Widows

Director Steve McQueen

 

WIDOWS                   B                    

Great Britain  USA  (129 mi)  2018  ‘Scope  d:  Steve McQueen          Official Facebook

Our lives are in danger; our husbands aren’t coming back; we’re on our own.

―Veronica Rawlings (Viola Davis)

This has the steely feel of a Soderbergh film, especially with the percussive musical score by Hans Zimmer, and a luminous look glistening with an accent on artificial surfaces by cinematographer Sean Bobbitt, featuring exquisite locations throughout, including a floor-to-ceiling windowed penthouse suite to die for, resembling a similar upscale hotel room used in McQueen’s Shame (2011), making this one of the better looking films shot in Chicago, where the sleazy criminal vibe of rampant corruption feels like the perfect backdrop.  The script, however, written by the director and Gone Girl’s novelist Gillian Flynn adapting Lynda La Plante’s six-part robbery mini-series (by the same name) made for British television in 1983, just doesn’t live up to the potential of having such a superb cast, assembling one of the best ensemble casts of the year to work with, turning this into something of a politically correct revenge saga, empowering women to do what men typically do in a heist film, with audiences cheering morally bankrupt actions, making this a better looking film than it actually is.  Filled with plenty of plot contrivances, little about this film is actually believable, straining credibility throughout, yet however implausible it may be, its meant to be massively entertaining, filled with supercharged thrills, feeling more like a guilty pleasure.  Taking a lead from Spike Lee’s INSIDE MAN (2006) or Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven series (2001, 2004, 2007), with a women’s version entitled OCEAN’S 8 released earlier in 2018, the key is establishing character first, with viewers becoming familiar with the subjects seen onscreen, in particular four women from different economic and social backgrounds who lose their husbands in the opening moments of the film, blown up in a failed robbery attempt that shows Chicago’s finest actually cornering the bad guys, something they’re completely inept at doing in real-life, with audiences identifying with the manner in which these women are strong-armed into taking extreme measures, having to stand up for themselves after being placed in a precarious position by their criminal-minded husbands who stole $2 million dollars from a loathsome underworld character who is actually running for Alderman, hiding his shady past with a face of respectability.  But this man demands his money back, threatening the wives of the men who stole his money, along with their families, all of whom face dire consequences if the debt is not repaid in 30 days.  Consequences ensue. 

At the center of the picture is Veronica (Viola Davis), a teacher’s union delegate living in a posh penthouse apartment with a view she could never afford, where it’s clear from the outset she’s already living high above her means, but she’s also married to Harry (Liam Neeson), a criminal mastermind behind the operations gone wrong that sets the gears in motion.  This racially mixed marriage produces an awkwardly uncomfortable moment of intimacy, set to the lush music of Nina Simone, Nina Simone - Wild Is The Wind (Original Version) - YouTube (6:46), as the blatantly raw and crude manner in which their mouths and tongues intertwine is just gross, nothing romantic about it, where you realize right away that something is off, despite all the claims of grief expressed at the funeral, where among those paying their respects is Jack Mulligan (Colin Farrell), running for his father’s seat in the City Council, Alderman Tom Mulligan (Robert Duvall).  Their family have been Chicago powerbrokers for generations, where by now they believe they own this position by Divine right.  Ironically the man Mulligan is running against, black gangster and community businessman Jamal Manning (Brian Tyree Henry), is the man Harry was robbing, delivering his heavy-handed message to Veronica personally, making sure she understands exactly who she’s dealing with.  Perhaps even more preposterous is the chauffeur-driven black limousine that escorts Veronica wherever she needs to go, with her own private chauffeur, Bash (Garret Dillahunt), who delivers a message that her husband wished she would receive in the event something happened to him, which is the key to a safety deposit box that contains Harry’s notebook, which contains the meticulously detailed plan for a heist worth $5 million dollars.  Like a message from the dead designed to answer her prayers, she summons the other widows who lost husbands, one with a newborn declines the invitation, Amanda (Carrie Coon), for reasons that are explained later, while two show up, Alice (Elizabeth Debicki) and Linda (Michelle Rodriguez), all duped and deceived by their husbands and now in desperate straits, agreeing to go ahead with Harry’s planned heist, each assigned various aspects of the plan, with Veronica coldly assigning the tasks like a gangster’s moll, refusing to show an ounce of emotion, remaining dead serious, as if their lives depend upon it.  While Davis is a force throughout, haunted by flashbacks of her missing husband (who’s also seen in a beautiful reflection in the window as she peers out), her incessant grief throughout defines the depths she must pull herself out of, becoming the ringleader for this band of sisters.  While the other women find her a bit bossy, they realize she has the notebook so they do what’s asked, even when it seems impossible.        

Delving into side stories, we discover Jack Mulligan is at odds with his father’s old-century way of doing business, getting into a shouting match of profanities, wanting to break free from the nepotism and racial divisions, where he’s only half-heartedly interested in becoming an Alderman, wanting to pursue other interests.  When we see him on a campaign stop in the vacant lot of a rundown black neighborhood, he parades a host of black women as model entrepreneurs, each claiming he helped them become self-sufficient and successful businesswomen, examples of exactly what the neighborhood needs, providing well-needed income into the poorer regions of the city.  But there’s also a reporter hounding him about a corruption investigation hovering over his head that he refuses to discuss, hopping into his chauffeur-driven limousine where he becomes unglued, decrying how unfair it is being a white politician for a black district, as his district has recently been redrawn, making it less of a sure thing this time around.  The neighborhood changes from black to white as he speaks, becoming upscale when he gets out of the limo, living in a palatial estate protected by iron gates and security cameras.  Meanwhile Jamal Manning has his own private hitman in the form of his brother Jatemme, Daniel Kaluuya from Get Out (2017), who is more cartoonish than real, as Chicago politicians have reputations for embezzlement and fraud, basically stealing money, but not murder.  Meanwhile they get to Bash, whose murder leaves the widows without a driver, so Linda, enraged from losing her clothing store, as her husband gambled it away, enlists her babysitter, Belle (Cynthia Erivo), one of the few people she trusts, a fitness nut who also works as a hairdresser, where we quickly learn who her business partner had to pay to go into business for herself, Jack Mulligan, who is basically extorting money from up and coming black entrepreneurs.  But it’s Debicki as Alice who is the real surprise, a trophy wife abused by her husband, then urged by her overbearing mother (Jacki Weaver) to get into the highly profitable escort business, meeting David (Lukas Haas), a wealthy man in high stakes real estate who seems to appreciate being with her, but only on his own terms, paying up front with every visit, never opening up or becoming vulnerable, remaining a control freak, which causes her some concerns.  So we realize what’s at stake when the women go all-in on the plan, as it’s the price of their own freedom, essentially the ability to set the ground rules of their own lives.  McQueen delivers a well-deigned heist, though it’s much more sophisticated than viewers are led to believe, encountering surprises along the way, but they strike back relentlessly, defending their turf while protecting the money, showing a sense of uncompromising resolve when it matters, becoming a badass team, earning cheers from the audience, becoming a crowd pleaser.  While the cast is a delight, and the film well-crafted, along the way it attempts to throw in matters of inclusivity, class, corruption, feminism and race that get easily overlooked in this breezy entertainment venture that is mostly about visceral thrills, with the sultry sounds of Sade playing over the end credits, Sade - The Big Unknown (Lyric Video) - YouTube (3:46). 

Get Out

Director Jordan Peele on the set of Get Out, 2017

 

GET OUT                   B+                  

USA  (104 mi)  2017 ‘Scope  d:  Jordan Peele                       Official site

Like Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation (2016) a year earlier, this film jettisoned out of Sundance with rave reviews, but unlike Parker’s film that tanked at the box office, this is already the most successful American film in history to have been written and directed by a black artist, topping the $100 million dollar mark after just two weeks.  A black satirical spoof of horror films that arouses the worst kind of black fears about white people, even those with the best intentions, the result is a hilarious film that radically accentuates racial fears, using the horror genre to turn on its ear the well-intentioned white liberal movie, Stanley Kramer’s GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER (1967), where the daughter of a well-to-do white family brings home a black boyfriend to meet the family, where of course he’s completely unthreatening and nonsexual, academically at the top of his class, overly perfect in every way so they can have no doubts about accepting him, fitting a requirement of moral decency in order for the film to be accepted in the South, where it was hugely successful, but a pernicious stereotype developed that led to blacks having to be better than whites at the same jobs, in the same positions, where they had to have spotless reputations in order to be accepted.  So even when blacks were initially accepted into an integrated corporate workforce, where they may have been the only black person in the room, there was not an equal standard, as blacks were required to excel above and beyond in order to justify their hiring, where in effect they became company mascots, where each business would sing the praises of their own company hire, claiming theirs is the best, where really, it was all a matter of prestige for the company.  While that was 50 years ago, things have changed considerably, as many, including a majority in the Supreme Court, believe with the election of a black President that we’re living in a post-racial America, which was their reasoning for loosening and/or gutting federal voting rights protections for minorities written into Civil Rights laws in a June 2013 decision, with Chief Justice Roberts writing “Our country has changed, and while any racial discrimination in voting is too much, Congress must ensure that the legislation it passes to remedy that problem speaks to current conditions,” suggesting blacks have grown to a sizable portion of the voting population.  Of course, immediately after the decision, many states with Republican majorities drafted legislation to suppress minority voting, which had a significant effect in the most recent presidential election, but instead of using race to justify the need for mandatory voter ID’s, reduced voting hours, and fewer polling places in minority neighborhoods, they made fictitious claims of rampant voter fraud, though it’s nearly non-existent, between 0.0003 percent and 0.0025 percent, where it’s more likely someone will be struck by lightning, according to Debunking the Voter Fraud Myth | Brennan Center for Justice.  For example, Donald Trump won the state of Wisconsin by just 27,000 votes, but 300,000 registered voters lacked the state-mandated forms of ID to vote, according to a federal court, where voter turnout in the state was the lowest in twenty years.  Wisconsin was one of 14 states with new voting restrictions in effect for the first time in 2016, making this the first presidential election in 50 years without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act.

Despite years of so-called social progress, Americans are as racially blind as ever, pretending it’s not an issue, yet the stereotypes and myths persist, along with segregated, impoverished neighborhoods that white Americans simply ignore, using a rabid anti-tax fervor to defund public schools, using a majority voting block that mandates fewer tax dollars will be sent into cash-strapped black neighborhood schools.  Turning a blind eye to the effects, the perpetuation of a separate and unequal underclass, this remains the standard model of addressing race relations in America.  In other words, nothing is being done to correct the obvious disadvantages of being black, where there are simply more hurdles and obstacles to overcome, yet a majority of whites believe they are all on the same playing field.  Peele has written a social satire that couldn’t be more relevant, where it is this fairy tale perception of racial harmony that lays the groundwork for this film, written and directed by a black comedian who had a television show on Comedy Central entitled Key & Peele (2012 – 2015), where Peele’s expertise was impersonating former President Obama (Key & Peele - Obama's Anger Translator - Meet Luther - Uncensored, 2:48).  While there are 400 million Americans, only 13 percent are black, which means they have a unique perspective than the rest, often the only black person in the room, especially at colleges and universities, where they quickly discover diversity is a term used for the different kinds of white people and their variety of interests, where blacks are routinely ignored, unless asked what sport do they play.  And it is here that the film excels, as it gets under the skin and into the mindset of white people who show an outward perception of benevolence toward blacks, friendly and accepting, seemingly embracing their culture, yet they are in an entirely different economic class with a completely different agenda that totally excludes blacks except in a subservient role, like nannies, cooks, or groundskeepers.  For many whites, these are the only blacks they know, overly docile and friendly, house broken, so to speak, where they’re almost part of the family, exactly as they were in the plantation era of slavery.  But these friendships never stopped the brutal and despicable treatment towards other slaves.  In this film, not much has changed, as the condescension continues.  The film opens in something of a comment on the Trayvon Martin incident, a black 17-year old kid fatally shot by an armed white neighborhood watch volunteer, where his only crime was being a black person in a white neighborhood.  In this scenario, however, the lone black kid is targeted by a following car and kidnapped, snatched and stuffed into the back seat of a car, never to be seen again.  Cue the film title.  According to the director, racial fear hasn’t been a subject in horror films since George Romero’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968), where his Rod Serling-style aim is exploring the fears of being a black man in a white world, where you are a stranger in a strange land, with the bottom falling out before you’re done.  Key to the film are two friendships, a racial couple very much in love, Chris (Daniel Kaluuya), a black photographer, and his white girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams), together for five months, but also Chris and his best friend, TSA Officer Rod Williams (Lil Rel Howery, whose comic timing is impeccable), also black, who regularly communicate by phone.  As the young lovers are about to visit Rose’s parents for the weekend, Rod’s sage advice to Chris, “don’t go to a white girl parents’ house.”

Horror connoisseurs will marvel at Rose’s parent’s house, as it’s set in an isolated and remote location, a mile from the closest neighbor, who is on the other side of a lake, and surrounded by the woods on three sides.  A bit suspicious that she didn’t reveal to her parents that he’s black, Rose reassures Chris he has nothing to fear, as her parents are super liberal, that her father would have voted for Obama for a third term, which, of course, is the first thing that comes out of his mouth.  Meet Dean (Bradley Whitford) and Missy (Catherine Keener), who are perfectly accommodating, though both show a creepy warmth, where Dean talks in slang, slaps him on the back and keeps calling him, “My man!” while namedropping Tiger Woods and Jesse Owens.  Dean is a renowned neurosurgeon while Missy is a psychotherapist who specializes in hypnosis, working in a room there at the house, where her specialty is curing the addiction to smoking.  Her antennae are raised when she discovers Chris is a smoker, where she can’t wait to get him into her study.  Perhaps more unnerving are the black servants, Georgina (Betty Gabriel), the cook and maid, and Walter (Marcus Henderson), the groundskeeper, as neither one acknowledges their blackness, yet maintain sinister smiles as they swear a certain allegiance to the family.  Chris suspects something is up, unable to grasp why people are acting so strangely, and has trouble sleeping, grabbing his cigarettes and taking a walk outside, but he’s spooked by even more disturbing events, one of which leads him into Missy’s study where he’s hooked, as she hypnotizes him to the repetitive movements of her spoon while stirring her tea, sending him to the darkest and deepest regions of “the sunken place,” disconnected from all earthly realities, where he no longer has control over his own body.  Awaking in a fright, he thinks this might all have been a terrible dream, but the thought of cigarettes sickens him, which makes him feel even more susceptible to some strange and mysterious power emanating from an unknown force, exactly the same vulnerabilities from circumstances raised in Frankenheimer’s THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962), perhaps the ultimate in advocates of conspiracy theories, as it gives credence to all their worst fears.  Similarly, Peele ramps up the tension throughout the film, reaching grotesque proportions when a larger, extended family comes to visit, literally creating havoc, though Rose is seemingly unaffected by anything out of the ordinary, as it’s all happening to Chris.  Peele does an excellent job paying homage tributes to other horror films, writing a nuanced script that shows alarming interior perceptions, incorporating subtle truths about hidden racial agendas, decoding the mythologies and lies, making an extremely relevant social statement that is as funny as it is tragic, though black audiences are likely to find greater humor in the overly personal behavior of white people around blacks, appropriating black culture, moving the conversation to athletes or musicians, slyly suggesting they’re hip, when the truth suggests just the opposite.  The overall cast is excellent, none more creepy that Missy, where Keener played a uniquely similar role in Spike Jonze’s Being John Malkovich (1999), a wildly inventive film that left people trapped in someone else’s body with no control.  It’s also ironic that the hypnotic means to control Chris is with a silver spoon, a symbol of wealth and privilege.  This turns into a mindfuck of a film, as darker forces are doing the devil’s work, with Peele creating a queasy atmosphere of escalating tension and dread, where Chris is up against it throughout.  Constantly playing on racial stereotypes, Peele has a field day having fun with this film, where the toxically charged atmosphere can turn on a dime, revealing unusual talent and insight, producing a remarkably accomplished first film.