the woman king movie reviews

The Woman King

From the moment Gina Prince-Bythewood became a director, her strength has always resided in her commitment to love stories. In her films, sumptuous twilight passions happen on a basketball court, they occur between generations, on the ladder rungs of show business, and between immortals. They center Black women carrying power and interiority, while finding strength within themselves, and often, other Black women. With her Netflix produced film, “ The Old Guard ,” she continued those themes on a grander scale. But nothing in her filmography can wholly prepare you for the lushness of her latest work.

In going into “The Woman King,” a big-hearted action-epic whose major challenge is being sincere and historical while fulfilling its blockbuster requirements, you might feel some hesitation. Especially in a cinematic landscape that prizes broad statements on race over sturdy storytelling. You might wonder how Prince-Bythewood can shape a tale centering the Agojie warriors—an all-woman group of soldiers sworn to honor and sisterhood—hailing from the West African kingdom of Dahomey, when one considers their hand in perpetuating the transatlantic slave trade. It’s a towering task approached by Prince-Bythewood and screenwriter Dana Stevens with gentle sensitivity, and a fierce desire to show Black women as the charters of their own destiny.

The film begins with flair: A group of men lounge at the center of a field by a campfire. They hear rustling in the tallgrass; they see a flock of birds fly away on a breeze. Suddenly a menacing Viola Davis playing Nanisca, the world-weary Agojie general, emerges from the grass armed with a machete. An entire platoon then appears behind her. The ensuing slaughter of the men (the women in the village are left unharmed), is soaked in delirious gore, and is part of this warrior ensemble’s mission to free their imprisoned kin. Nanisca, however, loses so many comrades in the process that she decides to train a new batch of recruits.

After the thrilling opening battle scene, the plot to “The Woman King” can feel convoluted. But its excesses serve the film’s blockbuster goals. A defiant teenager, Nawi ( Thuso Mbedu ), is offered up as a gift to the young King Ghezo ( John Boyega ) by her domineering father, who is frustrated with his obstinate daughter’s refusal to marry her many suitors. Nawi, however, never makes it to the King, as the unflinching yet fun warrior Izogie (a phenomenal Lashana Lynch ), sees Nawi’s resistance as a strength, and enlists her in Nanisca’s training. Being part of the Agojie promises freedom to all involved, but not to those they conquer. The defeated are offered as tribute to the draconian Oyo Empire, who then deal their fellow Africans as slaves to Europeans in exchange for guns. It’s a circle of oppression that the guilt-ridden Nanisca wants the King to break. In the meantime, a dream has haunted Nanisca, and the disobedient Nawa, who struggles with upholding some of Agojie clan’s strict requirements, particularly the “No Men” part. It might be the key to what ails her.

Despite these clunky narrative beats—there’s a twist halfway through that nearly causes the story to fall apart—the sheer pleasure of “The Woman King” resides in the bond shared by these Black women. They are the film’s love story as they commit to each other as much as they do to their grueling training. Vast compositions of Black women caring and nurturing each other proliferate “The Woman King,” and the rituals and songs they share adds further layers to their deep devotion.

Prince-Bythewood isn’t afraid to rely on emotional heft in an action movie. Every actor in this deep ensemble is granted their own space; they’re organically challenged but never artificially wielded as a teaching tool for white audiences. Sheila Atim , who along with Mbedu turned in a stellar performance in Barry Jenkins ’ “ The Underground Railroad ,” is measured, aware, and giving as Nanisca’s trusted second-in-command Amenza. Boyega is commanding yet beguiling as a king projecting confidence while still learning what it means to lead (many of his line readers are instantly quotable).

“The Woman King,” however, is quite messy. The overuse of VFX for landscapes, fake extras, and fire often flattens the compositions by cinematographer Polly Morgan ; she finds greater latitude in capturing the bruising yet precise fight choreography. And the low-simmering romance that emerges between Nawa and Malik, a ripped Portuguese-Dahomen fantasy ( Jordan Bolger ) returning to discover his roots, while clear in its intent to test Nawa’s dedication to her sisters, is unintentionally comical in its awkwardness. The script far too often also tries to neatly tie together these characters, especially Nawi and Nanisca.

But when “The Woman King” works, it’s majestic. The tactile costumes by Gersha Phillips (“Star Trek Discovery”) and the detailed production design by Akin McKenzie (“Wild Life” and “ When They See Us ”) feel lived in and vibrant, especially in the vital rendering of the Dahomey Kingdom, which is teeming with scenes of color and community. Terilyn A. Shropshire ’s slick, intelligent editing allows this grand epic to breathe. And the evocative score by Terence Blanchard and Lebo M. gives voice to the Agojie’s fighting spirit.

Though Davis is the movie’s obvious star, turning in an aching and psychically demanding performance that’s matched pound for pound with her interiority, Mbedu reaffirms herself as a star too. She gives herself over to the tale of a woman who so desires to be heard that she never backs down to anyone. A glimmer follows Mbedu in her every line read, and gloom follows her in devastation. There’s one scene where she cries over the body of a fallen warrior and lets out a wail with an impact that travels from your toes to your spleen.

The subplots in “The Woman King” might undo it for some. But the magnitude and the awe this movie inspires are what epics like “ Gladiator ” and “ Braveheart ” are all about. They’re meant for your heart to override your brain, to pull you toward a rousing splendor, to put a lump in your throat. In between the large, sprawling battles of “The Woman King,” and in between the desire to not yield to white outside forces and the urge to topple oppressive and racist systems, the guide is sisterly love, Black love. Thrilling and enrapturing, emotionally beautiful and spiritually buoyant, “The Woman King” isn’t just an uplifting battle cry. It’s the movie Prince-Bythewood has been building toward throughout her entire career. And she doesn’t miss.

This review was filed from the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10th. “The Woman King” opens on September 16th.

Robert Daniels

Robert Daniels is an Associate Editor at RogerEbert.com. Based in Chicago, he is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association (CFCA) and Critics Choice Association (CCA) and regularly contributes to the New York Times , IndieWire , and Screen Daily . He has covered film festivals ranging from Cannes to Sundance to Toronto. He has also written for the Criterion Collection, the Los Angeles Times , and Rolling Stone about Black American pop culture and issues of representation.

Viola Davis as Nanisca
Thuso Mbedu as Nawi
Lashana Lynch as Izogie
Sheila Atim as Amenza
John Boyega as King Ghezo
Hero Fiennes Tiffin as Santo Ferreira
Jayme Lawson as

Writer (story by)

Dana Stevens
Maria Bello
Gina Prince-Bythewood
Terence Blanchard

Cinematographer

Polly Morgan
Terilyn A. Shropshire

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‘The Woman King’ Review: She Slays

Viola Davis leads a strong cast into battle in an epic from Gina Prince-Bythewood, inspired by real women warriors.

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By Manohla Dargis

The kinetic action adventure “The Woman King” is a sweeping entertainment, but it’s also a story of unwavering resistance in front of and behind the camera. The ascendancy of women filmmakers over the past decade is one of the great chapters in movie history, and as women have fought their way back into the field, they have also taken up space — on screens and in minds — long denied them. Their canvases are again as expansive as their desires.

Certainly one of the most expansive of these canvases is “The Woman King,” a drama about the real women soldiers of the precolonial Kingdom of Dahomey in West Africa. Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, the movie is filled with palace intrigues, sumptuous ceremonies and stirring battles, and features, as golden-age Hollywood liked to brag, a cast of thousands (or thereabouts!). Yet while it evokes the old-fashioned spectacles the studios habitually turned out long before Marvel, there is no precedent for this one.

The story, as moviemakers also like to say, is “inspired” by real events, which in this case are mind-blowing. The tale is rooted in the women warriors of Dahomey whose exact origins remain obscured by tribal myths and oral traditions as well as the obviously biased, self-serving and at times contradictory accounts of European observers. It’s thought that the warriors emerged in the 17th century, and were part of a heavily female social organization that included lots of wives and his-and-her sides of the palatial compound. (The stronghold was about one-eighth the size of Central Park.)

The wives show up now and again in “The Woman King,” seated and standing in a cloud of regal hauteur. They’re lavishly coifed and luxuriously dressed, and, for the most part, passive, as inert and prettily posed as dolls waiting for someone to play with them. That would be King Ghezo, a young monarch amusingly played by John Boyega, who gives the character the nonchalant imperiousness of a very important person who doesn’t seem to do much other than the most essential thing: hold power. If Ghezo wears the crown lightly it’s only because others do his hard, dirty, sometimes murderous work.

It’s the women warriors who do much of the toughest work, and, of course, are the main attractions, which Prince-Bythewood announces at once. So, after a bit of quick, dutiful place-setting — it’s 1823 — the movie takes flight with a showy battle, a grab-you-by-the-throat entrance that gets the story going and blood flowing, yours included. Led by the battle-scarred General Nanisca (Viola Davis), the women soldiers, their bodies oiled to a high gleam, emerge like hallucinations that Prince-Bythewood makes palpably real. Suddenly, the screen fills with intense movement and by turns soaring and falling bodies.

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Viola Davis is 'The Woman King' in an epic story inspired by true events

Justin Chang

Nanisca (Viola Davis) wields a sword and hacks her way through the many men who get in her way in The Woman King. Ilze Kitshoff/CTMG hide caption

Nanisca (Viola Davis) wields a sword and hacks her way through the many men who get in her way in The Woman King.

One of the more heartening Hollywood comeback stories in recent years has been the return of the director Gina Prince-Bythewood with movies like The Old Guard and now The Woman King . It had been a long wait for many of us who adored her earlier films like Love & Basketball and Beyond the Lights . As Prince-Bythewood has said in interviews, her focus on women protagonists, especially Black women protagonists, had made it hard over the years to get her projects off the ground. Fortunately, the industry is changing, and it's finally come around to recognizing her talent.

Her latest movie, The Woman King, is her most ambitious project yet, a rousingly old-fashioned action-drama, drawn from true events, about women warriors in 19th-century West Africa. The movie originated with the actor Maria Bello , who produced it and wrote the story with the film's screenwriter, Dana Stevens. It opens in 1823 in the kingdom of Dahomey, located in what is now Benin. For several centuries, this kingdom was defended by an army of women fighters called the Agojie.

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In the movie, the Agojie are led by the powerful General Nanisca, played by a galvanizing Viola Davis . She isn't the ruler of this kingdom — that would be the king, played by John Boyega — but given the movie's title, you suspect it's only a matter of time. The Agojie warriors are fighting the male soldiers of the Oyo Empire, who've been attacking Dahomey villages. To build up her army, Nanisca brings in a new batch of female recruits, among them an impetuous teenager named Nawi, played by Thuso Mbedu, the terrific South African star of last year's The Underground Railroad .

Much of the script centers on the growing bond — and the growing tension — between Nanisca and Nawi. As the leader of the Agojie, Nanisca insists that all her warriors follow a strict code that includes lifelong celibacy. Nawi chafes at that restriction, and her independent-mindedness often clashes with the Agojie's values of discipline and self-sacrifice. But by the end, Nawi absorbs those values and becomes a courageous fighter, honing her skills through many exciting scenes of training and competition.

The Woman King was shot on location in South Africa, and its re-creation of the Dahomey villages is so immersive — the costumes, designed by Gersha Phillips, are especially gorgeous — that it just about carries you past some of the messiness of the storytelling. To its credit, the script addresses some of the historical complexities of the situation, including the fact that Dahomey became a rich kingdom by participating in the trans-Atlantic slave trade — a practice that Nanisca wants to end. She also has a personal score to settle with the Oyo warriors, and The Woman King is sometimes a little unsteady in its mix of political plotting and emotional drama. A romantic subplot involving Nawi and a hunky European explorer feels especially tacked-on.

Nanisca may not be the most complex character Davis has played, but it's thrilling to see her take on her first major action showcase as she dons battle gear, wields a sword and hacks her way through the many, many men who get in her way. And she isn't the only one: My favorite performance in the movie comes from Lashana Lynch as Izogie, a top warrior who takes young Nawi under her wing. You might have seen Lynch squaring off with Daniel Craig's James Bond in No Time to Die , and here she manages to be funny, heartbreaking and fierce.

Prince-Bythewood has conceived The Woman King in the grand-scale tradition of epics like Braveheart and Gladiator , this time with women leading the charge. While the action doesn't rise to the same visceral intensity as in those films, it makes for an engrossing and sometimes exhilarating history lesson. I left the theater thinking about how an old civilization recognized the strength of what women could do — and how it's taken the empire of Hollywood so long to do the same.

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The Woman King Reviews

There’s a certain tenderness yet mightiness with which director Prince-Bythewood choses to frame the story visually. Her exceptional direction enables an experience that is as emotionally invigorating as it is empowering and inspirational.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jul 25, 2024

To see Black women at the centrepiece of a Hollywood epic like this is both refreshing and extremely overdue.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Jul 12, 2024

The Woman King achieves cinematic royalty with its extremely skillful, well-crafted, and purposeful picture that tells a narrative of empowerment and humanity. It’s well-crafted from start to finish, with Davis shining in the starring role.

Full Review | Sep 26, 2023

writer Dana Stevens, story contributor Maria Bello – more known for her acting (“A History of Violence”) – and Prince-Bythewood continue an emerging cinematic trend of alternate, redemptive histories that bend toward utopianism

Full Review | Aug 16, 2023

Davis elevates this standard story with the emotion and dire she brings to her performance.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Aug 9, 2023

For viewers who choose to focus on the adrenaline rush of the feminist warriors ready to challenge the patriarchy, The Woman King proudly wears its crown.

Full Review | Jul 27, 2023

Thuso Mbedu delivers one of the best feature film debut performances I've ever witnessed. The anti-slavery, anti-racism and equal human rights messages are well conveyed, but the authentic, emotionally resonant character dynamics stand out.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Jul 25, 2023

While this is undoubtedly Viola Davis at her finest, the movie's breakout star is Thuso Mbedu as Nawi. It may be called The Woman King, but it's Mbedu that steals the spotlight in every frame.

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

An instant classic, Viola Davis slays as always. Lashana Lynch is incredible, Sheila Atim is amazing, & Thuso Mbedu steals the show as the heart/soul of the entire film! Blythewood created an epic that we don’t see anymore from Hollywood.

Despite stumbles in terms of plot and pacing, The Woman King is a thrilling watch. This story, these women, and the film’s heart deserve to be seen on the biggest screen possible with an audience ready to go along for a wild ride.

Full Review | Jul 24, 2023

The movie fails to fulfil its potential except as a military action epic.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 17, 2023

A dazzler from Terence Blanchard’s symphonic score to Polly Morgan’s eye pleasing cinematography. Acting is A-1, particularly by Davis and Mbedu.

Full Review | Original Score: A | Apr 25, 2023

Viola Davis is a force unleashed, heading up a full-blooded tale of conflict set against the backdrop of the slave trade that offers both a twist on the traditional male-dominated warrior-epic and a look at a part of history Hollywood typically ignores

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 27, 2023

Its the emotional sparring between the women - as fierce as anything on the battle ground - that really holds the attention

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 17, 2023

If it had been a story about white people, it would have been a snore. But we have rarely, if ever, seen a movie quite like this one about powerful Black women, and the energy onscreen is infectious.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 13, 2023

…goes all in as a popular entertainment, rolling back the male-dominance of the action genre and replacing it with something smart, dynamic and female driven…

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 19, 2023

As these women take their place in the kingdom of Dahomey and assert their power, The Woman King truly takes on new meaning, and finds relevance in the modern era.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Feb 10, 2023

The film is shot impeccably well, scored passionately, and gives the viewer something to savor as they leave the theater.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Feb 8, 2023

It's not a perfect film but acting-wise - this is a masterclass. Pacing was tight and effective despite lacking in some character development. This is a really good film.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 5, 2023

The performances, action scenes and cinematography were fantastic. I think the representation of bad ass black women was incredible.

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‘the woman king’ review: viola davis transforms in gina prince-bythewood’s rousing action epic.

The Academy Award-winning actress stars alongside Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim and John Boyega in a feature inspired by an all-women warrior unit in pre-colonial Benin.

By Lovia Gyarkye

Lovia Gyarkye

Arts & Culture Critic

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The Woman King

A historical epic inspired by true events that took place in The Kingdom of Dahomey, one of the most powerful states of Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries. A historical epic inspired by true events that took place in The Kingdom of Dahomey, one of the most powerful states of Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries. A historical epic inspired by true events that took place in The Kingdom of Dahomey, one of the most powerful states of Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Gina Prince-Bythewood
Dana Stevens
Maria Bello
Viola Davis
Thuso Mbedu
Lashana Lynch
525 User reviews
222 Critic reviews
76 Metascore
28 wins & 124 nominations total

Top cast 44

Santo Ferreira

(as Chioma Umeala)

(as Siv Ngesi)

(as Angelique Kidjo)
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Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

Trivia Producer Maria Bello visited Benin in West Africa to research the Agojie, and returned to the US, convinced she had found a great movie pitch. The project then stayed in development hell for years, first at STX (which only offered $5 million for the budget), then at TriStar. Only after the massive success of Black Panther (2018) was the film greenlit with a $50 million budget.
Goofs The Dahomey Mino (or Dahomey Amazons) did not fight to end slavery but were in fact prolific slavers themselves. The Dahomey enslaved thousands of fellow Africans until the kingdom was defeated by the French in 1894.

Nanisca : We are the spear of victory, we are the blade of freedom, we are Dahomey!

Crazy credits There's a mid-credits scene, in which Amenza is seen performing a memorial ceremony for her fallen sisters, pouring salt and whiskey over their weapons. She says their names aloud, and the last name we hear is Breonna.
Connections Featured in Black Conservative Perspective: WOKE BACKFIRE! 'The Woman King' DESTROYED For Glorifying African Women Fighting To Protect Slavery! (2022)
Soundtracks Tribute to the King Written and produced by Icebo M

User reviews 525

kevin_robbins
Sep 15, 2022
How long is The Woman King? Powered by Alexa
September 16, 2022 (United States)
United States
South Africa
Sony Pictures Entertainment
La mujer rey
TriStar Pictures
Eone Entertainment
TSG Entertainment
See more company credits at IMDbPro
$50,000,000 (estimated)
$67,328,130
$19,051,442
Sep 18, 2022
$97,562,514

Technical specs

Runtime 2 hours 15 minutes
Dolby Digital
IMAX 6-Track
Dolby Atmos

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The Woman King review: Viola Davis roars in a stirring reimagining of the action epic

She's the captain now.

Our cinematic cup spills over with Bravehearts and Gladiators and Last Samurai ; even lions can be kings on screen. But female warriors, unsurprisingly, have mostly been confined to TV syndication or Themyscira , which feels like a deficit Gina Prince-Bythewood's The Woman King is long overdue to correct. The movie, which premiered last night at the Toronto Film Festival, arrives as the rousing crowd-pleaser it was crafted to be: a spirited and often thrilling action epic elevated by the regal, rigorous commitment of star Viola Davis.

Davis is General Nanisca, leader of the Agojie, an all-female fighting unit in early 19th-century West Africa who lay down their lives — no marriage, no children — to defend the Dahomey empire led by King Ghezo ( John Boyega ). Some join voluntarily, others are prisoners of war; Nawi (South African actress Thuso Mbedu) lands there because her exasperated father has given up trying to marry her off. If she wants to be defiant, she can go live with the wild ladies behind the palace walls and learn to fight or die trying, but she will no longer be his problem. Instead she becomes an immediate thorn in the side of nearly all her superiors, including Izogie ( No Time to Die 's Lashana Lynch ) and Amenza ( Sheila Atim ), a girl so eager to do things her own way she can't stop rebelling and questioning and disregarding the chain of command.

There's never really any doubt that she'll also make a great warrior, and Prince-Bythewood, who spent years helming intimate, intelligent dramas like Love & Basketball and Beyond the Lights before pivoting to the large-scale adrenalized action of the 2020 Charlize Theron Netflix hit The Old Guard , fills her training scenes with lively, stirring pageantry. The Agojie, who actually existed for nearly three centuries, learn knife skills and shooting and how to heal wounds, but they're also a sort of sacred unit, one whose shared purpose is often dazzlingly ritualized in song and dance.

The fighting, when it comes — from both competing tribes and white colonizers steadily advancing an international slave trade — is viscerally satisfying too, even as the screenplay, by Dana Stevens ( Fatherhood ) and actress Maria Bello, works mostly in the broad strokes of genre storytelling. The Agojie here tend to be universally noble and good and their enemies strictly bad, either brutes or mustache twirlers; an exception is made for Jordan Bolger ( Peaky Blinders ) as a dashing half-Brazilian invader whose late Dahomey mother has called him back to Africa to find his roots (and to provide the film with a questionably necessary love interest for Nawi).

The women, in fact, are more than enough on their own — though Boyega is excellent as a king smart enough to know the difference between pride and ego — and the movie hinges on the strength of their fierce collective presence. Nanisca's Davis alone gets a deeper backstory, one she imbues with a grace and gravitas not necessarily embedded in the script. (Its handling of the Dahomeys' actual role in perpetuating slavery has already incited heavy debate online; the history conveyed here seems incomplete at best, if not seriously misleading.) For all its gorgeous choreography and costumes, the actual look of the film also lacks a certain richness in the settings and cinematography, a sort of small-screen swords-and-sandals feel. But the movie is swords and sandals, a classic hero's quest; one that just had to wait several lifetimes for the rest of the world to catch up. Grade: B

‘The Woman King’ Is Viola Davis Kicking Ass. What More Do You Need to Know?

By David Fear

We all knew Viola Davis was an Oscar and Emmy winner, an extraordinary orator , and one of the great actors of her generation. We did not know she was a bona fide superhero, however, until Gina Prince-Bythewood gave her a proper superhero’s entrance. The first time we see the title character in The Woman King, the director’s sweeping story of female soldiers in 19th-century Africa, it’s during a rescue mission already in progress. A group of raiders have taken over a village. Women and children, soon to be sold off to slave traders, huddle in fear. There’s a rustling in the grass.

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(We hate to say that any one performer steals a movie that so doggedly works to give its ensemble so much screen time and stuff to do. Yet Lashana Lynch is most assuredly first among equals in terms of the supporting cast — Izogie is the sort of tragicomic, shoot-the-moon, standout type of role that brings out the best in the British actor, and vice versa. In every scene she’s in, Lynch radiates charisma and presence, along with a grab bag of expressions ranging from sisterly to sarcastic, while never taking the focus away from her partners in crime or the movie’s momentum. It’s the sort of performance that makes you think of, say, Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda, or Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny, or Joe Pesci in Goodfellas or Dianne Wiest in Bullets Over Broadway. As to what those four turns have in common? Please feel free to read between the lines, Academy voters.)

The more that Dana Stevens’ screenplay, which shares story credit with writer-actor Maria Bello, keeps adding to the narrative, the more The Woman King risks collapsing under its own weight. Yet there’s so much filmmaking A-game on display (not just Prince-Bythewood, naturally, but also composer Terence Blanchard, cinematographer Polly Morgan, production designer Akin McKenzie, costume designer Gersha Phillips) and so much Old Hollywood territory being wonderfully claim-staked that the pros far, far outweigh the cons. An Afrocentric historical epic designed to be screened as big as possible, made by a Black female filmmaker, starring a Black woman of a certain age as an action hero, telling a story that’s left out of world-history books, vying for a mass audience in the age of I.P. imperialism — these are not just qualifiers for The Woman King. They are the sounds of ceilings being shattered and, hopefully, left to rot as piles of splintered glass on the ground. If they do, it will be in no small part due to this film. See it, however, not because it’s the first of many such future projects. See it because of the high bar it sets for all movies that still want to thrill you, move you, and operate on a larger-than-life level. Nanisca isn’t the only hero here.

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‘The Woman King’ Review: Viola Davis Leads an Army of African Warriors in Compelling Display of Black Power

'Love & Basketball' director Gina Prince-Bythewood and her Oscar-winning leading lady want the world to know about the exceptional group of women who took on the slave trade.

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Dubbed “Amazons” on account of their superior strength and berserker fighting style, the Agojie are reportedly the group that inspired “Black Panther’s” Dora Milaje. Now, they are liable to inspire future generations, as Prince-Bythewood (a director for whom scope comes easily, coming off Netflix’s globe-spanning “The Old Guard”) gives these women the iconic treatment: Rigorous training montages and other rites of passage, seen through the eyes of new recruit Nawi (Thuso Mbedu), build to elaborately choreographed action sequences and, in some cases, dramatic death scenes. These women are formidable, but not invincible, after all.

With women clearly established as its heroes, the movie proceeds to introduce two villains: The first is Oda (Jimmy Odukoya), ruthless leader of the Oyo Empire, who’s been organizing other tribes against the Dahomey — and who, judging by a few intense flashbacks, gave Nanisca a personal reason to want his head on a pike. The other is a white slave trader named Santo Ferreira (Hero Fiennes Tiffin), who speaks Portuguese and seeks strong Black laborers to bring with him back to Brazil. This character isn’t even remotely intimidating and seems ill-suited to the jungle, through which he’s carried in a sling by Black porters, a shameful practice seen often in Tarzan movies.

We can’t help hating these two figures, although Santo is accompanied by a hunk named Malik (Jordan Bolger), whose heritage is more complicated: His father was white; his mother was Dahomey. The instant Malik sets eyes on Nawi, the movie opens a Disney-esque door for romance (“Pocahontas” comes to mind) it’s not really equipped to see through. That said, a little sexual tension helps to underscore the sacrifices these virgin warriors must make to defend the kingdom, and the target audience likely won’t mind a bit of beefcake to break up the 80 minutes of conditioning Nawi and the others need before the film’s next big battle scene.

The Dahomey won’t be free until Oda and Santo have been dealt with. To make these confrontations believable, “The Woman King” must establish that its warriors are capable of standing up to superior weapons — the Agojie are armed mostly with blades and spears, while their attackers carry guns. But Nanisca’s fighters show discipline as well, and one of the film’s points seems to be that greatness is not given but must be earned. No wonder there’s so much focus on training — time that Prince-Bythewood uses to dimensionalize the Agojie’s other members, like Ode (Adrienne Warren), a young Mahi captive who joins the cause, and Nanisca’s trusted spiritual adviser Amenza (Sheila Atim), who acts as a sort of conscience for the group. While she and Nanisca keep an eye on Nawi from afar, Izogie (Lashana Lynch) steps in as mentor, recognizing aspects of herself in the teenager and becoming something of an audience favorite in the process.

Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival (Gala Presentations), Sept. 9, 2022. MPA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 135 MIN.

Production: A Sony release of a TriStar Pictures presentation, in association with eOne, of a JuVee Prods., Welle Entertainment production. Producers: Cathy Schulman, Viola Davis, Julius Tennon, Maria Bello. Executive producer: Peter McAleese.
Crew: Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood. Screenplay: Dana Stevens; story: Maria Bello, Dana Stevens. Camera: Polly Morgan. Editor: Terilyn A. Shropshire. Music: Terence Blanchard.
With: Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, and John Boyega. (English, Portuguese dialogue)

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Review: Viola Davis adds another jewel to her crown in a rousing ‘Woman King’

Thuso Mbedu looks at Viola Davis in a scene from "The Woman King."

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With her rousing new action-drama, “The Woman King,” director Gina Prince-Bythewood suggests that, in at least one crucial respect, the West African kingdom of Dahomey was more ahead of its time than that starry imperialist empire called Hollywood. An early 19th century epic awash in militaristic might and colonial oppression, the movie burnishes the truth and the legend of the Agojie, an all-female regiment of warriors who fought for Dahomey with great ferocity, unapologetic bloodlust and selfless abandon. And the most ferocious among them, at least in this swift and satisfying telling, was their top general, Nanisca, played by Viola Davis in the first major action showcase of her career.

That’s a remarkable accomplishment if also a revealing one, and it speaks less to any heretofore uncharted depths of Davis’ talent than to the limits of the film industry’s imagination. While her smarts and gravitas have always made her a natural fit for authority figures (she can do cunning government heavies in her sleep), it has seldom fallen to Davis to play the fearsome warrior. Or, as we see in “The Woman King’s” cut-to-the-quick opening scene, to rise silently from the grasses, sword out, midriff bared, shoulders agleam with sweat and firelight. Her enemies are the gun-wielding, horse-riding male soldiers of the Oyo Empire, who quickly set the stakes in a picture that aspires to the grandly epic scale of “Braveheart,” “Gladiator” and “The Last of the Mohicans.”

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If “The Woman King” doesn’t always match the visceral intensity of those pictures — Prince-Bythewood, a skillful director of action, keeps the carnage to a PG-13 minimum — it nonetheless rises to the challenge of using an old-fashioned template to deliver a flood tide of exhilarating new images. To watch the Agojie warriors storm into battle, armed with swords and spears and led by Nanisca’s mighty ululating battle cry, is to encounter much more than the standard Hollywood vision of resistance in action. And before long, the Agojie’s ranks are fortified by a fresh batch of recruits, some of whom are refugees from neighboring realms and some of whom, like a stubborn teenager named Nawi (an outstanding Thuso Mbedu), have been disowned and deposited at the palace gates by their fed-up families.

Two warriors face each other in a scene from "The Woman King."

Nawi isn’t a conscript; as Nanisca makes clear, joining the Agojie is a choice. If that feels like a slightly sanitized reading of a military apparatus fed by prisoners of war, it nonetheless suits the story’s dramatic purposes. Becoming a soldier is very much a choice for Nawi, whose impetuousness is both a strength and a weakness, one that Nanisca does her best to temper with a spirit of discipline and self-sacrifice. To join this elite warrior class means taking a vow of lifelong celibacy, dwelling in a women-only section of the palace and swearing allegiance to Ghezo (John Boyega), Dahomey’s male king. Naturally, it also means submitting to the kind of intense fitness regimen — running through thickets of thorns, decapitating dummies stitched from tightly knotted ropes — that great training and competition montages are made of.

Prince-Bythewood steers us through these sequences with terrific sweep and urgency, lingering just long enough for you to take in this world in all its rich, tactile particulars, from the straw roofs and red earthen walls of Akin McKenzie’s production design to the intricately patterned fabrics and elaborate beadwork of Gersha Phillips’ costumes. (Terence Blanchard’s moving score heightens the immersion.) At times you wish the director would linger longer still, the better to let a deeper understanding of Dahomey’s rigid rules, meticulous hierarchies and tangled alliances seep into your bones.

The hard-working, sometimes muddled script, written by Dana Stevens (from a story credited to her and actor Maria Bello, who served as a producer), is too busy laying out the present-tense drama to delve into the history of how the Agojie women came to be. Nor does it unpack the tricky gender nuances of a kingdom where women who became Agojie were essentially considered to have become men, according to some historical accounts. To its credit, the movie does acknowledge some of the story’s uglier historical context, including the fact that Dahomey became a rich nation by profiting off the transatlantic slave trade, selling African prisoners to European invaders. (Jordan Bolger plays a hunky Portuguese Dahomean explorer who catches Nawi’s eye in a perfunctory romantic subplot.)

A warrior holds a spear in a scene from the movie "The Woman King."

Nanisca abhors her kingdom’s complicity in slavery and is determined to put an end to it — a shrewd if narratively convenient choice that makes her an unambiguously easy hero to root for. It’s not the story’s only trade-off: If the general is easily the most physically imposing character Davis has ever played, that may necessarily preclude her from being the most interesting or psychologically complex. Fortunately, she doesn’t have to be: Commanding as Davis is to watch, she often cedes the spotlight to the other women in her midst. These include Mbedu, the South African-born star of last year’s limited series “The Underground Railroad,” and the Ugandan British actor Sheila Atim, who, as one of Nanisca’s deputies, can rivet the camera without a word. Most of all it includes Lashana Lynch (“No Time to Die”), who’s funny, fierce and finally heartbreaking as Izogie, a warrior who takes Nawi under her wing.

The sense of sisterly solidarity that powers “The Woman King” is the movie’s raison d’être; it’s also part of Prince-Bythewood’s authorial signature. Since she made her feature debut with “Love & Basketball” more than 20 years ago, her commitment to centering women in her storytelling, especially Black women, has never wavered, even as it’s cost her opportunities in an industry that likes to pass off its racism and sexism as commercial imperatives. In recent years the Hollywood tide has clearly begun to turn for Prince-Bythewood, on the evidence of “The Old Guard,” her bracing 2020 action-fantasy for Netflix about a band of immortal warriors. No one lives forever in “The Woman King,” but at its best it’s a reminder that history, even selectively dramatized history, doesn’t have to stay dead.

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The Woman King has a fierce fire in its belly

Viola Davis leads the complex, deeply human action movie, set in West Africa and based on real history

by Katie Rife

Nanisca (Viola Davis), brandishing a machete, leads a group of Black warrior women out of hiding in the grass and into battle in The Woman King

Polygon has a team on the ground at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, reporting on the horror, comedy, drama, and action movies meant to dominate the cinematic conversation as we head into awards season. This review was published in conjunction with the film’s TIFF premiere.

The Woman King isn’t the simple tale of good and evil it appears to be. The film does pit the Agojie, a fierce all-female army from the historical West African kingdom of Dahomey (and inspiration for Black Panther ’s Dora Milaje ), against the moral rot of chattel slavery. The Dahomey aren’t pure victims, though. They also participate in the slave trade — not as extensively as the neighboring Oyo Empire, which has been terrorizing Dahomey settlements and selling their people to Portuguese slavers for decades. But the Dahomey do capture enemies and sell them as slaves. Some within the kingdom oppose the practice on moral grounds. Others are simply looking to get rich and don’t care how they do it.

This ambiguity makes The Woman King less of a nationalist exercise than S.S. Rajamouli’s RRR , Mel Gibson’s Braveheart, and so many other films that turn real historical events, with all their messy contradictions and pesky nuances, into straightforward David-and-Goliath stories. To be clear, this is still a Hollywood version of history, with all the rousing action, inspirational uplift, and soaring soundtrack choices that label implies. But director Gina Prince-Bythewood ( The Old Guard , Beyond the Lights ) and screenwriter Dana Stevens do complicate the issue, mostly for the better.

Viola Davis stars as Nanisca, the leader of the Agojie, who carries the weight of the kingdom on her muscular shoulders, alongside some pretty nasty scars. As the film opens, the Agojie are considering how to strike back against their Oyo oppressors. And they’ve recently suffered losses in raids against the Oyo designed to free Dahomey captives headed to a port auction block. As a result, they’re looking for new recruits.

Agojie leader Nanisca (Viola Davis) and warrior Izogie (Lashana Lynch) look over an array of young warrior recruits in The Woman King

This is good news for Nawi (Thuso Mbedu), a rebellious teenage girl from the capital city. When Nawi’s father drops her off at the palace gates, telling the guard that he’s offering his daughter as a gift to the king, he thinks he’s punishing her for refusing to accept an arranged marriage to a rich man who introduces himself by hitting her. It turns out that her father is actually saving her. Nawi’s fiery nature and stubborn determination make her a much better fit for the Agojie than for sexual servitude and a life of forced farm labor.

The first half of the film focuses on Nawi’s initiation into the Agojie, following her and her fellow recruits through the boot camp-like training designed to transform them from undisciplined girls into polished warriors. The instruction only partially works on Nawi, who remains defiant even when it isn’t in her best interests. Her superiors, including Nanisca’s second-in-command, Amenza (Sheila Atim, recently seen as a doomed warrior in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ), and their fierce lieutenant, Izogie (Lashana Lynch, the Captain Marvel movies’ Maria Rambeau), discipline her when they need to. At the same time, they seem amused by this impassioned new recruit.

Because rebellion can’t be tolerated in the well-organized Agojie, but spirit and passion are encouraged and respected. The rules surrounding the army are many, including a royal edict that no ordinary citizen can look an Agojie in the eye. But sisterhood and pride are as important to them as custom and protocol. And behind castle walls, even Nanisca is gentler than Nawi expects, given her tired eyes and grave expression.

John Boyega co-stars as Dahomey sovereign King Ghezo, and the film does dive briefly into politics and castle intrigue as Nanisca and the king’s favorite wife compete for influence over Ghezo. This rivalry is less compelling than the camaraderie between the Agojie, which grows richer as the characters’ traumatic backstories and epic destinies are revealed. In the cloistered, all-female world of the palace, bonds between women blossom and thrive. And Prince-Bythewood infuses these relationships with a warmth that’s even more inspiring than scenes of powerful Black women charging into battle.

Agojie general Nanisca and King Ghezo (John Boyega) sit together in an outdoor shelter in The Woman King

By comparison, a halting romance between Nawi and a half-Dahomey, half-Portuguese explorer named Malik (Jordan Bolger) feels perfunctory. This is one movie where romance takes a back seat to comradeship — as refreshing a change of pace as giving African history and heroism the epic action-movie treatment.

Prince-Bythewood films the set-pieces with an eye for kinetic action, with fight choreography that’s split equally between MMA-style grappling and the swinging of heavy, curved machetes. But the real star of these scenes is the sound design, which adds heavy, crushing impact to the otherwise bloodless violence. (The film is rated PG-13, which limits the amount of blood that can be spilled on screen — a necessary sacrifice, perhaps, given the film’s populist scope.) Gunpowder and horses play secondary roles in the battle sequences, fitting for a film whose focus is on its people.

The Woman King is a more human type of blockbuster than most of what turns up on screen in the summer months. It’s burdened with many of the issues that typify big studio movies — overstretched CGI, an overstuffed plot — but it shrugs off those issues as easily as the Agojie flip enemy soldiers over their backs and into the dirt. This film has a fire in its belly. But more importantly, it also has a heart full of love: love of life, love of freedom, love of Black people and culture, and love for its ferocious, complicated, brave women.

The Woman King opens in theaters on Sept. 16.

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In the opening scene of Gina Prince-Bythewood 's The Woman King , we see an imposing figure emerge from the tall grass in the moments before she will lead an attack. The figure is General Nanisca ( Viola Davis ) and soon the rest of her all-female group of warriors, the Agojie, will rise in kind behind her. Standing opposite them is a small encampment of men that are responsible for a recent mass kidnapping. The ensuing fight is a brief one as the Agojie make short work of their enemies, brutally and methodically cutting them down one by one. It is a bloody, yet graceful introduction as the warriors leap and spin through the air in a deadly dance of death. This is only the first glimpse of this small but formidable fighting force that the remainder of this well-balanced historical epic explores to remarkable effect.

Based upon some of the real-life events that took place in The Kingdom of Dahomey in Africa in the 19th century, the film is an unabashed crowd-pleaser while still being light on its feet. While Davis is certainly one of the leads and as commanding a screen presence as ever, we first begin to see her world through the eyes of another character. After being cast out by the patriarch of her family, the 19-year-old Nawi ( Thuso Mbedu ) slowly becomes a part of this community of warriors. While her father intended it as a punishment for her unwillingness to marry, it is here where she begins to discover much about herself and find a new family to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with. It is not easy going as the training is rather grueling, ranging from exhausting long-distance running to intense combat training. Prince-Bythewood takes her time with this, showing how the fighters-in-training come to master both physical and mental discipline. This isn’t always easy for Nawi, who we see is as fearless as she is headstrong, but that makes the emotional journey she goes on all the more engaging.

The film, while boasting many solidly constructed action setpieces, is also a coming-of-age character study of sorts. Following the opening, the story slows down and takes its time in developing all the rich details of its world. Beyond Nawi and Nanisca, who begin to form a bond the more the two learn about each other, there are a whole host of other compelling characters that all shine. There is John Boyega ’s King Ghezo who oversees the Agojie and the people they protect. As the story progresses, he finds himself at a crossroads that will test his leadership. Boyega is as outstanding as he has ever been, proving to be both strong in the understated scenes and the others of grand oration. He is able to capture his character’s youthful perspective with a refreshing subtlety that is juxtaposed against the wisdom of Nanisca. Each moment we see of Ghezo and his shortcomings, the more Boyega breaks apart the multifaceted man. Then there is the scene-stealing Lashana Lynch as Izogie who will both train and tease the aspiring warriors. Lynch has enough charisma and charm to carry a film all on her own though she also is great at playing alongside the rest of the cast. Alongside her is Sheila Atim as Amenza who, while being more reserved as a character, still plays an integral role to the experience. Each time she comes on to the screen, you feel a quiet intensity crossed with a more caring compassion for all those around her that she observes.

Nanisca with the Dahomey behind her in The Woman King.

RELATED: 11 Best Viola Davis Performances, From ‘Doubt’ to ‘The Help’

While the entire cast deserves all of this praise and then some, one would be remiss to not hammer home just how good Prince-Bythewood is as a director. She had already made it clear that she is a skilled action director with 2020’s The Old Guard —one of the better straight-to-streaming action films—but The Woman King sees her stretching other muscles as well. Much of this is felt in the scale and scope of the battle sequences that, while coming mostly toward the end, are more than worth the wait. The way she keeps track of the various characters through all the chaos is deeply refreshing as, in far too many other action films of this size, we can often lose sight of where everyone is. It ensures that each character gets their moment to shine. Whether it is when Nanisca charges ahead to dispatch foe after foe or when Nawi makes use of a weapon with a particularly satisfying sound, every moment is a shot of adrenaline. The panache and precision of these sequences are what make them really sing as you never feel like anything is being rushed to get to the next moment. As fast-paced as it all is, everything gets time to breathe and sink in. This ensures you feel every blow both received and inflicted by the characters. While there are some noticeable moments where the film doesn’t show the full gory impact of each swing, which was likely to avoid an R-rating, it never feels like it is skimping on the action by doing so. Beyond just the bigger and more bombastic fights, there are a pair of harrowing escapes that the film keeps you locked in on. The result of one of them is devastating in a manner that, while not entirely unexpected, still leaves the intended mark. Key to this are the emotional depths that the film delves into, peeling back the layers of the battle-hardened characters until they are laid bare before us.

This is where Davis proves to be absolutely arresting. We completely believe every moment of her as a gritty General just because of her commanding presence and control of every physical movement that conveys strength. However, what really makes this work is when we see her alone and more troubled by elements of her past. While you can still see the calculating commander underneath it all, she has had to carry a heavy burden on her shoulders almost entirely alone. As we begin to see the physical scars that she has accumulated over a lifetime of combat, the psychological ones soon become just as present. Nanisca is a beacon of strength, and she is reticent to confide in anyone in a manner that could show weakness. As a result, the scenes where she is fully open are rare yet riveting. They end up feeling quieter yet no less reverential confessions. Many of them take place alongside Nawi, who respects her even though she doesn’t really know her. The relationship the two have goes back further than either initially knows, instilling the subsequent spectacle with a grounded emotional core. Both are more connected than they realize and the extended conversations they have are ones Prince-Bythewood plays out with patience that pays off.

If there is anything holding the film back ever so slightly, it would be a fraught romance that Nawi stumbles into. Such a relationship is not in itself a bad thing, plenty of historical epics have such elements, but the story seems trepidatious about how to approach it. Oddly, there are moments from the trailer that seem to more fully embrace it, whereas the theatrical cut is rather shy about including it. It ends up being the one thing that feels rushed, as if second thoughts about the more messy elements of it made them decide to dial it back while still keeping some parts of it. Thankfully, this all ends up being water under the bridge for what remains a joyous experience on the whole.

The Woman King is a film that has the confidence to be completely sincere in both the sharp moments of humor and the stunning battle sequences. The way it all grapples with history is subsequently clear-eyed, making some closing statements feel especially resonant. It is a film that ensures there is no denying Prince-Bythewood's dedication as a director and visual artist who can take on any cinematic challenge with ease.

The Woman King comes to theaters on September 16.

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The woman king review: an action epic with heart & a stunning ensemble cast.

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Gina Prince-Bythewood is back with another phenomenal film. The Woman King assembles an incredible ensemble cast to tell the story of the Agojie, once called the Dahomey Amazons, an all-woman warrior tribe. The film is an action epic with excellent and well-choreographed fight sequences — one of the best in a long while — that doesn't forego the character dynamics at the core of its story. As The Woman King builds tension, it gains momentum while telling a unique story that is grand in scale, emotional at heart, and well executed in almost every way.

Set in the West African kingdom of Dahomey in 1823, the all-female Agojie warriors continue to fight on behalf of King Ghezo (John Boyega) against the dominating Oyo Empire. Led by General Nanisca (Viola Davis), the Agojie — including stern, but free-spirited Izogie (Lashana Lynch) and Amenza (Sheila Atim), Nanisca’s second-in-command and confidant — battle the Oyo, taking those they captured to be sold into the slave trade in exchange for weapons from the Europeans. (It’s a subject The Woman King handles carefully.) Elsewhere, 19-year-old Nawi (Thuso Mbedu) is offered to King Ghezo by her father, who is angry he cannot marry her off. She is quickly taken under the wing of Izogie, who offers her a chance to train with and join the Agojie as a warrior, promising the sisterhood will always be there for her.

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The Woman King looks and feels like a movie that doesn’t get made anymore. Most recently, The Northman came close, but it ultimately lacked the character development needed to make such a film of its magnitude work. The Woman King is Gladiator -esque in that it’s heavily focused on character-driven drama, but with the spectacle that makes it an altogether stunning watch. The musical score by Terence Blanchard is hypnotic, the cinematography by Polly Morgan resplendent, and the costumes and production design by Gersha Phillips and Akin McKenzie, respectively, are truly a sight to behold. Everything comes together exquisitely and, though the film is at times conventional, it leans into its drama, its action, and its characters with intensity and emotional weight. Nothing is too over-the-top and, though the action scenes may be violent (not enough to make give it an R rating), there is a vulnerability and fiery camaraderie that comes with the sisterhood that is the Agojie.

The film is led by Viola Davis , who delivers an outstanding performance as Nanisca. There is a lot that weighs on her shoulders, a burden and trauma she carries. She is not only contending with her past, but with Dahomey’s politics and future. Davis explores the layers of her character’s interiority with immense vulnerability and nuance. The actress takes on a role that is physically and emotionally demanding with depth, strength, and grace. While Davis is always great, The Woman King boasts a spectacular ensemble that works well together. Lashana Lynch, who didn’t get nearly enough shine in No Time to Die , is excellent. She brings the humor, emotion, and fierceness required of an Agojie warrior. Thuso Mbedu is especially a standout. She nearly overshadows Davis as the bold Nawi who is trying to find her place within the Agojie. Mbedu engages with Nawi’s rebellious spirit and big heart, balancing each with ease. Sheila Atim and John Boyega are also wonderful, rounding out a memorable cast. Each of these characters have flaws and that is what makes them engaging and oh so human. They must overcome hurdles, emotional and physical, which is what makes The Woman King all the more powerful on that front.

The Woman King has enough action sequences to please, though it thankfully doesn’t overdo it with the brutality. It’s just enough to showcase the violent nature of the fights without lingering too long on the gore. What’s more, the fight choreography is stunning, as is Prince-Bythewood’s directing in these scenes. It’s the kind of action that one can appreciate, shown in all its glory without employing camera work that would shift away or make it hard to see. The film is epic in scope, but intimate when it comes to its personal story. There is plenty of drama, and the tension rises to a boiling point that will leave audiences cheering and rooting for the Agojie at every turn.

The film is an uplifting crowd-pleaser, certainly, and the combination of the character and political drama with the big action scenes work exceptionally well. The weakest link is Nawi’s romance with Jordan Bolger’s character, a Dahomey descendant who returns in search of his roots, simply because it isn’t as fully developed as many of the film’s other relationships. Minor hiccups aside, The Woman King is a blockbuster with a lot of heart and a clear story that is tightly written; it’s well worth the watch.

The Woman King premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2022. The film releases in theaters on September 16. It is 135 minutes long and is rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence, some disturbing material, thematic content, brief language and partial nudity.

The Woman King

The Woman King is a historical action/drama film about the Kingdom of Dahomey, a powerful nation with an elite warrior force known as the Agojie. The core events follow Nanisca, general of an all-female military unit, and Nawi, an ambitious recruit, who together fight enemies who violated their honor, enslaved their people, and threatened to destroy everything they’ve lived for. Nanisca will prepare her soldiers for a war against the Oyo, another nation that has aligned itself with a group of European slave traders. In addition, Nanisca will seek to free her enslaved people from the Oyo.

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The Woman King First Reviews: Viola Davis Rules the Screen in a Rousing, Action-Packed Crowd-Pleaser

Critics say that despite a few minor quibbles with the script, gina prince-bythewood's historical epic offers an awards-worthy performance from davis, a breakout star in thuso mbedu, and impressively choreographed action scenes..

TAGGED AS: First Reviews , news

Viola Davis stars in the action drama The Woman King , which received rave reviews out of its Toronto International Film Festival premiere. Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood ( The Old Guard ), the movie is said to mix mainstream Hollywood entertainment with a story of social and historical significance. The ensemble cast, including Davis, Lashana Lynch , John Boyega , and Thuso Mbedu , has been praised across the board, and the action is also a highlight. However, there are some minor disappointments in the script.

Here’s what critics are saying about The Woman King :

Is The Woman King a crowd-pleaser?

A crowd-pleasing epic — think Braveheart with Black women. – Lovia Gyarkye, Hollywood Reporter

When The Woman King works, it’s majestic… The magnitude and the awe this movie inspires are what epics like Gladiator and Braveheart are all about. – Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com

A hell of a time at the movies, a seemingly “niche” topic with great appeal, the sort of battle-heavy feature that will likely engender plenty of hoots and hollers. – Kate Erbland, IndieWire

Easily one of my favorite experiences of the year in a theater… It’s an action epic that is sure to make everyone stand up and cheer. – Kate Sánchez, But Why Tho? A Geek Community

An absolute blast. It’s a film that isn’t afraid to get you cheering. – Chris Evangelista, Slashfilm

As a mainstream action epic, it has plenty to offer. – Joey Magidson, Awards Radar

It is a splashy popcorn movie with a social conscience. – Caryn James, BBC.com

How is Viola Davis?

This is the greatest performance of her career. – Jamie Broadnax, Black Girl Nerds

Davis is stellar…[she] seems to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders just with a single glance. – Chris Evangelista, Slashfilm

This is Davis’s film, and her artful control of her face, her voice, and her body is breathtaking. – Kate Sánchez, But Why Tho? A Geek Community

The Oscar-winning actress, known for digging into her characters’ psyches, accesses an impressive level of emotional depth and nuance as Nanisca. – Lovia Gyarkye, Hollywood Reporter

Reminding us at every moment that she’s one of the best actresses of her generation. She’s the thespian rising tide that lifts every other performance around her. – Roger Moore, Movie Nation

Davis truly gets to flex the full range of her acting chops. A performance of this caliber is rare in what’s essentially an action flick. – Martin Tsai, The Wrap

Viola Davis is the movie’s title character and should have been in more scenes. – Carla Hay, Culture Mix

Does she rise to the occasion as an action star?

Viola Davis is a formidable force in The Woman King … [She] stuns in the most physically demanding role of her estimable career. – Tim Grierson, Screen International

At 57 years old, this is Davis’s first full-blown action role, and she’s still fully believable as a seasoned warrior. – Reuben Baron, Looper.com

If people like Bob Odenkirk and Liam Neeson can become action heroes in their 50s, Davis seems bound to show people she can, too. Her raw intensity is backed up by a newly jacked physique that makes her an imposing action heroine, and she performs exceptionally well in the numerous action scenes. – Chris Bumbray, JoBlo’s Movie Network

Davis showcases that action sequences can be just as intimate and emotional as dramatic moments… [She] can easily best any action star on the screen. – Kate Sánchez, But Why Tho? A Geek Community

How is Lashana Lynch?

In a cast full of heavy-hitters, Lynch is the real stand-out… Every second she’s on screen is a treat, and I wanted more of her. – Chris Evangelista, Slashfilm

Lynch demonstrates the same steely authority that made her so appealing in last year’s No Time To Die . – Tim Grierson, Screen International

Lashana Lynch, the most experienced action star of the bunch with No Time to Die and the Marvel Cinematic Universe under her belt, is a standout as Izogie… and is responsible for some of the film’s most intense emotional moments. – Reuben Baron, Looper.com

Does anyone else in the cast stand out?

Mbedu, the jewel of Barry Jenkins’ Underground Railroad , shines as Nawi, a teenager sent to join the Agojie after her father abandons the project of marrying her off. – Lovia Gyarkye, Hollywood Reporter

Mbedu gives a breakout performance. – Chris Evangelista, Slashfilm

Thuso Mbedu seems destined to be a star. – Reuben Baron, Looper.com

Mbedu reaffirms herself as a star. – Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com

[With] an exceptional supporting performance… Mbedu nearly steals the show. – Tim Grierson, Screen International

How is Gina Prince-Bythewood’s directing?

Prince-Bythewood has somehow managed to set the bar even higher for her own standard of women-empowered stories. – Jamie Broadnax, Black Girl Nerds

Prince-Bythewood knows how to craft a sword and sandals style action epic. – Joey Magidson, Awards Radar

[She shows] a skilled eye for understanding that an action sequence is never just a fight, but rather a moment to tell a story packed with emotion. – Kate Sánchez, But Why Tho? A Geek Community

Her style encompasses the perfect balance of action and drama and is unafraid to put the brutality of humans on full display. – Valerie Complex, Deadline Hollywood Daily

Gina Prince-Bythewood doesn’t make a wrong move. – Caryn James, BBC.com

It’s the movie Prince-Bythewood has been building toward throughout her entire career. And she doesn’t miss. – Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com

How is the action?

The fight choreography in this film is by far the most impressive I’ve ever seen on screen in a very long time. – Jamie Broadnax, Black Girl Nerds

The battles are relentless and kinetic. – Caryn James, BBC.com

The fight scenes are big, bombastic, and often brutal. – Martin Tsai, The Wrap

Gina Prince-Bythewood has crafted battle sequences that are exciting and moving at the same time. – Tim Grierson, Screen International

The Woman King opens with an incredible action sequence… Men are getting sliced, diced and tossed across the screen by these mighty warrior women. – Valerie Complex, Deadline Hollywood Daily

The Woman King is at its best when our heroines are kicking ass. – Joey Magidson, Awards Radar

The PG-13 rating… makes the action sequences tamer than they should be. – Chris Bumbray, JoBlo’s Movie Network

Is it violent?

Eye-popping battle sequences [push] that PG-13 rating to wild ends. – Kate Erbland, IndieWire

The camera takes us inside the hand-to-hand combat, with warriors plunging spears into bodies and slicing throats. This is not benign, cartoonish action. – Caryn James, BBC.com

The sound team works overtime to give us a sense of brutality, but there’s no blood or gore when Davis and her crew are hacking adversaries to pieces. It leaves the battles looking a little too clean-cut. – Chris Bumbray, JoBlo’s Movie Network

There are moments where swords don’t connect and the wounds from being injured or killed look like bright red blots of ink rather than an injury from war. – Kate Sánchez, But Why Tho? A Geek Community

The Woman King has some intense battle scenes and depictions of enslavement that might be too hard to watch for very sensitive viewers. – Carla Hay, Culture Mix

What about the script?

The script by Dana Stevens (with a Story By credit going to Maria Bello) is a bit on the standard side, but it’s in service of the old school dramatic spectacle on hand. – Joey Magidson, Awards Radar

The plot to The Woman King can feel convoluted. But its excesses serve the film’s blockbuster goals. – Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com

Dana Stevens’ screenplay, based on Maria Bello’s story, tries to balance several competing and not always steady plotlines over the course of two hours. – Lovia Gyarkye, Hollywood Reporter

The script never goes quite as deep as it could. – Chris Evangelista, Slashfilm

The Woman King doesn’t always successfully juggle its myriad narrative ambitions. – Tim Grierson, Screen International

The Woman King is sometimes cluttered and uneven… The development of the Nanisca character sometimes falls short of what many viewers might expect. – Carla Hay, Culture Mix

Does the romantic subplot work?

The inclusion of a romance subplot… feels quite forced and accelerated. – Kate Sánchez, But Why Tho? A Geek Community

A flat attempt at a love story… feels like the product of truly misguided studio notes. – Kate Erbland, IndieWire

It feels like it comes out of another movie… Mbedu, unrealistically, seems drawn to a man that associates with the same folks that routinely enslave her people. – Chris Bumbray, JoBlo’s Movie Network

The dramatic beats and subplots are fine, but they lack some of the consistent effectiveness that the fight scenes do. – Joey Magidson, Awards Radar

How well does it represent history and the culture it depicts?

The Woman King also does a phenomenal job of showcasing the culture, wealth, and beauty of Dahomey. – Kate Sánchez, But Why Tho? A Geek Community

Shot on location in Africa, [it] benefits immensely from rich production design from Akin McKenzie, delightful costumes from Gersha Phillips, and functional and fun hairstyles from Louisa V. Anthony’s department. – Kate Erbland, IndieWire

The tactile costumes by Gersha Phillips and the detailed production design by Akin McKenzie feel lived in and vibrant, especially in the vital rendering of the Dahomey Kingdom, which is teeming with scenes of color and community. – Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com

Production design by Akin Mackenzie and costumes by Gersha Phillips are lush and opulent, drenched in deep red and yellow hues. A lot of thought went into making the kingdom of Dahomey look as authentic as possible. – Valerie Complex, Deadline Hollywood Daily

The Woman King leans toward fantasy in its heroic moments, but is rooted in truth about war, brutality and freedom. – Caryn James, BBC.com

The Woman King begins as portraiture and then surrenders to melodrama when faced with the challenges of translating history for the screen and constructing a coherent geopolitical thread. – Lovia Gyarkye, Hollywood Reporter

The Woman King is an 8/10 for entertainment value, and 4/10 for how it deals with history. – Reuben Baron, Looper.com

Do we need more movies like The Woman King ?

In 2022, this should not be the exception. Hollywood should have been making films like The Woman King for many years… If this is what a Hollywood-ized and -sized blockbuster looks like in 2022, bring it on. Bring them all on. – Kate Erbland, IndieWire

Maybe one day we’ll get to a point where such a movie doesn’t feel groundbreaking, but here we are. – Chris Evangelista, Slashfilm

The Woman King opens everywhere on September 16, 2022.

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The Woman King review: a thrilling period epic

The Woman King opens purposefully and violently. The film’s first sequence, which brings to life a brutal battle from its sudden beginning all the way to its somber end, is a master class in visual storytelling. Not only does it allow director Gina Prince-Bythewood to, once again, prove her worth as a capable action filmmaker, but it also introduces The Woman King ’s central all-female army, sets up the film’s core conflict, and introduces nearly every important character that you’ll need to know for the two hours that follow it. The fact that The Woman King does all of this within the span of a few short minutes just makes its opening sequence all the more impressive.

The level of impressive craftsmanship in The Woman King ’s memorably violent prologue is present throughout the entirety of its 135-minute runtime. For that reason, the film often feels like a throwback to an era that seems to reside farther in the past than it actually does, one when it was common for all the major Hollywood studios to regularly put out historical epics that were, if nothing else, reliably well-made and dramatically engaging.

Nowadays, those qualities feel increasingly hard to find in most contemporary blockbusters. The Woman King , thankfully, reminds us of what a midsized blockbuster can — and should — be. As the film’s director, Prince-Bythewood, who already ranks as one of Hollywood’s most underappreciated filmmakers, manages to do that while bringing to life a cinematic story that definitely wouldn’t have been produced 1o or 15 years ago.

Set in the early 1800s, The Woman King follows the Agojie, the all-female army that is assigned to protect the West African kingdom of Dahomey, as well as its ruler, King Ghezo (John Boyega). Led by the fierce General Nanisca (a reliably commanding Viola Davis), the film follows the Agojie as they lead Dahomey into a long-brewing conflict with the neighboring Oyo Empire after the latter attempts to increase its power over Dahomey by demanding that more of the kingdom’s citizens be sold into slavery.

The conflict between Dahomey and the Oyo Empire quickly turns out to be more personal for Davis’ Nanisca than she expected, but The Woman King spends most of its first half exploring the customs and friendships that bind the women of the Agojie together. The film does so by introducing Nawi (Thuso Mbedu), a young girl who proves to be so resistant to the very concept of arranged marriage that her father ends up offering her up to the Agojie as a new recruit. It’s through Nawi’s eyes that viewers are then drawn into the all-female world of the Agojie, which counts the formidable Izogie (Lashana Lynch) and the wise Amenza (Sheila Atim) as two of its high-ranking members.

But, as inspiring as the Agojie are, The Woman King doesn’t make the conflict between their kingdom of Dahomey and the Oyo Empire as clear-cut as it initially appears. Dahomey’s anger over the Oyo Empire’s engagement in the slave trade is, notably, complicated by the fact that it and its leaders have similarly accumulated great wealth by capturing and selling their fellow Africans into slavery. This fact weighs heavy on Davis’ Nanisca, and while the rivalry between Dahomey and the Oyo Empire is the source of The Woman King ’s biggest action sequences and set pieces, it gradually becomes clear that the film’s villain is not the Oyo Empire, but the slave trade itself.

When The Woman King focuses on those aspects of its story, it’s often riveting. The same cannot be said for the moments when the film shifts its focus to superfluous subplots like the romance that develops between Mbedu’s Nawi and Malik (Jordan Bolger), a half-Dahomey, half-Portuguese man who arrives in Africa alongside Santo Ferreira (Hero Fiennes Tiffin), a friend whose family made their fortune through the slave trade. Malik and Nawi’s scenes carry neither the romantic spark nor the thematic weight that they need in order to feel justified, which makes the film’s focus on their relationship in its second half nothing more than mildly irritating.

Prince-Bythewood and Dana Stevens’ script also attempts to literalize the guilt and ancestral pain that The Woman King ’s characters carry with them through a twist that, at first, seems to defy all logic. However, while the storyline that stems from it frequently pushes against the boundaries of believability, it does culminate in a long, steady shot of Davis near the end of The Woman King that makes the entire subplot feel, if only for a moment, completely worth it. Such is the power of Davis, a performer who is capable of bringing regality, strength, and warmth to any part she plays.

Outside of Davis, Sheila Atim also impresses with her warm and considerate performance as Amenza, Nanisca’s second-in-command and most trusted friend. Lashana Lynch, meanwhile, nearly steals The Woman King out from under her co-stars with her turn as Izogie, the humorous but commanding Agojie warrior who takes Nawi under her wing early on in the film’s first act. In case her scene-stealing performance in last year’s No Time to Die hadn’t already done so, Lynch’s turn in The Woman King proves, once and for all, that she’s one of Hollywood’s most exciting emerging talents.

Behind the camera, Prince-Bythewood brings a muscular, confident visual style to The Woman Kin g, allowing its various action sequences to unfold cleanly without ever resorting to any cheap gimmicks or attention-grabbing camera tricks. The director, along with her cinematographer, Polly Morgan, also gives The Woman King a rich look that only further emphasizes its deep shades of brown, red, black, purple, and green. Unlike a number of other blockbusters that have been released this year, The Woman King ’s ambitions never exceed its reach either, which is to say that the film is basically devoid of the kind of distractingly bad VFX shots that have become far too common as of late.

In its attempts to jam as much into its story as possible, The Woman King does end up emerging as a far more uneven film than it might have been had it kept its focus solely on the personal and political struggles of the Agojie. Shaving off some of its unnecessary detours would have, at the very least, let The Woman King avoid some of the pacing problems it experiences throughout its second and third acts. Nevertheless, the film’s flaws don’t take much away from its entertainment value, nor do they lessen the weight of its most impactful moments.

More than anything, by bringing her strong grasp of cinematic language to The Woman King ’s story, Prince-Bythewood has crafted a film that feels refreshingly modern and old school at the same time. It’s not a film that’ll make you nostalgic for the days when period epics like it were a dime a dozen, but one that, instead, has the power to make you wonder what kind of movies audiences could see in the future were Hollywood to actually begin investing again in more projects like The Woman King .

The Woman King hits theaters on Friday, September 16.

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In God's Creatures' third act, however, Holmer and Davis’ steady grip becomes a stranglehold, one that threatens to choke all the drama and suspense out of the story they’re attempting to tell. Moments that should come across as either powerful punches to the gut or overwhelming instances of emotional relief are so underplayed that they are robbed of much of their weight. God's Creatures, therefore, ultimately becomes an interesting case study on artistic restraint, and, specifically, how too calculated a style can, if executed incorrectly, leave a film feeling unsuitably cold.

Andrew Dominik’s Blonde opens, quite fittingly, with the flashing of bulbs. In several brief, twinkling moments, we see a rush of images: cameras flashing, spotlights whirring to life, men roaring with excitement (or anger — sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference), and at the center of it all is her, Marilyn Monroe (played by Ana de Armas), striking her most iconic pose as a gust of wind blows up her white dress. It’s an opening that makes sense for a film about a fictionalized version of Monroe’s life, one that firmly roots the viewer in the world and space of a movie star. But to focus only on de Armas’ Marilyn is to miss the point of Blonde’s opening moments.

As the rest of Dominik’s bold, imperfect film proves, Blonde is not just about the recreation of iconic moments, nor is it solely about the making of Monroe’s greatest career highlights. It is, instead, about exposure and, in specific, the act of exposing yourself — for art, for fame, for love — and the ways in which the world often reacts to such raw vulnerability. In the case of Blonde, we're shown how a world of men took advantage of Monroe’s vulnerability by attempting to control her image and downplay her talent.

The Woman King Review

16 Sep 2022

The Woman King

“All I ever knew of Africans was slaves,” says Malik (Jordan Bolger) in one scene in The Woman King . He is a Portuguese-African man, and son of a woman stolen from her country; during a quiet moment pondering the mass displacement of slavery, he’s in Dahomey (modern-day Benin) to see the one place his mother was free, a connection to roots that many were never able to make. Gina Prince-Bythewood ’s fifth film seeks the same Africa: the multifaceted one hidden behind decades of stories that represent it only as a traumatised continent, rather than one with its own complications and kingdoms. The American director presents the kingdom of Dahomey as a splendour of colour, especially in the opulence of the king’s court. But in finding this African decadence, it’s never forgotten that imperialist wealth comes at a moral cost, one that the film spends its running time figuring out. It wrestles with its admiration of an affluent kingdom and a female-led warrior class — as well as the uglier realities of how that wealth is earned.

Prince-Bythewood invokes historical epics like Braveheart and The Last Of The Mohicans in her depiction of Dahomey’s all-woman kingsguard, the Agojie, also known as the Dahomey Amazons — or, as per a Portuguese slaver, “the bloodiest bitches in Africa” — and their fight against the larger Oyo Empire of Yoruba. The romanticism of those films is echoed by Prince-Bythewood, still interested in intimacy even as the scale of her storytelling expands. Her last film, The Old Guard , unspooled a romance over millennia; The Woman King finds its love stories — platonic, familial and romantic — drawn across ethnic and national fault-lines.

The choreography is thrillingly brawny, set-pieces mounted with lean ferocity.

Those stories act as counterweights to some surprisingly brutal action. The choreography is thrillingly brawny and efficient, set-pieces mounted with lean ferocity. The Woman King doesn’t reserve spectacle only for fights, either, depicting the community’s ceremonial songs and dances with thrilling verve. The film craft here is gorgeous, the make-up and costume design lush and detailed; they draw focus to the physiques of the warrior women, the sight of their shoulders and backs celebrating martial prowess as much as beauty.

The movie has a lot on its mind. There are lyrical sequences involving music and movement. There are also moments in which European slavers are being beaten to death with their own chains. To its credit, it largely holds off presenting Dahomey uncritically as the one good empire. Structural imbalance and patriarchy are still prevalent within the kingdom’s walls. Dana Stevens’ screenplay wrestles with the kingdom’s complicity in the selling of slaves to Europe and America, which they trade for wealth, luxuries, weapons and military power. That carries through into some satisfyingly revisionist wish-fulfilment, where King Ghezo ( John Boyega ) and his Agojie realise the evil of slavery, and combat it and colonialist manipulation in search of Pan-African unity. The Oyo come to represent the opposite: the evil of collaborating with the slave trade, the myopic route to power that Dahomey has a responsibility to fight.

There are a few missteps. The script follows some predictable trajectories for its characters and slows in the middle, before rushing into its final act. Terence Blanchard’s score, too, threatens to undermine the quieter moments with overwrought schmaltz (a shame, given the composer’s usual handle on drama).

Thankfully, such moments are held together by emotional authenticity from the cast. As the steely-eyed leader Nanisca, Viola Davis convincingly demonstrates the power to silence a room with a withering glance. (Would you expect anything less?) But the film's revelation is how her simmering performance gradually offers reminders of a stolen youth, her tragedy revealed through restraint rather than melodramatic showiness. Sheila Atim and Thuso Mbedu , meanwhile — both standouts in Barry Jenkins’ The Underground Railroad adaptation — give the material gravitas, even as it steps to more melodramatic narrative beats. As she was in that series, Mbedu (a co-lead with Davis here) is simply magnetic, while Atim feels like the most natural presence, fully lived-in but memorable even at the film’s margins. Lashana Lynch is also a delight to watch, incredibly funny and mischievous, brimming with earned confidence. And Boyega is just as riveting as King Ghezo, a compelling mixture of youthful indecision and royal authority. Each actor is given the space to develop a rich sense of interiority.

These impressive performances certainly help to smooth over any cracks; when this cast springs into battle, with such physicality and sheer charisma, The Woman King hits with an impact that’s hard to resist.

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BANKING PARTNER

Real estate partner, abhishek banerjee can’t keep calm as he meets ‘generous king’ shah rukh khan.

Published By : Kashvi Raj Singh

Trending Desk

Last Updated: September 12, 2024, 11:16 IST

Mumbai, India

Abhishek Banerjee will be hosting IIFA Rocks. (Photo Credits: Instagram)

The heartwarming video shared by Abhishek Banerjee on Instagram shows him sharing a warm hug with Shah Rukh Khan.

The press conference for IIFA 2024 in Mumbai saw superstar Shah Rukh Khan, Karan Johar and Abhishek Banerjee along with a few other notable names coming together for an exciting evening. Several clips from the event have surfaced online depicting some fun-filled moments shared by the stars on stage. The one that has all our attention was shared by Stree 2 fame Abhishek himself. In the clip posted on Instagram, the actor is all joyous and excited after meeting Shah Rukh.

The heartwarming video begins with Abhishek Banerjee sharing a warm hug with Shah Rukh Khan. Later, they are seen engrossed in a conversation as Shah Rukh gently holds the casting director cum actor’s hands. Next, the clip cuts to the moment where the duo is posing for the camera along with Karan Johar, Siddhant Chaturvedi and Rana Daggubati as they all hold an oversized cut-out of IIFA award together. Dressed in all-black ensembles, both Abhishek Banerjee and Shah Rukh Khan sported a suave look at the event. Captioning the clip, Abhishek wrote, “I touched a generous king.”

Upon being shared, the post garnered reactions from many including Zeeshan Ayyub and Shreya Mehta, known for her role in College Romance. Zeeshan commented on the picture, “Baat hi khatam.” “This is gold!!! What a moment! Such an inspiration,” added Shreya. Saloni Batra, who gained fame through her role in Animal, also poured in love for the actor duo, dropping some heart emojis.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Abhishek Banerjee (@nowitsabhi)

Abhishek Banerjee is set to host IIFA Rocks along with Siddhant Chaturvedi. At the press conference, he was seen admiring Shah Rukh Khan and when the superstar arrived on stage, he responded to Abhishek saying, “Abhishek, it is so wonderful to see you after seeing your wonderful film (Stree 2). I have been wanting to call you.”

About Stree 2

Starring Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor, Stree 2 has been creating new records ever since its release last month. Apart from the lead duo and Abhishek Banerjee, the film also stars Aparshakti Khurrana and Pankaj Tripathi. Notable, Abhishek reprised his role of Jana from Stree of the film in the horror comedy sequel.

Interestingly, Stree 2 clashed at the box office with John Abraham’s Vedaa which also starred Abhishek Banerjee in the pivotal role.

abhishek banerjee
Shah Rukh Khan

COMMENTS

The Woman King movie review & film summary (2022)
Thrilling and enrapturing, emotionally beautiful and spiritually buoyant, "The Woman King" isn't just an uplifting battle cry. It's the movie Prince-Bythewood has been building toward throughout her entire career. And she doesn't miss. This review was filed from the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10th.
The Woman King
Rated: 9/10 Jul 12, 2024 Full Review Christian Eulinberg InSession Film The Woman King achieves cinematic royalty with its extremely skillful, well-crafted, and purposeful picture that tells a ...
'The Woman King' Review: Viola Davis Slays
The overstuffed story oscillates between intimate, sometimes soppy drama and world-shaking events, most profoundly in terms of the slave trade. That the Dahomey traffic in other people complicates ...
'The Woman King' review: Viola Davis thrills in an epic action drama
Her latest movie, The Woman King, is her most ambitious project yet, a rousingly old-fashioned action-drama, drawn from true events, about women warriors in 19th-century West Africa. The movie ...
The Woman King
Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Jul 12, 2024. The Woman King achieves cinematic royalty with its extremely skillful, well-crafted, and purposeful picture that tells a narrative of empowerment ...
'The Woman King' Review: Viola Davis Transforms in Gina Prince
Screenwriter: Dana Stevens. Rated PG-13, 2 hours 6 minutes. But as a product of Hollywood, working in the American cinematic lexicon, The Woman King, with all its good intentions, nonetheless ...
The Woman King (2022)
The Woman King: Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. With Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim. A historical epic inspired by true events that took place in The Kingdom of Dahomey, one of the most powerful states of Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The Woman King review: a stirring reimagining of the action epic
The Woman King. review: Viola Davis roars in a stirring reimagining of the action epic. She's the captain now. Our cinematic cup spills over with Bravehearts and Gladiators and Last Samurai; even ...
'The Woman King' Review: Viola Davis Gets the Action Epic She Deserves
Gina Prince-Bythewood's movie about an 18th century African warrior is part old-school Hollywood epic, part liberating star vehicle and a breath of fresh air in the kingdom of endless I.P.
'The Woman King' Review: Viola Davis Leads an Army of ...
Modern as that sounds, the movie embraces the codes of mid-20th-century costume dramas: It's stirring but slightly stodgy, designed to stand the test of time. In her fiercest role yet, Viola ...
'Woman King' review: Viola Davis excels in epic true story
Sept. 15, 2022 2:42 PM PT. With her rousing new action-drama, "The Woman King," director Gina Prince-Bythewood suggests that, in at least one crucial respect, the West African kingdom of ...
'The Woman King' review: Viola Davis stars in an action ...
"The Woman King" is inspired by 19th-century female warriors in an African kingdom and creates a rousing action vehicle, augmented by plenty of melodrama. That combination yields a strong ...
The Woman King has a fierce fire in its belly
This review was published in conjunction with the film's TIFF premiere. The Woman King isn't the simple tale of good and evil it appears to be. The film does pit the Agojie, a fierce all ...
The Woman King Review: Viola Davis Pulls No Punches in ...
She had already made it clear that she is a skilled action director with 2020's The Old Guard —one of the better straight-to-streaming action films—but The Woman King sees her stretching ...
The Woman King review: 'A spectacular, action-filled epic'
The Woman King leans toward fantasy in its heroic moments, but is rooted in truth about war, brutality and freedom. It is a splashy popcorn movie with a social conscience. The Woman King is ...
'The Woman King' review: A violently epic war dance, starring Viola
"The Woman King" is an inspiring and beautifully made (and viscously violent) historical action film, writes critic Katie Walsh. ... Movie review. When actor Maria Bello visited the West ...
The Woman King Review
The Woman King overcomes the perils of its overstuffed script with a collection of performances that elevate the whole. As expected, Viola Davis is the emotional center of the piece, masterfully ...
The Woman King Review: An Action Epic With Heart & A Stunning Ensemble Cast
The Woman King looks and feels like a movie that doesn't get made anymore.Most recently, The Northman came close, but it ultimately lacked the character development needed to make such a film of its magnitude work. The Woman King is Gladiator-esque in that it's heavily focused on character-driven drama, but with the spectacle that makes it an altogether stunning watch.
The Woman King First Reviews: Viola Davis Rules the ...
Viola Davis stars in the action drama The Woman King, which received rave reviews out of its Toronto International Film Festival premiere.Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Old Guard), the movie is said to mix mainstream Hollywood entertainment with a story of social and historical significance.The ensemble cast, including Davis, Lashana Lynch, John Boyega, and Thuso Mbedu, has been ...
The Woman King review: a thrilling period epic
The fact that The Woman King does all of this within the span of a few short minutes just makes its opening sequence all the more impressive. The level of impressive craftsmanship in The Woman ...
The Woman King
The Woman King is the remarkable story of the Agojie, the all-female unit of warriors who protected the African Kingdom of Dahomey in the 1800s with skills and a fierceness unlike anything the world has ever seen. Inspired by true events, The Woman King follows the epic journey of General Nanisca (Viola Davis) as she trains the next generation of recruits and readies them for battle against an ...
The Woman King Review
The film craft here is gorgeous, the make-up and costume design lush and detailed; they draw focus to the physiques of the warrior women, the sight of their shoulders and backs celebrating martial ...
The Woman King
The Woman King is a 2022 American historical action-adventure film about the Agojie, the all-female warrior unit that protected the West African kingdom of Dahomey during the 17th to 19th centuries. Set in the 1820s, the film stars Viola Davis as a general who trains the next generation of warriors to fight their enemies. It is directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and written by Dana Stevens ...
Abhishek Banerjee Can't Keep Calm As He Meets 'Generous King' Shah Rukh
Dressed in all-black ensembles, both Abhishek Banerjee and Shah Rukh Khan sported a suave look at the event. Captioning the clip, Abhishek wrote, "I touched a generous king." Upon being shared, the post garnered reactions from many including Zeeshan Ayyub and Shreya Mehta, known for her role in College Romance.

The Woman King

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