After winning Oscar gold for the powerful 12 Years a Slave, what does a director do next? If you’re Steve McQueen, you dive into the heist genre with Gone Girl writer Gillian Flynn and come up with the searing Widows—now out on DVD, Blu-Ray and digital download formats.
Talk about making a film that doesn’t even remotely resemble what you did last! That is a very good thing as our best directors in Hollywood history have kept that title by keeping it varied. Every artist needs to flex their creative muscles, and nothing does that like a challenge. Widows is actually based on a hit British TV show and it provided McQueen with the stellar opportunity of bringing it to American shores with an incredible co-writer in the form of a slick, stylized, emotively powerful and killer ensemble laden flick.
Oscar winner Viola Davis stars as Veronica, who is married to Harry Rawlings (played by Liam Neeson—currently seen in Cold Pursuit). Rawlings is the leader of a crew who makes their comfortable living taking things that are not theirs. They are highly trained, supremely smart and cunningly careful. Their luck runs out one fateful night as the entire crew is killed by the police in what is likely a shady situation—someone tipped off the cops.
Davis, along with the titular crew of women are mourning the loss of their loves and facing an uncertain future. Some are raising children, others are lost—both financially and lovingly. Michelle Rodriguez is Linda, Elizabeth Debicki is Alice, Cynthia Erivo is Belle and they are culled together by Veronica because if things could not get any worse—the men who their husbands last stole from saw their cash go up in flames and they want it back and don’t care how the Widows get it. When Veronica is visited by Jatemme Manning (Get Out’s Daniel Kaluuya) and his brother Jamal (Brian Tyree Henry), it becomes all too real. These women must do something, or each will meet a bullet.
Veronica discovers that Harry has left behind the plans for his next job and she takes it upon herself to get her fellow Widows together and do what nobody thinks they can do—pull off the job, pay off those nefarious folks and hopefully move on to a more peaceful and fruitful life.
It’s a fascinating and frenetic concept and in the hands of McQueen, it is told in a manner that is equally thrilling as it is emotionally inspiring. An all-female heist movie, borne of desperation and revenge, co-written by Gone Girl’s Flynn and it all adds up to something truly special.
This is all told with the backdrop of Chicago and its dark history of shady politics. Robert Duvall and Colin Farrell play Tom and Jack Mulligan (respectively) and each knew Harry and all the players involved. Their role in this entire endeavor reminds us of some classic Chicago corrupt pols flicks of the past and in Widows, add a layer of frosting to this chilling cake that is supremely delightfully delicious.
The performances are all sublime (which should surprise no one). Of particular note is Erivo and Debicki. Their characters are not criminals by any order and how these stellar thespians tackle their rich character arcs is stunning. Rodriguez too turns in some killer work, the best we’ve seen from her in some time. McQueen, ever the actor’s director, gets the best out of his entire electric ensemble.
For more on the film itself, don’t miss our theatrical Widows review.
The Widows Blu-Ray contains almost 60-minutes of bonus features that provide priceless insight into the making of this modern masterpiece. Heist movies are among a favorite genre of film for this writer and getting McQueen to break down his take on this long-enamored movie milieu is like a masterclass in filmmaking.
Widows Unmasked: A Chicago Story is first and foremost, a great moniker for the three-part featurette. Plotting The Heist is a 10-minute look at the screenplay and the overall concept of the film with contributions from McQueen and Flynn. Both have such diverse backgrounds, hearing how they worked together to bring a British TV smash to American cinemas is riveting and equally as entertaining as it is enlightening.
Assembling the Crew: Production is an almost 30-minute look at the making of the film, specifically from the point of view of the stellar cast. One can see how each saw the opportunity to appear in McQueen’s follow-up to his Oscar winner and Flynn’s follow-up to her smash cinematic debut as a once-in-a-lifetime moment. That dedication and passion is felt on every frame of the film itself and hearing those actresses and actors extol the virtues of their creative leaders only enhances our adoration for the film itself.
The Scene Of The Crime: Locations takes us to Chicago and in this day and age, oftentimes other cities double for the locale of the film. To hear how filmmakers firmly insisted that the Windy City serve as their palette for creating some amazing art is a fascinating featurette. With its rich history of politics and crime (Capone, anyone?!), it was imperative that shooting be in Chicago and seeing how the city responded to welcome filmmakers and this cast is riveting.
Film Grade: A
Bonus Features: A