Post by klep on Feb 22, 2021 10:11:57 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 2/22: Widows
BLACK FILM WEEK!
Based on a British drama series, Steve McQueen's feature Widows (screenplay by Gillian Flynn) is about a group of widows forced by circumstance into committing a heist. Veronica (Viola Davis) was married to Harry (Liam Neeson), the leader of a crew of thieves. When the crew dies stealing money from a local gang boss (Jamal, played by Brian Tyree Henry). Jamal comes after Veronica for his money, and she's forced to recruit the other crew members' wives into helping her execute the last job Harry planned. It's a thrilling escapade, with high stakes and great risks in between the titular widows and their goals and with a significant twist along the way. But in McQueen's film the heist is secondary. He's much more interested in his characters and their relationship to privilege and power.
Widows examines privilege and how it exists along most axes - race, class, and gender. Veronica is used to living a high-class life, and her status leads her to be imperious with her misfit crew, who come from lower education and socioeconomic status. She acts like their boss, and assumes she knows how best to delegate tasks to them. It doesn't occur to her they might have their own strengths until she's forced to recognize them.
Similarly, the corrupt political Mulligan family they're targeting for theft live in a rich section of an otherwise blighted ward of Chicago, and have held the alderman seat for decades in the certitude they know what's best for their poor residents - and if they skim some off the top for themselves well, that's only fair. Meanwhile Jamal is running against the younger Mulligan (Jack, played by Colin Farrell) because he sees being alderman as a way out of street crime and into a safer, higher class of graft.
Of course, the Mulligans' patronizing attitude towards their ward is also tinged in racism. The elder Tom (Robert Duvall) is more virulent in his hatred, but Jack still spends an entire car ride delivering a racist monologue to his assistant while his black driver is forced to passively listen to him.
But perhaps the most glaring prejudice on display in Widows is sexism. We repeatedly see, over and over, how Veronica and her crew are underestimated or buttonholed based on their gender. Jamal assumes Veronica will cow before him. Linda's (Michelle Rodriguez) husband derides her business and uses it as a piggy bank for his gambling. Alice's (Elizabeth Debicki) husband beats her, and even her own mother thinks she's only good for sex. But these women twist the misogyny they face into an asset, accomplishing their goals by taking advantage of the fact that no one believes them capable of what they're trying to do.
McQueen's and Flynn's ability to lace all these threads together results in a gripping film that interrogates the nature and dimensions of privilege and how they work together and in opposition. Almost every scene reveals another layer to the picture they're painting of race, gender, and class dynamics in this Chicago ward. To take all of that and work it into a genre picture takes incredible skill, and it's given us a heist film we'll remember for a long time.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 3/1: Love & Basketball
ALWAYS THE BRIDESMAID WEEK!
At long last we're finally getting around to Gina Prince-Bythewood's Love & Basketball, a romance centered around the best sport. Be sure to join us next week as we finally cross this beloved film off our list! Love & Basketball is available on HBO Max and Hulu and for rent from the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 2/23: Nomadland
Chloe Zhao's acclaimed new film Nomadland starring Frances McDormand concludes the latest podcast pairing, and we'll be discussing it on Wednesday! Be sure to join our discussion then of Nomadland, available on Hulu.
BLACK FILM WEEK!
Based on a British drama series, Steve McQueen's feature Widows (screenplay by Gillian Flynn) is about a group of widows forced by circumstance into committing a heist. Veronica (Viola Davis) was married to Harry (Liam Neeson), the leader of a crew of thieves. When the crew dies stealing money from a local gang boss (Jamal, played by Brian Tyree Henry). Jamal comes after Veronica for his money, and she's forced to recruit the other crew members' wives into helping her execute the last job Harry planned. It's a thrilling escapade, with high stakes and great risks in between the titular widows and their goals and with a significant twist along the way. But in McQueen's film the heist is secondary. He's much more interested in his characters and their relationship to privilege and power.
Widows examines privilege and how it exists along most axes - race, class, and gender. Veronica is used to living a high-class life, and her status leads her to be imperious with her misfit crew, who come from lower education and socioeconomic status. She acts like their boss, and assumes she knows how best to delegate tasks to them. It doesn't occur to her they might have their own strengths until she's forced to recognize them.
Similarly, the corrupt political Mulligan family they're targeting for theft live in a rich section of an otherwise blighted ward of Chicago, and have held the alderman seat for decades in the certitude they know what's best for their poor residents - and if they skim some off the top for themselves well, that's only fair. Meanwhile Jamal is running against the younger Mulligan (Jack, played by Colin Farrell) because he sees being alderman as a way out of street crime and into a safer, higher class of graft.
Of course, the Mulligans' patronizing attitude towards their ward is also tinged in racism. The elder Tom (Robert Duvall) is more virulent in his hatred, but Jack still spends an entire car ride delivering a racist monologue to his assistant while his black driver is forced to passively listen to him.
But perhaps the most glaring prejudice on display in Widows is sexism. We repeatedly see, over and over, how Veronica and her crew are underestimated or buttonholed based on their gender. Jamal assumes Veronica will cow before him. Linda's (Michelle Rodriguez) husband derides her business and uses it as a piggy bank for his gambling. Alice's (Elizabeth Debicki) husband beats her, and even her own mother thinks she's only good for sex. But these women twist the misogyny they face into an asset, accomplishing their goals by taking advantage of the fact that no one believes them capable of what they're trying to do.
McQueen's and Flynn's ability to lace all these threads together results in a gripping film that interrogates the nature and dimensions of privilege and how they work together and in opposition. Almost every scene reveals another layer to the picture they're painting of race, gender, and class dynamics in this Chicago ward. To take all of that and work it into a genre picture takes incredible skill, and it's given us a heist film we'll remember for a long time.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 3/1: Love & Basketball
ALWAYS THE BRIDESMAID WEEK!
At long last we're finally getting around to Gina Prince-Bythewood's Love & Basketball, a romance centered around the best sport. Be sure to join us next week as we finally cross this beloved film off our list! Love & Basketball is available on HBO Max and Hulu and for rent from the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 2/23: Nomadland
Chloe Zhao's acclaimed new film Nomadland starring Frances McDormand concludes the latest podcast pairing, and we'll be discussing it on Wednesday! Be sure to join our discussion then of Nomadland, available on Hulu.