Only 3 Oscar Noms?

Rating: 8/10 (24 January 2017)

An intelligent and well executed look back at a far more racially divided but also a far more ambitious U.S. Congrats to Hollywood for putting aside a small percentage of a what was probably another Spiderman reboot or Transformers sequel to actually tell an original story worthy of being filmed. Thewestchestarian understands this was likely an aberration and that we'll get a $250M Suicide Squad remake for summer 2018 so let's enjoy it while we can. The film features three excellent portrayals of separate but unequal NASA employees trying to contribute their full talents for a nation that treats them pretty shabbily. Also, Kevin Costner puts in an Oscar-worthy performance as a NASA director under enough pressure from the Ruskies to take steps toward providing a more even playing field among the math geniuses under his charge. Apart from an overdone scene where Costner take a crowbar to a sign segregating the women's bathrooms, his character only changes as much as he needs to as shown in scenes when he refers to the now gender and racial integrated group as "gentlemen". The movie has some flaws. Katherine G. Johnson's character has 3 children who show up about twice - one is left to wonder how Katherine's long nights at Langley affected them. They movie also succumbs to the Hollywood superstar problem when telling a team story - one that Apollo 13 successfully avoided. Johnson's character is portrayed as the lone person who knows what they are doing while Jim Parsons' character does nothing else but take credit for her work. At one point Costner's character inspires them by pointing out he has assembled the best math geniuses in the country so presumably Parsons' Paul Stafford was making something of a contribution. In short, ultimately, this film is inspirational on several fronts and is the right one for the times and is way better than La La Land.