As expected, Jack and I loved this true story of three brilliant African-American female mathematicians breaking race and gender barriers to work in NASA's space program in the early 1960s. When we know there's a happy ending--including a successful launch and the abolition of that organization's "colored" rest rooms--it's even more satisfying.
The stars have the power to portray the brave women. Oscar nominee (for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) Taraji P. Henson (after I wrote about her in Larry Crowne she's been in, among others, 40 episodes of Empire) is top billed as Katherine Goble Johnson, who was in the room when her calculations helped John Glenn become the first human to orbit the earth in 1962. Oscar winner (for The Help) Octavia Spencer (last in these pages for Black or White) brings her reliable strength to the part of Dorothy Vaughan, whose talents extended from math to management. Janelle Monáe (just seen in Moonlight) is Mary Jackson, the brashest one of the group, with delightful form-fitting wardrobe (her figure isn't hidden), designed by Renee Ehrlich Kalfus (some of my faves of her work are What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), The Cider House Rules (1999), Chocolat (2000), Baby Mama (2008), and The Joneses).
Supporting strength comes from Kevin Costner (co-starred with Spencer in Black or White), Jim Parsons (last blogged for The Big Year but is, of course, best known for 221 episodes of The Big Bang Theory), Kirsten Dunst (after On the Road she starred in all ten episodes of Fargo's first season), and Mahershala Ali (also just seen in Moonlight), whose wardrobe is also nicely form-fitting. To quote Mary Jackson in the movie,"It's equal rights. I have the right to see fine in every color."
Margot Lee Shetterly's book proposal for a Katherine G. Johnson's story was optioned and the movie was made concurrently with her writing the book (the latter, Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, was released in September 2016 and the movie came out on the coasts on December 25).
Theodore Melfi (directed the wonderful St. Vincent) immersed himself in the world of NASA along with his co-writer Allison Schroeder, who didn't need to, since her parents and grandparents actually worked for NASA. They both interviewed Johnson, now 97, and are nominated for the prestigious adapted screenplay award from the Writers Guild of America. Here are my running tallies of awards and nominations sorted by movie.
My regular readers know that Jack and I love to see old cars in movies from previous eras and this is no exception. In fact, the Art Directors Guild just nominated Production Designer Wynn Thomas (I loved his work in, among others, She's Gotta Have It (1986--his feature debut), Mo' Better Blues (1990), Malcolm X (1992), To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995), Analyze This (1999), A Beautiful Mind (2001), Inside Man (2006), and All Good Things) for this movie in the Best Period Film category.
Benjamin Wallfisch (not a novice but new to me) is top billed of three for the music. Pharrell Williams (his song Happy was Oscar nominated for the movie Despicable Me 2 (2013)) is one of the producers and provides several songs (here is the album for your streaming pleasure). His tune Running from this movie is nominated for a Golden Globe so far. We boomers enjoyed the pop and jazz tunes of the era as well as a little music by esteemed composer Hans Zimmer (last blogged for Freeheld). Here's the only Zimmer track I could find online.
With its SAG Best Ensemble nomination, this movie is likely to get a Best Picture Oscar nomination at the very least. Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are aligned with us on this one, averaging 93 and 94%, respectively. You're going to want to see this before the Oscars and you can bring the kids--it's PG.
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