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A friend and I have a bet on the Rotten Tomatoes average critic's score for The Woman King on the 23rd. I said the score will be 7.5-8.0 out of 10 while she said 8.1-8.6, but when we were going over the numbers, we had an interesting conversation about the film itself and the discourse surrounding it.

Usually, when I want to gauge the hype surrounding a film, I would visit various social media platforms (YouTube comments, Twitter, etc.) to…

So like, nobody did any sort of research before picking a topic to make a #girlboss movie?

Here's some snippets from the most laziest form of research imaginable:

"The growth of Dahomey coincided with the growth of the Atlantic slave trade, and it became known to Europeans as a major supplier of slaves. As a highly militaristic kingdom constantly organised for warfare, it captured children, women, and men during wars and raids against neighboring societies, and sold them into the…

the film criticism of 2022 failed any and all of its remaining readers, it was like writers were intentionally manufacturing quotes designed to be debunked and frowned on for the reevaluations that come in 20-30 years. you know what I mean? The same way that a YouTube essayist will read aloud an embarrassing 1972 NYT pan of a now beloved movie, or how the NYT in 1936 was like "Hitler isn't rlly a big deal." The shit I've read in…

"We fight not just for today. But for the future." - Nanisca 

The Woman King takes narrative liberties from historical accuracies for dramatisation, but that in no way diminishes the film’s quality. This journey to the motherland, showcases a warrior’s path, the commodification of people for slavery, and several themes of women empowerment. The fight choreography is just so spectacular to watch, and you see these performers doing their own stunt-work. The camaraderie and sisterhood seen onscreen feels genuine. Being West…

One of the many tragic consequences of European imperialism is the loss of knowledge about the cultures and history of Africa. Many stories and peoples from African history have become largely forgotten, or at least rarely get exposure in the mainstream. The Woman King therefore has an interesting setup, telling a story about a part of history that few are aware of. However it is a very Hollywood version of history, sidestepping reality for hyperbolic action scenes and cheesy drama.…

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"We fight or we die."

The thing that makes this film work is that it could easily be a forgettable, predictable action movie, and instead it is a fierce, pulse-pounding, dramatic, action-packed, historical epic starring dark-skinned black women, and it f'kin rules.

Part of the films' success is devoted to its cast and director. They realized they were working with a relatively thin script and yet they managed to put so much…

A welcome widening of history, The Woman King takes place in the African kingdom of Dahomey, circa 1820, where an elite group of female warriors, led by General Nanisca (Viola Davis), protect the king (John Boyega) against threats both nearby and European. In its acknowledgement of the role of women in African military history and a more complicated (if still simplified) depiction of enslavement, the movie offers a fresh vantage point on the era. And it has a strong enough…

From the moment Gina Prince-Bythewood became a director, her strength has always resided in her commitment to love stories. In her films, sumptuous twilight passions happen on a basketball court, they occur between generations, on the ladder rungs of show business, and between immortals. They center Black women carrying power and interiority, while finding strength within themselves, and often, other Black women. With her Netflix produced film, “The Old Guard,” she continued those themes on a grander scale. But nothing…

10 minutes in and I feared the worst with Till, that it would be yet another flat, uninspired film trading on a real-life tale of injustice in the American South, aimed towards Oscar contention.

Of course, it's not a film made by a white male director for a start, so I maybe shouldn't have leaped to such conclusions, but some of the schmaltz of the opening segment did evoke thoughts of Green Book or Driving Miss Daisy, however my fears…

"That smell is my son’s body. He came home to me reeking of racial hatred." - Mamie 

Though a seemingly obvious choice, I still think it was a genius move to make Emmett Till’s mother, the protagonist of Till. A film about a mother’s worst nightmare come to life. It’s almost like every scene with Danielle Deadwyler is an Oscar worthy moment. Chinonye Chukwu the director, parallels a mother’s dread, with the audience’s preconceived knowledge of this tragedy so well,…