Jack and I love Viola Davis and looked forward to seeing her starring as Nanisca, an 1800s-era African general leading an all-female troop of warriors known as the Agojie. This is very well done, with spectacular production values, but I hate war movies and was seriously put off by the hand-to-hand combat. Watching in our home, I was able to audibly groan at the gore, cat call, and generally lighten the mood during the 2:15 running time.
John Boyega plays King Ghezo and Thuso Mbedu stars as the teen protegé of Nanisca and her lieutenant Izogie, played by Lashana Lynch.
Gina Prince-Bythewood directs from a script by Dana Stevens, with the story by Stevens and Maria Bello, the actress. Apparently this is based on history. On a 2015 visit to Benin, Bello learned about the Agojie, who protected the state of Dahomey, now part of southern Benin. Bello is among the movie's producers. The team made every effort to hire women and people of color on the production.
Terence Blanchard's score, available on Apple Music and elsewhere, is terrific, as is the production design by Akin McKenzie and wardrobe by Gersha Phillips.
Davis was last blogged for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Boyega for Small Axe, Prince-Bythewood for Beyond the Lights, Blanchard for Da 5 Bloods. Mbedu has a few "breakthrough" nominations, though she has been working for about eight years. Stevens is new to me, though this is her seventh produced feature. Bello, most recently in these pages for acting in McFarland, USA, has three other feature producing credits and makes her writing/story-by debut.
McKenzie's credits include nine episodes of High Maintenance and the feature Wiener-Dog, each of which could not be more different from this project. Phillips worked on a favorite of mine, The Five Senses (1999), as well as Talk to Me (2007), Miles Ahead, and many more.
Rotten Tomatoes's critics and audiences all bow to royalty, averaging 94 and 99%, respectively.
We rented it from iTunes on January 21.
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