Larry Oliver Film Reviews

  When I started this blog seven years ago [in 2015], I did not envisage a Black American woman given $50 million to make an action-packed historical drama set in a country I’d never heard of. The Woman King , a modest box-office hit (domestic gross $63 million and counting) represents progress. Gina Prince-Bythewood didn’t write the screenplay (credited to Dana Stevens from a pitch by the actress Maria Bello) but proves the perfect match of director to subject matter; her previous credits include the Netflix superhero movie, The Old Guard , in which she demonstrated her action movie chops. Set in 1823 during the reign of King Ghezo (1818-58), The Woman King tells the story of a group of women warriors, the Agojie, led by Nanisca (Viola Davis) who defend Dahomey against a rival kingdom. It is a story of love, sacrifice and kicking men’s ass that hits every note it reaches for. Dahomey, renamed Benin in 1975, is situated in West Africa, nestled between Togo and Nigeria, with a mo...

  Not many people want to see a film about African Americans being beaten up and killed without reply. That’s my take-away from the poor box-office performance of Detroit , an exceptionally well-made, suitably angry film that has extremely limited appeal. It is taut. It is gripping. But where is the uplift? Where is the justice? Violence without justice is just pornography. Only shufflers in trench coats do pornography. Detroit is a work of outrage from 65 year old director Kathryn Bigalow, the only woman to date to collect the Best Director Oscar – and that was a long time coming. Whilst other women her age might think about retirement, Bigalow has immersed herself in the events of July 1967, when a police operation, the raid of a ‘blind pig’ (illegal drinking) party led to five days of rioting. Bigalow and her estimable screenwriter Mark Boal – he’s Paul Laverty to her Ken Loach – reproduce an atmosphere of uncertain violence agitated by the local police. The nub of the film is...