The Woman King

The Woman King is more than just a historical action film; it is a genuinely rare example of breathing life into the past with verve and imagination.

The dialogue is generic -- the formal kind constructed to suit all periods -- but the actors give it all the authenticity it needs, clearly delighted by the ebullience of their characters.

It is a film designed to inspire audiences and elicit cheers and, by and large, it succeeds.

Thankfully, all flimsiness in the screenplay is overcome by the director, Gina Prince-Bythewood, and her committed cast, who transform a familiar dramatic milieu (Mulan meets Gladiator meets Wonder Woman) into thrilling, amphetamine-rush cinema.

Yes, the Woman King could be filed under wish-fulfilment, but that’s true of so many action classics.

A great time at the movies. A rare cinematic event.

If I could only use one word to describe The Woman King as a historical action epic, it would be “quintessential”.

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.

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

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