2018

Steve McQueen’s newest film is a powerful look at the lengths women will go to to make up for the shit their spouses left them with. With the writing help of Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn, Widows starts off with a fury of quick cuts that set the tone and sends bloody ripples that are felt deep into the movie.

Viola Davis leads a dynamic cast that proves everybody can eat as long as your bring your A game. McQueen’s co-written script brings the best out of actors with household names and actresses who start off as newcomers and will send you on a Googling spree to find out their real names by the time the credits roll. Liam Neeson, Michelle Rodriguez, David Tyree Henry and Daniel Kaluuya all deliver top notch performances while Colin Ferrell and Robert Duvall prove they still got it. Elizabeth Debicki, Cynthia Erivo, Jon Bernthal and Carrie Coon will leave you impressed as all hell and wondering what else they’ve been crushing it in.

In our openings scenes, we are shown exactly how much this movie will tow the line of love and violence. On one hand we have close up shots of Davis and Neeson embracing each other in bed, that will definitely have closet racists running for the exit 30 seconds in. On the other hand we have Neeson and his crew hightailing it away from a robbery gone wrong. Unfortunately, those men don’t make it back home and they’re wives are left grieving and terrorized by the men who their husbands stole from. Speaking of stolen from, David Tyree Henry (Atlanta, Hotel Artemis) and Daniel Kaluuya (Black Panther , Get Out) are the Manning brothers who are on a mission to retrieve what was once theirs. Henry, who acts his ass off in anything he touches, plays Jamal Manning who has one foot in and one for out the gang bangin’ door, while Kaluuya’s Jatemme Manning is completely content with his gun bussin’, blade wielding lifestyle.

In perhaps one of the greatest scenes in the film, and certainly my favorite, Jatemme locates the two workers that allowed the Manning’s money to be robbed. They were found rapping in the back so he asks them to kick a rhyme right quick, and in the most cool headed, menacing fashion nods his head along with his henchmen’s beat and flow. The camera is circling the three-man cypher as the bars fly, until Jatemme whips out the burner and unloads holy hell upon the unsuspecting lackey at point blank range. The scene is a masterpiece in gripping screen presence drawing the audience in before an explosion of power and tone shift. Daniel Kaluuya is seriously setting himself up to be one of the greatest actors of this generation.

Colin Ferrell plays a local politician looking to be selected alderman of his ward. He is probably the most divisive person in the movie, as he seems to have a genuine beef with his father’s racist ass ways and employs Molly Kunz (Colony) protraying a young woman named Siobhan as his campaign manager. On top of that, he’s got this program called MWOW (Minority Women Owned Work) that provides a opportunity for disenfranchised black women in this ward to own stores, salons and various businesses that put money in their pockets and subsequently back into the community. Thennnnnn you find out about a lot of shady business happening behind closed doors that make you question the authenticity of his initiatives and methods to promote those programs and neighborhoods. Then there’s the boat shoes twist. You find out exactly what kind of man Jack Mulligan really is and will feel all types of ways about it.

With an ensemble cast, I’m always drawn to the sequence of actions that lead up to character introductions and eventual squad formations. What’s done well in Widows is making it very clear these women have little to no prior knowledge of each other, but with their former husband’s going down in a blaze of glory, they’re forced to make the hard ass decision to accept the horrific situation they find themselves in or hop into the driver seat of their future. The decision making progresses naturally, from a luke warm “I don’t know if I can trust this chick” scenario into a ride or die sisterhood.

Behind the camera, McQueen does a lot of things right. There are some phenomenal camera shots that showcase his eye for on point cinematography. Jack Mulligan and his campaign manager leave the ghetto and travel back to campaign HQ while the camera sits on the front hood of the car. The dichotomy of Chicago is on full display as they drive from the hood to the hills.

Somehow McQueen manages to layer this scene even more with the conversation that Jack and Siobhan have in the back that really strikes you while their POC driver, John, chauffeurs them from the PR event. He asks her if she’s ever slept with a black dude and she claps back, like “You need to be worried about getting your ass kicked in the election, not measuring dick sizes. Man the fuck up!” John’s position forces him to endure this conversation but his pay grade doesn’t allow him to have input, despite it being something that would obviously make you feel some type of way as a black man supporting a white politician.

The movie doesn’t come without its flaws: the introductory arc, following the 2 million dollar botched heist opening, gets a little drawn out before the bomb drops. I distinctly remember Viola Davis’ Mrs. Rawlins walking up to the door of one of the widows and thinking I was close to being bored..and then the wild twist happens and everything you’ve seen for the last 40 minutes is thrown on it’s head and you’re left reevaluating everything! With that unexpected surprise, you’re left wondering why Mrs. Rawlins didn’t act on her hunch. Why she didn’t completely switch up her adopted heist plan. She could’ve easily rolled up to the “bad guys” with her new found info like a G and flipped the whole script, but she didn’t or we wouldn’t have the female empowerment flex that we witnessed for the rest of the film. Understandable, but not inexcusable.

*Slight Spoilers Take Shots to The Body in Nice Cars*

It wouldn’t be a Steve McQueen movie if we didn’t have jarring examples of racism scattered throughout. Unfortunately, this time we get shoehorned angles of racism that quite simply feels forced, rather than smoothly incorporated. In interviews Viola Davis makes such a big deal about Mr. and Mrs. Rawlins being two people madly in love, while putting a very clearly emphasis on her status a dark skinned black woman with natural hair happily married to a white man.

"I'm dark, I'm 53, I'm in my natural hair – I'm in bed with Liam Neeson. And he's not my slave owner. I'm not a prostitute. We simply are a couple in love. I've never seen it before." pic.twitter.com/0vtaUM8338

— Diversity School (@DiverseSchool) November 10, 2018

She makes it out as if we we’re finally getting a movie that features a very black and very white married duo that doesn’t need race as a plot device or driving force behind any decision making. But when you see the film, you’re forced to endure the internalized anger and guilt being projected by these two as a result of the death of their Black son killed by a white cop, “because” he moved too quickly to look for his registration (or whatever) in a nice car. In the end, you’re only more disappointed in the grimy results of these racial undertones. It’s as if they decided on this being the great divide between the Rawlins early in the writing process and hoped everything would fall into place from there. Things can look good on paper in the early drafts, but you have to be more nuanced in your finished product if you want to flourish in today’s controversial world of movie making.

With an outstanding cast, and excellent filmmaker at the helm, Widows is definitely worth your money at the box office. Much of the dark crime thriller features supremely talented women making money moves, and if you have a problem with that, well… this one ain’t for you! Flynn, McQueen and their team chose wisely when they selected Chicago as the location of this crime riddled, politics driven, poverty infested heist movie. If you love the planning aspects of any Ocean’s movie, and everything gangsta about Set It Off, you need to go check out Widows.

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The post ‘Widows’ Is A Thriller That Commands Your Attention And Delivers appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.

I have tried several nerd boxes on my search for the one that sends items I can love each month. Unfortunately, each new box subscription comes with about 5 items, of which only one or two are items I truly like. The rest I give away, toss on e-Bay, or just leave on the shelf because there’s not much else to do with it. I must say that the DeonteBox is not one of those boxes.

Full disclosure, the owner of DeonteBox, Wayne Smith Jr. let me try out the service for free. I got one box that he filled with items from my favorite fandoms, movies, shows, and connected to my favorite hobbies. He wanted me to see what the service could do for a fan. Boy, did he deliver!

I told him that I loved American Gods, DC Comics, Fraggle Rock, Dark Crystal, Gremlins, books, and writing. He also gathered a bit more information and set about locating items for my box. I expected maybe a cool item or two and the rest POP figures that would take up space on my shelf. What I got was the greatest fan box ever. If my current geek box wasn’t a prepaid gift, I’d cancel it today and replace it with Smith’s box.

The DeonteBox is white with gold lettering — a festive package that piques the interest right away. I opened it to find golden stuffing and items carefully wrapped in crepe paper. Each a present waiting to be opened. Here is some rough video of the unboxing where I find the best part of the box so far.

You can hear my excitement (and see my two-year-old grabbing for all that gold foil). Here is my haul:

• A reprinted signed script from an episode of American Gods
• A Gremlins themed journal
• A Fraggle POP figure
• A Harley Quinn and Joker figure set
• A novelization of Dark Crystal

All of these items are favorites of mine forever. None of them have been given away (I actually gave a hostile “NOOO!” to my husband when he attempted to us the Gremlins journal for the grocery list). My daughter Quinn recognizes her namesake anywhere, but mommy has made it clear that this one is off-limits.

I highly recommend DeonteBox to anyone who has a nerd in the family. We are notoriously hard to buy for, so this box is the perfect gift. Smith searches far and wide for the gifts that you just won’t find on store shelves. The tailored service makes the box even more valuable because every item is something the subscriber will hold dear.

You can purchase a subscription or get a one-off box. Whatever you decide, I urge you to give this Black owned businessman your dollars this season. His concierge style of subscription boxes needs to catch on. If not anything else, DeonteBox can eliminate these mediocre boxes flooding the market and force them all to step their game up.

Get your box by emailing the company directly for info at deontepro@gmail.com, or visiting their Facebook page.

The post The DeonteBox is the Perfect Subscription Box for a Nerd appeared first on Black Girl Nerds.

Ever wanted to hear Detective Pikachu voiced with gravelly seriousness by Harrison Ford? Now you can in this witty combination of Detective Pikachu and Blade Runner 2049, courtesy of YouTuber Adam Butcher. The mash-up trailer brings together the worlds of Pokémon and Blade Runner, which already bear striking thematic similarities. Butcher uses Pikachu to stand-in as Ford’s Deckard, while Tim Goodman (Justice Smith) is voiced by Ryan Gosling’s K.

Butcher’s trailer cleverly uses CGI to insert Pokémon into Blade Runner‘s moody dystopian future, with a neon Pokémart sign, and a Tyrell Replicants poster in Tim’s room. The trailer leans into the film noir references present in both movies. After all, the Pokémon and the replicants share surprisingly similar positions in their respective societies. Maybe their respective universes aren’t so different? There’s plenty of fun easter eggs to be found in the mash-up, making it a treat for followers of either fandom.

(via Nerdist, image: screencap)

• Kingdom Hearts 3‘s release in China may be delayed, thanks to President Xi Jinping’s ban on Winnie the Pooh imagery. (via Polygon)
• Marvel’s Kevin Feige pens a heartfelt farewell to comics icon Stan Lee. (via Entertainment Weekly)
• Beloved character actor and magician Ricky Jay, best known for his roles in Deadwood and Boogie Nights, has passed away. (via /Film)
• Venom has now outgrossed Wonder Woman at the box office, breaking through box office records like a turd in the wind. (via Collider)

Happy holiday Sunday, Mary Suevians!

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