Harriet

First Hit: Definitely an Oscar-contending performance by Cynthia Erivo as Harriet Tubman.

Before she took the name Harriet, she was called Minty. The film opens with Minty as a married slave working for the Brodess family. Her husband, John Tubman (Zachary Momoh), is a free man working for another landowner. She sees him infrequently, and they steal hugs and kisses on rare occasions.

Minty’s mother works for the Brodess family as well as does her sister and other members of her family. Her father works for another family, just like John works for another family.

After the patriarch Edward Brodess dies, the son, Gideon (Joe Alwyn), takes over and ensures that he makes Minty’s life harder.

Minty and her husband had a lawyer to get a judge to write a document allowing her to be free and to leave the Brodess farm and start a family with her husband. The Brodess family rips up the letter and forbids John from coming around to see Minty ever again.

Minty cannot stand it and tells John to meet her by a fence gate, and they’ll run away together. However, she’s afraid that it will hurt John’s freedom, so she heads out alone to find freedom in Philadelphia, PA, and leaving him behind.

Her journey is horrendous, but she trusts in her faith in God and the visions that overwhelm her along the way. In the visions she sees the dangers that are coming her way and makes decisions about what to do next. The images are presented as flashes and in a dream-like sequence and sometimes I didn’t interpret or understand them like Minty did, but her actions gave the audience a clear understanding of her visions.

She gets to Philadelphia and finds her way to William Sill’s (Leslie Odom Jr.) printing business. Sill leads an organization that helps people escape slavery through the underground railroad. Sill is also documenting each slave’s story by interviewing them. One of the things Sill does when he talks with the slaves is to allow them to select a name for themselves, which he documents. This allows the new arrivals to be rid of their slave names. Minty decides on “Harriet” in honor of her mother and “Tubman” because that is her husband’s name.

Harriet is barely five-feet tall, but she becomes a giant in the underground railroad because, against all the odds, she goes back to Maryland multiple times and frees more slaves on each trip. She leads them through the wilderness and to Philadelphia.

Not only is she the most prolific of the conductors of the underground railroad, but she also becomes a leader of soldiers for the Union Army and frees over 190 more slaves in battles against the Confederate Army.

Not only did I learn a lot more about Harriet in this film, I left the film amazed that she didn’t get more print space in my middle and high school history books.

The film felt very formulaic, and some of the early scenes felt very staged. This is where the film struggles. However, once I let go of these staged scenes, and just rode within Harriet’s story through Harriet, it worked very well.

When it comes to putting her picture on the new upcoming $20 bill, she deserves it, and it can’t come soon enough. She’s a hero of the people.

Erivio was absolutely sublime as Harriet. This performance is of Academy Award caliber, as is the story. Odom Jr. is excellent as one of the leaders who coordinates the underground railroad. Alwyn is strong in this unenviable role as slave owner. Momoh was very good as Harriet’s husband, and the scene when she comes back for him is devastating for both. Janelle Monae, as boarding house proprietor Marie Buchanon was terrific. Her support of Harriet was unending and undying. Kasi Lemmons wrote a strong screenplay. Gregory Allen Howard directed this film. There were times the scenes were strong, but there were also scenes that felt too staged.

Overall: Despite the film’s unevenness, Harriet’s life as developed here was one of embodied strength. 

Hidden Figures

First Hit:  A very touching and wonderful film about strong smart women overcoming prejudicial perceptions about their capabilities.

This film is based on the book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly, which tells the story of how smart intelligent black women persevered and overcame the challenges of 1960’s discrimination in Virginia to help the United States come from behind and beat the Russians in the space race. This movie chronicles their journey along with the journey of the early space program.

Having grown up in this era, but in Southern California where the overt and obvious signs of segregation didn’t exist, I was shocked knowing that Virginia had segregated lunch rooms, bathrooms, and bus seating. This issue drives this film’s story.

Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughn (Octavia Spencer), and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae) are three friends who work for NASA in Langley Virginia. The Russians have successfully launched manned orbital space flight with Yuri Gagarin. Because we were in a cold war with the Russians, it was a societal imperative of the time, that we beat them in the space race.

Under the guidance Al Harrison (Kevin Costner) NASA was struggling to develop rockets, space capsules, and the ability to calculate orbital exit and entry points of these space vehicles. To assist with the more mundane calculations, NASA used a unit called “Colored Calculators” of which Katherine, Dorothy and Mary were a part.

There are three major stories about these women in this film, plus other side stories. This is both the strength and weakness of this film. We didn’t need every story, however the main story about the three finding their rightful paths was divine. Katherine was a mathematical genius graduating high school at age 14 and college at age 18. She is a single mother raising three daughters, while working long hours calculating numbers. When she is discovered as the only one who knows analytical geometry, she gets assigned to Harrison’s group to figure out how the United States will launch a man into orbit and bring him back alive. This is the main theme of the film.

It also documents how Mary had to find a way to become a certified engineer with NASA. As she assisted Research Engineer Kazimierz Czarnecki he asks her why she didn’t become a certified engineer, she tells him, “I wouldn’t have too. I would already be one.”. Dorothy, managed the Colored Calculators but they refused to give her the title of Supervisor because she was black. When NASA attempted to install a IBM computer, she learned Fortran and ended up Supervisor of the computer programmers. However, when there were calculation discrepancies by the IBM computer and the orbital launch was in jeopardy, John Glenn (Glen Powell) says; “Get the girl (Johnson) to check the numbers… if she says the numbers are good, I’m ready to go.”

The mixture of using old original film footage tying together the major events of the day with events in the film was very well done. Emotionally and at a feeling level, this film is very well done. From the moment Katherine’s daughters talk about diving underneath their desks at school to protect themselves from bomb fallout to the hurdles of racism that were being jumped over; tears of joy and sorrow fell down my cheeks.

Henson was amazingly wonderful as a brilliant mathematician and woman who finds her way into a very elite world. Spencer was very good as a woman that wouldn’t let herself be slighted any longer and took matter into her own hands and learned computer programming. Monae was fantastic as the sassy woman who outwardly challenged the status quo. One of the best scenes in film is when she went before the Judge to make her case for getting into an all-white school. Costner was good as the head of the space program and one of my favorite scenes with him was when he ripped the “Colored Only Women’s Room” signs off the wall. Mahershala Ali as Colonel Jim Johnson, Johnson’s beau, was very good. His strength and sensitivity were perfect. Kirsten Dunst, as Johnson’s boss, was strong. She had an appropriate level of aloofness. Powell as Glenn was excellent. His open welcoming personality made everyone’s life better. Jim Parsons as Paul Stafford the lead analyst heading up the development team was very good. Allison Schroder and Theodore Melfi wrote a very good screenplay but it had more side stories than needed. Melfi did a wonderful job of directing this cast, however it felt more complicated and longer than it needed to be.

Overall:  This film documents a changing and glorious time in our country and these women led the way.

Moonlight

First Hit:  A powerful, deep, and intense look into a story rarely shared on the big screen.

Shown in three different stages of his life, the audience is given a profoundly penetrating view of a gay black man’s life journey. Chiron, also known as “Little” and “Black”, is growing up in Miami to a drug addicted mother and no father. He’s played in these three stages by Alex R. Hibbert, Ashton Sanders, and Trevante Rhodes respectively.

As “Little” (Hibbert), Chiron is often the odd boy out. He’s quiet, sullen, and feels out of place. He’s afraid to go home as his mother, Paula (Naomie Harris), is often high or pushing him out the door to make room for one of her many boyfriends.

He’s only got one friend of sorts, Kevin (Jaden Piner), but Kevin cannot stop the other boys from picking on him. While hiding out from bullies who were chasing him, he’s discovered in the projects by Juan (Mahershala Ali) who takes a liking to the boy and takes him in. Juan’s girlfriend Teresa (Janelle Monae) feeds the skinny scared boy. They coax him to speak but only get short bursts of two or three words at a time. Juan takes him to the beach and teaches him how to swim. The effect of Juan and Teresa’s kindness and understanding permeates the first part of the film even when they are not on the screen and shows up again towards the end of the film.

As “Chiron” (Sanders), the tones of harshness and the extreme difficulty of discovering his life, and who he is, becomes more pronounced. His mom is deeper in her addiction; his prevalent sadness is darker as he knows he’s different but has little in the way of social communication tools to help him understand himself. His only friend is still Kevin (Jharrel Jerome). The rage inside is slowly building and comes to a head.

As Black (Rhodes), a nickname given to him by Kevin, he is now an adult. You can see the effect Juan had on him by his car, attitude, and choice of supporting himself. He’s away from Miami, his mom is in a rehab, and he still living a life of being alone. He gets a call from Kevin (Andre Holland) who has been thinking of him and invites him down to Miami. Black goes and takes another step in owning his life.

Beautifully shot, the long slow scenes are left to unfold. It isn’t easy to let the camera roll staying close to an actor’s face without having the actor speak. And at times I wondered if this was smart, but then the next scene would shine light on the reasons why. Each of the actors portraying Chiron allowed the silent inward struggle come to forth; to be shown and not told. To do this, these actors had to pay attention to the director and more importantly, to the story. Each of them kept the sense of longing, unknowing, and sadness throughout the film by sharing specifically for the age being portrayed. This film is fearless in its presentation and the screenwriter and director are to be complemented for this.

Hibbert, Sanders, and Rhodes are each amazingly effective in their singular role. Hibbert’s sorrow and anguish as a small boy wondering why he’s different was amazing. Sanders’s teen existence is superb. He’s tall yet trying to hide from everyone including himself and yet he’d like to be seen. Sander’s is sublime. Rhodes is perfect as his self-assured exterior belies his inner soft aching. The scenes with his mother and Kevin are extraordinary. Piner, Jerome, and especially Holland are engaging and wonderful as Kevin. Ali is amazing as Juan the sensitive drug dealer who becomes a mentor of sorts for Chiron. Monae is a beautiful light in this heavy picture. Every scene she’s in she brings joy and light. Harris is effectively real as Chiron's drug addled mother who really does love her son but has no way to relate to him. Barry Jenkins had a clear vision for what he wanted and wrote an amazingly strong and daring screenplay and brought it to life with stunning direction by getting outstanding performances from everyone.

Overall:  A strong emotionally effective film.