My love for David Bowie has definitely given me a inclination towards enjoying space movies (and distinguished older men). I love intelligence, resilient women, and astronauts. As a woman working for a tech company, I was hesitant walking into this, i figured it would be pure cliche. But with three of the strongest working actresses in the game right now anchoring it, I was hopeful. Octavia Spencer is always hustling for great roles, Janelle Monae has two Oscar nominated movies this year, and I sort of had to actively tell myself to not let me love for Taraji P Henson blur my opinion of this movie. But in the end, it was just a joy to watch.

It was a little cliche, but classic. I found myself fearing for John Glenn’s life even though I knew the resolution (the constant struggle of the historically accurate). I worried the idea of Kevin Costner in ANOTHER “coach” type role would bore me, and while contrived, it wasn’t as heavy handed as it easily could have been. I worried that Jim Parson’s only has one tone, and he does. Kristin Dunst plays a great frigid bitch. Mahershala Ali can do no wrong this year.

The main thing that struck me during this film, other than how closed minded some of smartest minds of the time were, was just how crazy it is that this story isn’t more widely known. It has every aspect of human interest possible, and every interview of Henson promoting Hidden Figures points out the same thing. These women were the ultimate underdogs, fighting tooth and nail and taking no credit. This is the time for this story to be told, and it was important to everyone making the movie to get it out there.

At the end of the day, it was a true feel good film that felt perfectly relevant, despite the time period. 9/10