When I accepted the Meetup invitation to see this, I didn't know that it was a remake -- or rather, as the director insisted, a second cinematic adaptation of a book. Some of the older group members had seen the Clint Eastwood version and found it haunting, so there was a bit to live up to. For my part, I wanted to see a promising Sofia Coppola film for the first time since Lost in Translation.
Cpl. John McBurnie (Colin Farrell), a Union deserter with a fresh leg wound, finds reluctant hospitality at a Confederate girl school with headmistress Martha Farnsworth (Nicole Kidman), teacher Edwina Murrow (Kirsten Dunst), and five students (of whom Elle Fanning plays the probable eldest). Despite his official enemy status, he garners the affectionate interest of eventually all seven ladies. Martha figures on sending him away upon recovery, but when he gets well enough to tend the neglected garden, it becomes more tempting to let him stay. Alas, his intentions are not all innocent, let alone harmless in effect to others or himself.
Showing posts with label kirsten dunst. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kirsten dunst. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Thursday, January 12, 2017
Hidden Figures (2016)
We shouldn't hear many #OscarsSoWhite complaints next month. While I have yet to check out Moonlight, Fences, or Loving, they get enough positive press outside the Black community to suggest a few nominations at least. But only HF presents a focus on Black women in particular, facing sexism as well as racism.
Specifically, they're three NASA employees in the early '60s, more united than the other Black women in their position if only because they ride to work in the same lemon. The one with the most screen time is Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), whose mad math skills get a room full of White men to rely on her to check vital calculations. Despite exhaustion, she is receptive to the hints from everyone, including her young daughters, that she should hook up with one Col. Jim Johnson (Mahershala Ali). Meanwhile, Dorothy Vaughn (Octavia Spencer) has been pulling her weight as an unofficial supervisor in the "colored" female mathematician division without the benefits; when NASA finally installs a room-sized computer, she takes the initiative in learning how it works, not just to help NASA but to avoid layoffs. Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) doesn't appear to make any great contributions to the space race in the course of the film, but she does pursue an engineering education and career -- in a Virginia that does not respect Brown v. Board of Education.
Specifically, they're three NASA employees in the early '60s, more united than the other Black women in their position if only because they ride to work in the same lemon. The one with the most screen time is Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), whose mad math skills get a room full of White men to rely on her to check vital calculations. Despite exhaustion, she is receptive to the hints from everyone, including her young daughters, that she should hook up with one Col. Jim Johnson (Mahershala Ali). Meanwhile, Dorothy Vaughn (Octavia Spencer) has been pulling her weight as an unofficial supervisor in the "colored" female mathematician division without the benefits; when NASA finally installs a room-sized computer, she takes the initiative in learning how it works, not just to help NASA but to avoid layoffs. Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) doesn't appear to make any great contributions to the space race in the course of the film, but she does pursue an engineering education and career -- in a Virginia that does not respect Brown v. Board of Education.
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