Hidden Figures

[minky]

I fear that this will be glossy and Disney-fied instead of giving it the earnestness it deserves.

Update: Saw it tonight and loved it. Got a little cry-y at the end.

[save lilo!]

I cried several times!

Great movie. Can't wait to see this being played in classrooms across America.

Also kind of strange to see that America has only changed a little when judging by the ladies' rightful fear of the police and continuing rivalry with Russia.

[scarletprincess]

I saw this last night. It was outstanding. And kinda eerily prescient.

[jmart]

I'm in a book club and we read the book then went to see the movie together. We all loved it! I cried in a few spots as well. So well done!

[forever1267]

I really enjoyed it, although it was a bit too Disney-fied mainstreamish, audience pleasing, without much directorial style. BUT the ladies were fantastic, especially Taraji, and the story is important and needed to be told. I certainly had never heard of these women.

It is a little frustrating and horrifying to see we are only 50 years past this, and it still seems a shock to men that women can do this too. As a Gay Male, so a minority here, one wonders how people could be so willfully stupid in their attitudes towards others. The film gives hope.

And on a shallow note, my Celebrity Husband Kevin Costner was his usual perfect self, and those pants were... they look good on him. ahem.

chonies, it's not my blog, but this hunky blog might entertain you. (Somewhat NSFW due to exorbitant shirtlessness! and other less-clothed males.)

[chonies]

I haven't seen it yet--hopefully tomorrow. I'm mainly posting because I would read a blog of forever1267's movie-trouser reviews. Not to take away from the importance of this film, of course.

ETA: Saw it! I thought it was definitely worthwhile and pretty gripping--I am interested in reading the book now. And I agree with a lot of sewers on Instagram who want Butterick (or someone) to issue a Hidden Figures collection of patterns.

[Neurochick]

I saw this movie on Sunday and I loved it. I want to see it again.

Loved the clothes and wonder if Taraji got to keep some of those clothes.

I don't understand what was so "Disney-fied" about this movie. When they showed the block she lived on, it looked exactly like the block my grandfather's house was on.

I liked that all the women were married. I think it's important for young black people to see that; yes things were bad back then but you didn't have any "baby mama" or "baby daddy" bullshit back then.

[Mugsy]

Saw this last night and loved it. Did a little google search to see how much was fictionalized, and was pleased to see it was mostly true. There some consolidation of characters, and the three featured women weren't actually friends, and the male staff was not directly racist towards Katherine Johnson. But the first two changes make for easier storytelling, and the third was to show the systemic racism they had to deal with.

John Glenn really did ask for her specifically to check the numbers, but of course he said, "Ask the girl to,check the numbers." So a step forward for racism, not so much for sexism. Same for the comments by those in charge when they'd say things like, "All the men here worked hard to make this happen." Why was it so hard to say "Everyone here worked hard..."?

Our first comment after the movie was that it was a great story, but it made us angry that these stories were kept quiet for so long. I know, history is written by whoever is in power, which was white men back then. Makes you wonder how many other accomplishments are goin unheralded because they were done by women or minorities.

[chonies]

As far as the Disneyfication, I think that might be my bias--I watch far more documentaries than I do feature films, so it was probably just a genre difference for me and the difference in story-telling technique. Nothing about the women or their world rang false*, and I had to remember that it was based on a true story, and it's totally fine to have liberties taken from time to time.

*other than no one smoking in Mission Control, heh. Oh, and my extremely petty irritation that vintage cars in period movies are always beautifully waxed and immaculate, but that should take literally nothing away from this movie.

[tanyak]

Ha! True about the smoking. In "Apollo 13" (one of my favorite movies), they were puffing away everywhere.

I saw this last night and absolutely loved it. Even Mr. Tanyak, who wasn't really all that high on seeing it but just went because it was my birthday, came away loving it.

I did wonder if they were really friends in real life, but it really didn't take anything away and it did help tell the story easier. And I too loved their clothes, especially Taraji's
and Janelle's. And while he was good, I couldn't help but see Sheldon as… Sheldon. Lol