Dir: Gina Prince-Bythewood. Starring: Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim, John Boyega. 15, 135 minutes.
Gina Prince-Bythewood is exactly the kind of filmmaker Hollywood needs. Whether in the intimacy of her dramas Love and Basketball (2000) and Beyond the Lights (2014), the propulsion of her comic book adaptation The Old Guard (2020), or, now, the rousing spirit of her historical epic The Woman King, the core strengths of her work remain unaltered, whatever the scale of the project. There is always the same heart, the same integrity, and the same genuine investment in representing the world as it is, even if it puts her at odds with what white Hollywood execs want it to be.
