X
- 2018
- R
- Twentieth Century Fox
- 2 h 9 m
- 2018
- R
- Twentieth Century Fox
- 2 h 9 m
Summary Widows is the story of four women with nothing in common except a debt left behind by their dead husbands' criminal activities. Set in contemporary Chicago, amid a time of turmoil, tensions build when Veronica (Viola Davis), Alice (Elizabeth Debicki), Linda (Michelle Rodriguez) and Belle (Cynthia Erivo) take their fate into their own han...
Directed By: Steve McQueen
Written By: Gillian Flynn, Lynda La Plante, Steve McQueen
- 2018
- R
- Twentieth Century Fox
- 2 h 9 m
- 2018
- R
- Twentieth Century Fox
- 2 h 9 m
Widows
6.8
Where to Watch
Summary Widows is the story of four women with nothing in common except a debt left behind by their dead husbands' criminal activities. Set in contemporary Chicago, amid a time of turmoil, tensions build when Veronica (Viola Davis), Alice (Elizabeth Debicki), Linda (Michelle Rodriguez) and Belle (Cynthia Erivo) take their fate into their own han...
Directed By: Steve McQueen
Written By: Gillian Flynn, Lynda La Plante, Steve McQueen
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 57 Critic Reviews
84
91% Positive
52 Reviews
52 Reviews
9% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 57 Critic Reviews
84
91% Positive
52 Reviews
52 Reviews
9% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
McQueen has made a big, pulpy crowd-pleaser, but he uses it to tell a story with real meaning. Widows is methodical in its imagery and gracefully written; it’s also a suspenseful blast, best seen with the biggest, most animated audience possible.
Dramatic fragments, blasted our way, dance before us for the next two hours, rotating and glinting, colliding and connecting, like a puzzle in zero gravity. As a transition into flinty, supercharged genre filmmaking, it gets by on no more than electric confidence, high-fiving technical virtuosity, and a cast to die for. It’s very satisfying.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 282 User Ratings
6.8
65% Positive
182 Ratings
182 Ratings
25% Mixed
71 Ratings
71 Ratings
10% Negative
29 Ratings
29 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 282 User Ratings
6.8
65% Positive
182 Ratings
182 Ratings
25% Mixed
71 Ratings
71 Ratings
10% Negative
29 Ratings
29 Ratings
All the cast performance was amazing, but the one that really stole the movie entirely was Viola Davis, she is the real leader in this movie, and i cannot think any actress to play this role except her, besides all of that, Widows is a brilliant story, with not only great but powerful performance and atmosphere in the movie, fills again with great cinematography, Widows is incredible.
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Rented this a couple days ago and I couldn't get this film out of my head so I bought it on amazon and watched it again. It is one of the best films of 2018 and a masterpiece in it's genre. It blows my mind this film was not nominated for any American awards as I feel like this is the type of film that film schools would lecture on. So many stand out things from gorgeous shots to a tight screenplay and that scene in the car was incredible! All of the characters especially Davis' and Debicki (she was incredible)were so interesting - and not take way from Rodriguez/Enrivo whom also held their own. The entire cast performance was stellar -and the social commentary was subtle and smart. The use of violence to drive the story and create tension and suspense was perfect. This film was a beautiful marriage of style and substance - It's a masterpiece. I may even give it a third watch with my teens to discuss it. The deliberately minimal score and soundtrack which hosted just a few select but perfect songs was noted.
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McQueen has created a tense and satisfying action drama with a decidedly feminist bent.
This is precision entertainment, a crackling, pulse-pounding heist movie with a sterling cast, a whip-smart script, and undeniable social resonance, calling to mind heavyweight champs like The French Connection and Heat. It never quite matches those cinema milestones, but make no mistake, Widows is a knockout.
At every turn, corruption oozes from the pores of this thriller, and although the film’s tone keeps us on edge, Widows also hits a few perfunctory pits in the road.
The result is a fascinating and sometimes frustrating hybrid, a film that tries both to transcend and to exploit its genre.
Most of Widows isn’t felt. It’s a cold exercise, and occasionally a ridiculous one, as when McQueen tries to get fancy, with camera angles that make no sense.
This is the film Spike Lee would kill to direct! Never saw the TV show but the movie is kicking ass, a true female power blended with black-lives-matter and dirty politics in Chicago. Girls in the movie don't act, they simply lived the characters ! I will praise the photography in the movie, those close-ups with Viola Davis are pure classic! Now run to the theater near you and enjoy one of the best movies (if not the best) of the passing year.
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Widows is a reminder that new stories and excellent storytelling are waiting in the periphery of the male gaze, that the expansion of interesting storytelling comes from widening the types of characters that can tell their stories. It’s hard to imagine anything less from the likes of Steve McQueen (of 12 Years a Slave) and screenwriter Gillian Flynn (of Sharp Objects and Gone Girl, one of my favorite crime thrillers of all time, funny and pulpy and completely mind-bending), but this movie found its place in the gaps between other heist films. It tells its story through the exquisite beauty of adaptation and underestimation, the negation of action hero archetypes, and (as Slate reviewer Dana Stevens notes) thoughtful commentary about tribal politics and gun laws.
Some of the most striking shots are simple ideas like the long, single take shot of the young politician played by Colin Farrell and his aide blowing off steam after a small event, a camera afixed to the hood of the car captures the stark contrast between the neighborhood where he’s campaigning and the one where his campaign quarters are, all the while his monologue about the transactional, futile nature of local politics accentuates the visuals. Farrell’s perennial visits to his political rival’s HQ in a cramped church building punctuate story with beautiful conversational set pieces, like the choral odes **** tragedy.
The actual heist is a bit of an anticlimax, as seems the case with all of the great films of the year (the Sisters Brothers and You Were Never Really Here both employ anticlimax effectively). It’s nice to see the way in which nearly all of the legwork is accomplished by the loan, tall, waifish white woman who makes more money than anyone else going on lavish dinner dates with men she meets online. There’s quite a bit of self-awareness in this script that the racial politics of this film use for comic effect.
David Kaluuya is an excellent villain: the scene in the gym is stunning in its construction and trajectory; his scene work while staking the women; listening to pointed but subtly presented news clips and learning Spanish on tape; the bowling alley. The Twists this movie has in store are pretty impressive. There’s something here for everyone, especially dog-lovers. That white dog better be nominated for an Oscar.
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Don't waste your time if you are expecting either a good heist movie, or a unique film with anything new to offer. This film is neither and was quite cliche and boring for much of the 2nd half. I am shocked by some of the critic reviews, probably because the director has a previous Oscar win. But his previous films he has said each had a personal meaning, and it seems clear, this one had no meaning. There is no concise point, and no reason for the film to even exist. I learned nothing new, was not moved, was not excited much, did not laugh, as the script is very droll, very boring, and much of the characters actions are cliche, the type of thing you can see in any mediocre action or TV show anytime. The only interesting parts were the first 5 minutes, the last 15 minutes, and a few rare snippets of side characters such as Colin Farrell's. If the whole film was about Collin Farrell's character, it might have made for an interesting drama. Instead it is pretty much a cliched heist attempt at a movie, but told through a female perspective, which then adds nothing new to the genre, is less exciting, and with the poor dialogue and **** is not worth wasting time watching unless you enjoy mediocre and cliche average action and TV shows. From Steve McQueen and the level of actors and here, and the "positive" reviews, I expected much, much, more, and was disappointed by the end, and quite frankly bored for much of the last hour. Unfortunately, I would have to officially call this a bomb...
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This movie almost bored me to tears, and that would have been the most genuine exhibit of emotion this movie would see. It was a movie that had a very underwhelming and unoriginal plot but tried to make it something it wasn't, a good film. Viola Davis was fine as the lead but offered nothing really interesting bar the occassional awkward outburst or tear that felt overstaged and took you right out of the film. Liam Neeson by his own doing has made himself irrelevant and the scenes he has with Viola Davis are just cringe worthy in light of his recent admissions. I only watched it because of the nominations it was getting, but this film just goes to show that the biggest criminal organisation today is the academy and other award shows who steal nomiations and wards from actors, actresses and film makers who actually dare create something unique and complex. Its exhausting watching movies so offensively boring, how dare you waste millions of dollars and my time.
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Two good performances, by Debicki and Belle, subdued by typically oafish performance by Liam Neeson and typically unremittingly intense performance by Viola Davis cannot save a plodding film that features a comically improbable heist floated on the foam of 3 or 4 headscratchingly bizarre and obscure subplots. Sigh.
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Production Company
New Regency Productions,
See-Saw Films,
Film4,
Lammas Park
Release Date Nov 16, 2018
Duration 2 h 9 m
Rating R
Tagline Left with nothing. Capable of anything.
Awards
Columbus Film Critics Association
• 2 Wins & 8 Nominations
Women Film Critics Circle Awards
• 2 Wins & 8 Nominations
Black Reel Awards
• 7 Nominations
