Steve McQueen's "Widows" is ready to roll

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As far as I'm concerned, Writer-Director Steve McQueen is a perfect 3 for 3 ("Hunger," "Shame," "12 Years A Slave") in his short filmmaking career. It has been 5 years since "Slave" won the Best Picture Oscar, but it looks like McQueen has decided to tackle the 'lightest' topic of his career, at least by his standards, a bank robbery/heist flick.

An adaptation of a Gillian Flynn novel, "Widows" is McQueen the major studio filmmaker, for which I am very much excited for. Earlier in the summer the trailer had hinted at a rather genre-y film. I wrote:

"The trailer makes the film look like a generic heist film, albeit a well-shot one, but don't we expect more from McQueen than this? I know there are, no doubt, plenty of potential socio-political topics to tackle here but doesn't the mixture of McQueen and the pulp source material from Flynn feel almost too facile?"

Well,  A new trailer has been released and, it seems like, we're right back on track. This is the movie I wanted to see. It sure has me amped up in catching it at TIFF during the first week of September.  I understand why they skipped Telluride and Venice and just decided on Toronto, it just feels like the right festival to world premiere this kind of genre film and get a good boost for its Oscar chances.




McQueen (“12 Years a Slave,” “Shame”) directs from a script he co-wrote with Gillian Flynn (who also adapted her own novel “Gone Girl”). The film stars Viola DavisMichelle RodriguezColin FarrellLiam NeesonDaniel Kaluuya, and Robert Duvall.

Here’s the official synopsis:
“From Academy Award®-winning director Steve McQueen (“12 Years a Slave”) and co-writer and bestselling author Gillian Flynn (“Gone Girl”) comes a blistering, modern-day thriller set against the backdrop of crime, passion, and corruption. “Widows” is the story of four women with nothing in common except a debt left behind by their dead husbands’ criminal activities. Set in contemporary Chicago, amid a time of turmoil, tensions build when Veronica (Oscar® winner Viola Davis), Alice (Elizabeth Debicki), Linda (Michelle Rodriguez) and Belle (Cynthia Erivo) take their fate into their own hands and conspire to forge a future on their own terms.  “Widows” also stars Liam Neeson, Colin Farrell, Robert Duvall, Daniel Kaluuya, Lukas Haas and Brian Tyree Henry.”