Kimber Myers
Underrated: “Widows”
Steven Soderbergh is a modern master of the heist genre, but there’s rarely a sense of real stakes in his heist films. But with “Widows,” Steve McQueen offers a picture with real narrative, emotional and social heft that somehow still offers the gleeful thrills that are hallmarks of the genre without ever being glib. Part of the fun here is seeing the women of the title – played by Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez and Elizabeth Debicki – take over their dearly departed husbands’ roles in the criminal world, adapting and scrambling to do their first job. More of the fun is watching the cast: Davis is predictably great, of course, but Debicki, as well as Cynthia Erivo, are the surprise – or they would be if you hadn’t seen them elsewhere (get thee to ‘the El Royale’)– and the chemistry between the four women is full of frisson. There’s so much pleasure in watching the world that McQueen and his co-writer Gillian Flynn have offered, with small details paying off delightfully. McQueen’s fourth feature collaboration with DP Sean Bobbitt boasts some of the pair’s best work to date, particularly in how it sets up the Chicago neighborhood that plays such an intrinsic part of the film as well in how he shoots his stars, allowing them to be simultaneously beautiful, sturdy and entirely human. “Widows” has done so-so at the box office ($41 million at press time) and hasn’t been a blip in the awards season nominations to date, but if we lived in a just world (which we so clearly do not), this would be a blockbuster with bets from all those nerds on Goldderby.com.
Overrated: “First Man”
The only thing colder and more endless than space itself is this historical drama based on the life of Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) and his walk on the moon. Sure, Damien Chazelle’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning “La La Land” is handsomely fashioned and has its moments: the space flight and moonwalk are jaw-dropping, especially if you caught the film in IMAX. The sequence will take your breath away, which is ironic given the airless nature of much of “First Man.” And as Neil’s wife Janet, Claire Foy brings life to the film in every scene in which she appears. But in trying to mirror Neil’s reaction to tragedy after tragedy in his life, Chazelle makes an equally stoic film that keeps the audience at an arm’s length. If you cry at the moon landing (guilty), it’s only because it feels even more impactful for the lack of emotion in the rest of a film that should be more evocative for all that happens. Most critics (88%, per Rotten Tomatoes) liked the movie and its restraint, but I left underwhelmed by most of its overlong 2 hour and 21-minute running time.
