The Woman King (2022)

Score: 4.5 / 5

We've never seen a movie like this. Gina Prince-Bythewood may not be the best director out there, but she works hard to center women of color in interesting stories. Her most recent, the Netflix original The Old Guard, is really weird but quite satisfying, and is soon to receive the honor of a sequel. But her latest and greatest by far, The Woman King is thankfully not resigned to streaming exclusivity. It deserves to be seen on the biggest screen accessible, and then again with all your friends. A love story about community, about Black women, and about Africa, this movie is one of the most joyous and inspiring that I've ever seen.

I worried, heading in, that this film would largely feel void of meaning; that its existence is to some extent a product of representation-allied identity politics in Hollywood. Even when things are genuinely part of the social justice branch of the industry, it can feel like the emphasis is on visibility and novelty rather than storytelling and authenticity. But films will occasionally surprise us, as when several Native Americans led the cast of Prey recently, and Hulu even released a fully Comanche-language version of it. While I don't think that will happen here, it's really lovely to see mainstream studios embracing stories not centered in Western cultures and English-related languages. Here, much of the pleasure of viewing comes with learning about the culture of Dahomey, the West African kingdom that comprises the setting, and specifically the Agojie warriors, an elite sorority of women warriors. And Prince-Bythewood allows us to engage our curiosity without exploiting the peoples she dramatizes.

Viola Davis, God bless her, plays General Nanisca, leader of the Agojie. World-weary but still brutally efficient, she's about to start training a new batch of recruits. One of the incoming class, Nawi (an astonishing Thuso Mbedu), struggles to control her own adolescent passions; she's offered to the King (John Boyega) due to her stubbornness in refusing to marry suitors her father chooses for her. One of the warriors, Izoige (an equally astonishing Lashana Lynch) sees her strength of will as a virtue, though her independent streak will need to be curbed to fit in with the sisterhood.

Interestingly, and I think most insightfully, the film does not shy away from the darkest element of the story. The Agojie are generally victorious, but the people they conquer are often slaughtered (rather, the men are) or captured (women and children), the latter of whom are often sold to the Oyo Empire, slave dealers to the Europeans in exchange for weapons of war and other supplies. Nanisca wants to break this cycle, and she petitions the King to such an end. She is not successful, despite the apparent personal toll the slave trade has had on herself. We'll learn the depths of her bereavement before the film's climax.

There are many other pleasures in this film, including the glorious cinematography that attempts to convey sensual meaning as well as narrative. The actors are uniformly excellent. The screenplay is brilliant and sensitive and daring, despite a few minor arcs that I suspect were forced on the film by the studio (namely Nawi's bizarre erotic relationship with a Portuguese hunk). The action -- choreographed to within an inch of its life and mostly performed with eye-popping precision -- is nothing short of exhilarating. It's the kind of movie that rouses your spirit, like Gladiator or The Patriot or Braveheart, and it's all the more powerful because it's not an underwhelming white man leading it. Go see it, and go see it again. Its beauty won't be contained.

The Old Guard (2020)

 Score: 4 / 5

A rare superhero movie that feels more like a drama, The Old Guard hit Netflix last year without much pomp or circumstance. It's been on my watch list for a while now, and I finally got to it this week. I had absolutely no idea where it was going or what it was doing, and it took me by surprise more than once. This is partly, simply, because of its surprising central conceit: there is a small band of trained fighters and mercenaries who are immortal. If not for that little detail, this could just as easily be a spinoff of any number of spy thrillers or international crime-action flicks. But because of this conceit, and remarkably intelligent direction by Gina Prince-Bythewood, The Old Guard ends up being a really cool viewing experience. Even if it's not particularly groundbreaking.

Charlize Theron leads as Andy, the oldest member of the team from ancient Scythia, and she relies on her relatively unique standing as both an amazing actress and physical performer to carry the movie. The director seems as fascinated by her moments of quiet introspection as she does by her kicking ass; often, the camera sits tight on her face as she remembers a loss. After so many years of fighting, one can only imagine what's going on in her mind. But the camera is equally interested in her violent prowess, much as she gave us in Mad Max: Fury Road and Atomic Blonde; it's not the frenetic nonsense typical of the genre, but a polished and elegant approach that is increasingly, shockingly violent. The mercenaries get cut and shot ad nauseam, sometimes falling unconscious before coming to, spitting out bullets or watching a slit throat stitch itself back together.

The rest of the cast is almost as loved by the camera; it's certainly as well loved by Greg Rucka's screenplay. They might be exclusive by design, but their casting is remarkably inclusive without feeling forced. The team consists of Napoleonic Frenchman Matthias Schoenaerts, Luca Marinelli as an Italian knight from the Crusades, Marwan Kenzari as an Arab Muslim who fought the Crusaders, and a new recruit, a U.S. Marine played by KiKi Layne. There are flashback memories to Andy's first immortal friend, played by Van Veronica Ngo, whose dark fate is thrown into doubt late in the film. And beyond the racial and cultural makeup of the team, Kenzari and Marinelli play gay lovers in a surprisingly sensitive series of sequences. At one point, as the two are being interrogated/tortured by the villains (led by a big pharma exec played wonderfully by Harry Melling) they take implied homophobia in their stride, triumphantly declaring their love in a weirdly grandiose way that pays off magnificently due to the earnest need for this kind of representation in the genre. Until the Avengers films do something like this, Disney can shove their "inclusivity" up its assets.

The Old Guard arguably focuses more on drama than direct action, but that's what I really liked about it. Its plot isn't what makes this movie special; you can see almost each development coming well before it hits, and there aren't any real surprises thematically either. This is standard fare, even if it does mash up superhero tropes with typical crime/action fun. But the profound humanity with which it treats its superhuman characters is what matters most; even its mortal characters, such as the dubious employer of the merc team (played by a deliciously conflicted Chiwetel Ejiofor) are revealed slowly to us, in gradations through lengthy dialogue and quiet, private moments of reflection. We are made to care about these people through the skill of a stellar cast and its mindful, emotionally intelligent director.

And now we know we're getting a sequel!