As I have mentioned before I love the movies that enlighten me about a historical event that I never knew of and does it honestly. This movie feels like it did both superbly. This film is about three black women who were at the forefront of NASA's mission to put a man in space and then around Earth's orbit. Even with the difficult times for the black people depicted in the movie, this one does manage to have an uplifting tone and yet never shies away from the truth. It shows you how things were at those times in the United States and how these three brilliant women carve out their paths in its history.The movie is anchored by stellar performances of all three of its main characters, Katherine (Taraji Henson), Dorothy (Octavia Spencer), and Mary (Janelle Monáe). Katherine does have more screen time in the movie and hence I liked her performance the most. I felt that the director, Theodore Melfi, deserves big praise as well for making the film feel so normal even with the subject matter at hand and trying to focus on these women's technological contribution to science and NASA. The cinematography (Mandy Walker) depicted those old times in the US very well and the soundtrack by Hans Zimmer combines well with the scenes. What was even more (albeit less important than the subject matter) exciting for me was to learn about the technology (IBM) and math that we so frequently use now and some old languages like FORTRAN were being introduced into NASA in those times. I also don't think this movie gets boring at any time which can be the case with these true life historical drama. There is well crafted humor at different points in the movie to keep it light hearted as well when needed.
This one definitely deserves a Academy Award nomination and could be my dark horse (La La Land being the favorite of the industry right now) to win.
Rating: 8/10