'Hidden Figures' is a crowd-pleaser with math and social appeal

Rating: 9/10 (24 January 2017)

"Hidden Figures" is about the unheralded group of African-American women who crunched numbers for NASA in the early 1960s, when the space race against the Russians was heating up the Cold War. Skilled mathematicians all, they took the theoretical equations of the white male engineers and turned them into workable data, often on the fly and always subject to last-minute revisions. "Hidden Figures" is a paean to black female nerds, a generally overlooked demographic in American media, and the film's major through-line is the heroine's gathering confidence as she struggles to be accepted by the white male analysts of the Space Task Group. Outstanding piece of work by Taraji Henson and Octavian Spencer justifying their performances as Black Negroes. The film's made with more heart than art and more skill than subtlety, and it works primarily because of the women that it portrays and the actresses who portray them. It deserves to make as much money as other big budget movies does. I do admit that it is one of the best films of 2016 and an Oscar Bait for outstanding performances. I go with 4.5/5 for Hidden Figures.