, people who would stick hard and fast to labels for "Coloured" people, people who would hinder the progress of others even if it meant the advancement of their team as a whole.
Then you have the people in between. The people who are racist, but don't know it. The people who think, "I'm so great because I work at a company that hires black people! My company is very progressive and we are giving these people jobs where they wouldn't ever get one in any other situation! That means I'm very progressive!" And I think this is really dangerous because these sorts of people don't realise how much they are adding to the system and cycle of racism, because they are ignorant of how their actions could possibly be racist at all.
And that leads us to the last group of people, those who are ignorant. And this can cover all three of the above levels I just spoke about, because you could be racist because you are ignorant, or you could not see race but still be ignorant of all the difficulties that they face just in every day life. Things like going to the bathroom serve a daily reminder of the oppression they face, things like walking into a room full of white males shows the lack of representation of females, let alone black females and males, in an area of science where these things shouldn't matter. It's sad but that is the harsh reality of the 60s, and it's the harsh reality even of today, unfortunately.
But enough about that, let's talk about the rest of the film.
I was so fascinated with Taraji P. Henson in this. I don't watch Empire but I am familiar with the rough idea of what her character is like in that show, and here she is the complete opposite. She was so great as a strong, resilient, and yet oppressed and silenced woman, and she has a fantastic moment where she decides that she has had enough of being treated badly because of the colour of her skin, and I will admit I cried in that scene (although, that's not saying much in light of how many times I've cried in movies these past few months).
Octavia Spencer was alright in this, I didn't feel like she had many moments to shine, although ever since The Help, I've loved seeing her on screen (and they even have a reference to the infamous pie!). I liked the idea of her character though, she was very smart in the sense that she was the authoritative figure of the coloured computers, and she also knew about how new technology could make her job redundant, and she came up with different ways of trying to make herself useful and even invaluable to the company.
But oh my goodness, Janelle Monáe. Daaaang this girl is on fire right now. In between this and Moonlight, she is doing a killer job at entering the acting world. I cannot believe she just decides to go into acting, as a singer, and then right off the bat stars in two highly-talked-of films this year. She has a great moment where she speaks to a judge, and just the overall sassiness she brings to the screen is fantastic. And, it goes without saying, she is beautiful so I could watch her do nothing all day long and I'd still be happy. Plus, it was great seeing her on screen with Mahershala Ali as well, who makes a small appearance (although he didn't really do much so I was kinda disappointed with his character).
I think I've given this enough of a rave for you to understand that I loved this film, but here's my summary anyway. I feel like I've given way too many "must-sees" this year, but I still think this needs to be watched by everybody, because it's a story that needs to be told, and heard. I am fascinated with anything NASA related, and I love true stories that show the achievements of man, and send important messages, and this is a film that does so. The acting is great, it's all pretty subtle, even by supporting actors like Kirsten Dunst and Kevin Costner, who are great in this. Some of their personal lives seemed glossed over in favour of more focus on NASA, which I don't really have an issue with, but some of the side stuff seems to be a bit too dramatised (like Jim Parson's character) or a bit too irrelevant (like Mahershala Ali's character), and the ending comes off as a bit too Hollywood-action-flick suspensey, but overall I think this is a great film that needs to be seen.
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