REVIEW: WIDOWS

4/5

Widows Peak.

130 Mins. Starring: Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki, Cynthia Erivo, Colin Farrell, Brian Tyree Henry, Daniel Kaluuya, Jon Bernthal, Carrie Coon, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Lukas Haas, Garret Dillahunt, Jackie Weaver, Robert Duvall & Liam Neeson. Director: Steve McQueen.

How to get away with daylight robbery when all your husband's have been murdered. Well it's a pretty easy mark actually. As it's no longer a man's world. As a matter of fact it never really was. But it would still be nothing...NOTHING without a woman or a girl. And to take on a job like this you're going to need a crack team of an epic ensemble, all all-star cast. Which will take a powerhouse director to pull all the strings behind them. How about a legendary name like Steve McQueen? Who knows how to walk this tightrope. As soon as one big actors character threatens to veer off the edge. He puts his leg out and uses another as counter to gain his center and therein finds the right balance. And in assembling a roll call of Hollywood who's who players for his best cast since the Oscar winning Lupita Nyongo, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sarah Paulson, Alfre Woodward, Paul Dano (going up against these 'Widows' this week and not just in the alphabet with his wonderful 'Wildlife' wildfire), Giamatti, Michael K. Williams, Benedict Cumberbatch, Brad Pitt and frequent collaborator Michael Fassbender (the real and raw 'Shame' and 'Hunger' will eat away at you. All the way to your core) '12 Years A Slave', moviemaking design king McQueen gives us his closest to that when it comes to his greatest hits. Of course nothing is coming close to the amazing adaptation of Solomon Northup's moving memoir and the most important movie of the last decade that even predated the Black Lives Matter movement that has in grounds up ways always been around, planting its feet and refusing to be backed down. But now in a time where we need more movies like this and films with real women at the forefront (no matter how many superheroes we get for show in 'Wonder Woman's and the 'Black Panther'), McQueen teams up with another powerhouse by the book in 'Gone Girl' novel writer Gillian Flynn to adapt Lynda La Plante's bestseller 'Widows', that has already been an 80's U.K. T.V. show...cue the cans of hairspray. And even in a year where Sandra Bullock lead an 'Oceans 8' squad of sisters for the ultimate diamond in the rough of those wrote off critics who thought you couldn't crossover a franchise like the criminally underrated 'Ghostbusters' reboot. Or one were Evangeline Lilly officially joined 'Ant-Man and the Wasp' for her Marvel history making moment for the first female to have her name in the headline bright lights of the big picture in the movie mainstream. There has never...NEVER been a heist movie quite like this. And this may be no con, but oh is it on.

"Nobody thinks we have the balls to pull this off", Viola Davis tells her hit crew like a rally cry. As the 'How To Get Away With Murder' T.V. star hits the big screen again with some powerful words that up the ante on her Oscar winning famous 'Fences' speech. She's standing right with us again. And it's a masterful performance from easily one of THE leading ladies in a masterclass of actresses. Most appearing alongside her in 'The Help' (Emma Stone, Jessica Chastain, Bryce Dallas Howard, Octavia Spencer) of the Academy. Davis already displayed her action smarts in Michael Mann's cyber-thriller 'Blackhat' and she's also assembled a 'Suicide Squad's. But now with the best of the best she's the hero looking to hire. And she owns every scene. No one could do it better over sinnerman haunting Nina Simone. Simmering to a Hans Zimmer score as McQueen settles his by bringing out all the big guns. Although the team she mentors with her Mamba Mentality are just as killer too with no filler. 'Avatar' and 'Fast and Furious' franchise face Michelle Rodriguez gears up for easily her best performance to date. Showing just why she commands so many big pictures and the strength and acting smarts that actually go behind her tough stoplights, camera, action work. The 'Fast' franchise may speed past trying to develop her career whose been riding shotgun with Diesel since the late, great Paul Walker...but she won't. Whereas BBC 'The Night Manager's star Elizabeth Debicki really came out of nowhere a few years ago with 'The Great Gatsby', 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' and her gold 'Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2' moment. But she shows with probably the most nuanced character in this whole film that she truly is here to stay now. Hitting the mark, right on shooting mark target. But in stepping up for 'Gone Girl' widow Carrie Coon (whose having quite the year on formidable form here after her vocal C.G. armed up role as Proxima Midnight. One of Thanos' big, bad children in the 'Avengers: Infinity War'), stage and screen, singer/songwriter (who was so inspired in the video for 'Empire' singer Jussie Smollett's real music and love for all, 'Freedom') Cynthia Erivo threatens to take the wheel and steal the show with these four horsewomen of the revenge mission apocalypse and her stay at the 'Bad Times At The El Royale' hotel on one side of California.

But here in an untouchable Chicagoland that's seeing a storm of change in the Windy City there's enough dynamite direction from 'Widow' maker McQueen and searing script work from him and Flynn in some dynamic dialogue that you have more than just the best action movie of the year. No Black Widow superhero C.G.I. These 'Widows' are the real heroes, even anti playing the villainess like a South Korean smash. And this rough and ready thriller has more substance than your average slick in and out jack move movie. There's black eyes, bruised souls and the punctuated palpitations of a beating heart behind this in all its depth of drama. Watching Viola run through all this violence like the notes on a violin is inspired in all her incredible influence. Breaking down and screaming in the wake of her mourning, before steeling herself in a calm, centered instant in her black suit like she did breaking down walls and putting the foundations back up again for the entirety of her 'Fences' theatre to "in theatres" run. It's right there with McQueen's subway car stare look of a sex addicted Fassbender in the closing moments of 'Shame' in a "is her smiling, or dying inside" open ended question which shows there's much more to this directors camera work than showing you everything as we or he sees it. Steve McQueen as a director, like in a pivotal scene here is sleight of hand adept at making it look like a character playing to type and trait is about to do one thing so surely. Only for it in the end to be exactly the opposite in intention and execution. And boy does this man know how to film an action set-piece like we've never seen (him do) before. The opening cop car chase filmed from the back of a van opens with a firecracker of a loud, booming bang on these cinematic streets that haven't seen it this epic since Heath Ledger's legendary Joker jacked a flipped truck and dared Batman on the back of a (sort of) Harley to HIT him. And in another one shot instant direction technique Steve shows us the haves and the have nots of this Chi-city. Windshield dash-cam riding from the poor part of town to the penthouse like one. All whilst sunlight reflective revealing behind the wheel why the man being chauffered around is to ignorant to realize what he's just been saying about the man he couldn't operate without upfront. There's so much more to these 'Widows' and on board in this movie that takes on both racism and sexism and is as powerful as the woke "who are we when this world got you down on your knees" words of the preachers served sermon in congregation here. And we aren't talking about the men behind them. Or the cast. But what a cast it is, even if it is truly behind everything else. There's leading greats here on top form like the ever underrated Colin Farrell. Perhaps more of a snake here in Congress than he was as the oil slick lawyer who greased Denzel Washington's Oscar push 'Roman J. Israel, Esq'. And legends like the 'Godfather' of modern movies Robert Duvall and Liam Neeson who really is in everything as well he should be. Even this job. 'Silver Linings Playbook' Oscar winner Jackie Weaver adds to her lasting legacy too. Whilst there's so many widows here there's even room for character actors like Lukas Haas (on a mission right now with this and 'First Man'), next great one from '12 Years' ago, Garrett Dillahunt, 'Magnificent Seven's' Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and the 'Fury' of  'Punisher' Jon Bernthal whose cameo really speaks to his immortal, fateful last line in his 'Baby Driver' along for the ride, days work. But amongst all these women's work, there's worth in 'Atlanta' and 'Get Out's' Brian Tyree Henry and Daniel Kaluuya respectively. So good at playing bad that with all due respect you'll be left either hating them or rooting for them, whatever your poison. Henry (whose also had a stop and stay alongside Kaluuya's 'Black Panther' co-star Sterling K. Brown this summer in 'Hotel Artemis'. And is about to add to his formidable making filmography with Oscar frontrunners 'White Boy Rick' and 'If Beale Street Could Talk') barges into this movie like the apartment front door of a grieving widow to say his war and piece with a sneering cackle. But in pure, puerile, vile villainy owns it all as his symbolic face in front of Jesus's cross is as ironic and iconic as Marhershala Ali's Cottonmouth standing under a picture of the Notorious B.I.G.'s crown in 'Luke Cage'. Whereas with pupils that pierce, Daniel gets so dark he may just be the devil incarnate here. From staring someone down and silencing them in a cipher as they rap their last rights (for a 'Black Panther' soldier who really wanted to kill Klaue, he sure likes Ulysses' run away, just kidding methods of execution). To striking a disabled man down in a bowling alley gutter low moment. As they stand defiantly and paying disrespectfully together from afar. Mockingly waving and watching over a funeral procession, evil has never been this pure...or epic on screen. And it's going to take a gang of real woman to bring them to street and wrath of a scorned Godess justice. Hell have no fury. And with all that you better get your affairs in order and better hope you don't reap what you sow. Because these 'Widows' refusing to sit down and take it are making a killing. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Further Filming: 'Gone Girl', 'Oceans 8', 'The Town'.