By Susan Granger
Special to WestportNow
Searching through history often reveals untold stories that are gems: “Hidden Figures” is one of them.
During the early 1960s, several African-American women worked for NASA, providing the mathematical data needed to launch America’s first successful space mission.
But, every day – in a myriad of ways – their integrity and perseverance were challenged by the hostile racism and inherent sexism of that period.
Graduating from college summa cum laude at the age of 18, Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson) was, perhaps, the most brilliant mathematician of her time.
When the Space Task Group’s manager (Kevin Costner) finally let Katherine into the rocket scientists’ inner sanctum, she calculated trajectories for John Glenn’s Earth orbit in 1962 and subsequent missions.
But Katherine suffered daily humiliations, including not being allowed to use bathroom facilities in the building in which she worked and being assigned an often-empty ‘colored coffee’ thermos.
“They’ve never had a colored in here before,” personnel supervisor (Kirsten Dunst) explains.
Even Katherine’s admiring husband-to-be (Mahershala Ali) could not comprehend her aptitude for analytical geometry. And Katherine’s colleagues (Octavia Spencer, R&B star Janelle Monae) were similarly humiliated, condescendingly referred to as ‘colored computers’ and paid lower wages.
Based on the book by Margot Lee Shetterly, the title aptly symbolizes the obscurity of black female statisticians during that segregated era – yet the screenplay by Allison Schroeder and director Theodore Melfi contains several moments of feel-good humor.
Like when Dorothy’s Chevy Bel-Air breaks down and a cop stops to question them. When they explain they work for NASA, he gives them a police escort to the research center at Langley, prompting Mary to quip, “We’re three Negro women chasing a white cop in 1961!”
As well as producing the film, Pharrell Williams also oversaw the musical elements and soundtrack.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Hidden Figures” is an uplifting 8, delivering an inspiring message of hope.
“Passengers” has a terrific sci-fi premise: Two travelers on a 120-year journey on the immense, ultra-luxurious spaceship Avalon emerge from their hibernation pods 90 years too yearly.
Along with 5000 passengers and 258 crew, they’re headed for a distant colony called Homestead II, which offers a ‘promised land’ alternative to “overpopulated, overpriced and overrated Earth.”
After an asteroid strike, Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) emerges from cryogenic sleep and soon realizes that he’s the only one awake – with just a genial bartender, an android (Michael Sheen), for company.
Jim’s a mechanical engineer, so he spends a full year trying to remedy the situation – to no avail. Almost suicidal with loneliness and desperation, Jim finds beautiful Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence). Naturally, a romantic relationship develops but it’s built on a deception which, inevitably, must be revealed.
To tell you the subsequent turns and twists would spoil the suspense.
Existentially written by Jon Spaihts and helmed by Norwegian director Morten Tyldum, it’s filled with profound moral and philosophical dilemmas. Indeed, this provocative, character-driven screenplay was featured in the 2007 Blacklist of the “most liked” unmade scripts of the year.
In addition, it’s well-cast with remarkably innovative visual and production design, including an automat-style cafeteria, excellent CGI, and Aurora has a sleek travel wardrobe to-die-for.
Unfortunately, disappointment settles in during the concluding act, which seems to have been adjusted by a focus group that demanded some spectacular action/thriller sequences.
On the Granger Gauge, “Passengers” is an absorbing 6 that squanders its compelling castaway concept.
According to writer/director John Hamburg, the idea for “Why Him?” – a crude, crass comedy about an uptight father meeting his daughter’s obnoxious boyfriend – came from Shawn Levy when they were making “Night at the Museum.”
What particularly intrigued Hamburg was how the world had changed since he made “Meet the Parents.” Previously, adults were in charge; now, young Silicon Valley techies have become billionaires. So he made that generational conflict the pivotal point.
Stanford senior Stephanie Fleming (Zoey Deutch) is in love with 32-year-old Laird Mayhew (James Franco), an unconventional, narcissistic video-game mogul. And now her Midwestern parents are coming to California for Christmas.
Her doting father Ned (Bryan Cranston) and overprotective mother Barb (Megan Mullally) have no idea that Stephanie has quit college and moved in with profanity-spewing Laird until they – along with Stephanie’s teenage brother Scotty (Griffin Gluck) – arrive at his Xanadu-like mansion in Palo Alto.
Laird’s zany estate is managed by his trainer Gustav (Keegan-Michael Key) and a disembodied computer guru (Kaley Cuoco) – with a New Age chef serving edible soil, topped with plankton foam.
Laird’s wealth is even more galling to Ned, whose old-fashioned printing business in Michigan, is rapidly failing, since Laird has a paperless house, fitted with electronic Japanese commodes with bidet sprays, eliminating the need for toilet paper.
The concept is occasionally amusing but, since Stephanie’s character is so underwritten, there’s no empathy for her choice of outlandishly eccentric, shrewdly manipulative Laird.
There are cameos by Elon Musk and the Band KISS, along with timely relevance when suspicious Ned investigates Laird’s finances, discovering that much has been fraudulently inflated.
But many gags are telegraphed in advance, like the inevitable disaster involving an aquarium holding a dead moose entombed in its own urine. And while Ned realizes Gustav’s ambushes parallel Kato’s in “Pink Panther” movies, neither Laird nor Gustav understand the cultural reference.
On the Granger Gauge, “Why Him?” is a blatantly raunchy 4, prompting the question: Why bother?
( Editor’s Note: Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has been on radio/television as an anchorwoman and movie/drama critic for many years. See her reviews at www.susangranger.com.)
