I know someone
who watched this movie and said, “It’s not an Oscar movie.” But I think the
real crime is that it was nominated for three Oscars and didn’t win any.
Hidden Figures is
one of those movies that hits the dramatic tone needed to keep you glued to
your seat, transporting you into the events unfolding on screen. The
nerve-wracking calculations and space flight sequences will have you grinding
your teeth in anticipation, hoping everything works out—even though you’re
watching a biographical movie where you already know the outcome.
This film is one
of those rare gems that leaves a lasting impression with its historical facts
and true-life stories. It carves a hole in your memory, standing as a movie to
be remembered. As a black man, watching it made me proud of what these women
achieved despite the monumental obstacles in their way.
When it comes to the acting, the women were absolutely on top of their game. With veteran actor Kevin Costner ensuring everything was perfect, the performances of Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monáe were irreplaceable. Without them, the movie wouldn’t have been as magnificent as it was.
I also have to
give praise to Jim Parsons, Kirsten Dunst, and Mahershala Ali for their awesome
supporting performances alongside the three leading women.
This is the
second movie I’ve seen Mahershala Ali and Janelle Monáe in together—the first
being the Academy Award-winning Best Picture of 2016, Moonlight, where Ali
also won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
Hidden Figures tells
the story of three black women working at NASA who played pivotal roles in the
success of the space program. Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson) was
recruited to verify calculations made by the Space Task Group, becoming the
first African-American woman in the team. Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) was
the unofficial supervisor of the segregated West Area Computers division at
Langley Research Center. She taught herself the FORTRAN programming language
after learning about the installation of the IBM 7090 electronic computer. She
became the only person able to get the computer to work and ensured she and her
team were transferred to the IBM 7090 unit, eventually being promoted to
supervisor. Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) was a brilliant mathematician with a
passion for engineering. She became the first African-American woman to attend
an all-white school to study engineering, eventually becoming NASA’s first
black female engineer.
You must make
time to see this masterpiece of a movie—it’s worth it.
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