Viola Davis, John Boyega, Gina Prince-Bythewood And More Break Down The Grit It Took To Bring The Film to Life: 'The Connection Was Guttural'

Based on the real life, Agojie, the fearless warrior women who acted as the king’s guard and kept Dahomey (now Benin) safe in the 19th century, Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King is a thunderous action film. It praises the strength of Black women and the power of sisterhood. The Women King had been a passion project for Viola Davis for several years. She didn’t hold back when she finally got the opportunity to transform into Nanisca, the Agojie’s general. 

In the film, Nanisca is focused on the future.

With a new king (John Boyega) on the throne, she is determined to pull Dahomey away from the slave trade. With her top soldiers, Amenza (Sheila Atim) and Izogie (Lashana Lynch), by her side, Nanisca has a new crop of recruits to train so that the Agojie may defeat their rival, tribe Oyo and be done with the slave trade for good.

However, Nawi (Thuso Mbedu), a defiant recruit, will show Nanisca that sometimes the best thing to do is turn your back on the rules.

Continue reading at Shadow and Act.

Viola Davis-Led Historical Epic 'The Woman King' Showcases The Pure Majesty of Black Women (TIFF Review)

As Gina Prince-Bythewood’s historical epic, The Woman King, opens, a statuesque Black woman emerges from blades of tall grass. Clad in cowrie shells and coated in oil, she looks fearlessly out into the open plane before raising her fist and calling out into the darkness — a crop of similarly dressed Black women emerging behind her. And with that sound, a film centering on Black womanhood and the power of choice begins at a rip-roaring pace. 

Set in 1823 in the robust lands of Dahomey, West Africa — now called Benin, Prince-Bythewood introduces her audience to an illustrious kingdom. King Ghezo (John Boyega) has just ascended the throne, taking over for his brother. Though Dahomey is a pleasant and peaceful place, the ongoing slave trade with the Americans and Europeans continues to be a sore point among the citizens. The terror and barbarism of enslavement and the patriarchal structure of the society, along with the nearby dominating tribe called the Oyo, rings loudly. Dahomey owes its safety to General Nanisca (an enraptures Viola Davis), who leads her all-women army, the Agojie.

Continue reading at Shadow and Act.

John Boyega And The Late Michael K. Williams Bring Compassion To The Hostage Drama ‘892’

“They Didn’t Have to Kill Him.” That’s the name of Aaron Gell’s 2018 article on which Abi Damaris Corbin’s debut feature film 892 is based. The hauntingly dark film centers on the real-life story of Lance Corporal Brian Brown Easley, who on a July day in 2017 walked into a Wells Fargo bank based in the suburbs of Atlanta and held it up, taking several hostages. In a stunning performance actor John Boyega, steps into the shoes of the desperate former Marine who, having exhausted all of his resources, made a desperate choice to get the money owed to him.

The nightmarish red-tape that runs through the Department of Veterans Affairs is well known. Still, in focusing on Brian, Corbin puts a face to just one of numerous veterans who served this country and are now left to flounder with food and home insecurity, as well as mental illnesses. It is a situation continually brought to the forefront of society that has never been truly addressed. 

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John Boyega Is On Fire in ‘Red, White and Blue’

Though set in the 1980s like Lovers Rock, another movie in Steve McQueen’s Small Axe series, the tone of Red, White and Blue feels much more familiar to Mangrove, a film set in the ’60s. In its short runtime, the gripping drama chronicles the early career of real-life former superintendent Leroy Logan (John Boyega). A young forensic scientist growing increasingly weary of his days locked away in a lab, Leroy decides to fulfill a childhood dream of being a police officer.

Though he’s well-aware of racism and injustices, having even experienced some first hand, Leroy is determined to shift the Black community’s perception of the police while calling out racist treatment and politics within the force. If that sounds like a naive endeavor for a 20-something Black Londoner in the 1980s, it’s because it is. 

Instead of breaking through and shattering the mold, Leroy finds himself pigeonholed and ostracized from his fellow police officers who remind him at every turn that he’s not really one of them. More painful than the enraging treatment he faces at work is what Leroy deals with at home. 

Continue reading at Showbiz Cheatsheet.