At first there was zero question I would see this. The trailer looked great, and I went so far as to Shazam the Beyonce song that plays in it -- or maybe I had already turned off my phone, so I had to remember after the fact to look up the song. That's one step more committed than Shazaming it and emailing myself as a reminder. In any case, beyond the song it looked like a really exciting movie.
What's more, I like to be as proactive as I can possibly be on ReelGood with issues of representation. Since I control utterly what gets posted on that site, I strive to make sure as many people and perspectives as possible get coverage.
Then I heard a review on Filmspotting that killed some of my buzz. While one host had a reasonable amount of affection for it, the other likened it to a Disney movie, and not in a good way. This host suggested that the conflicts were painted with a wide brush and very simplistic morality. He didn't say it in so many words, but I got the sense he thought the movie engaged in the sort of basic dialectic that we saw at the movies 20 to 25 years ago, when filmmakers started taking great pains to appear as enlightened as possible on the issue of race relations. No Black character could be bad, and though some white characters could be good, no white character who opposed a Black character could be good. It's the kind of overcautious thinking that created the confrontationally named "Magical Negro" trope, seen in films like The Green Mile.
So then I thought: "It's late October. There are a lot of major movies coming out. Maybe this one will slip through the cracks for me."
That was easier said because another critic was planning to review the movie for ReelGood. I got him a ticket to the advance screening last Monday night and everything.
But then a few days beforehand, when I reminded him it was coming up, he said he could no longer make it. This is not unprecedented. I work with people who are younger than me by more than 15 years, so I always say "It's a millennial thing." When we Gen Xers make a commitment, we honor it. Younger folks think of that commitment as more of a loose signalling of best intentions. I get it.
But another millennial thing is that they're more likely to commit to seeing it "another way" -- yo ho ho and a bottle of rum -- and indeed, my writer was going to still get me the Woman King review. Alas, he had a legitimately busy week and some bad news, so really, no judgments at all about not being able to deliver.
So then my Woman King viewing was not only back on, but now it had a sense of urgency. When we accept an invite to an advanced screening, we need to deliver a review. If we don't, there's a chance that whoever is looking at this will think we're just "stealing" free screenings without completing our end of the bargain. And who knows if one offense is enough to drop us from the list of receiving the invites. (I'd like to think that because they never checked anyone from ReelGood in that night, they know we didn't attend. However, I can't be sure, and I also like to make good on my promises.)
So on Thursday night I went to see it. It was the capper on an ambitious evening that involved driving my kids to the mall (malls are open late only on Thursday and Friday nights) to buy birthday presents for birthday parties each of them has this weekend, as well as to get dinner. My older son also decided tonight was the night he needed to buy some new shoes, which had been in the offing for a little while. Combine that with the need to buy a card for each present, as well as a half-dozen items from the grocery store, and I dropped them home with less than ten minutes before I needed to leave for the 9:15 movie.
I got there on time -- but that didn't matter. See, The Woman King was sold out.
What the hell?
This sort of thing is unheard of post-pandemic. It was even pretty unheard of pre-pandemic, when streaming was already taking its toll on audience viewership. And it wasn't like it was opening night for this movie, which came out a full week beforehand.
My only conclusion is that they had moved it into one of the smaller auditoriums, which would suggest flagging attendance -- I mean, they obviously would have debuted it last week on a bigger screen. But if the numbers dictated a move to cozier quarter, why the sudden uptick to max out those more intimate confines?
I ended up seeing the new Australian horror film Sissy instead. You can read my review here.
Now I'm at a Woman King crossroads. With the passage of another Thursday, there are now more movies I need to prioritize, including James Gray's latest, Armageddon Time. I was already thinking about whether I wouldn't be better off just moving on to seeing and reviewing that this week, except my commitment to the distributor gave me second thoughts.
Do I take one more chance on The Woman King this weekend, most likely Sunday night, when a review can go up no earlier than 11 days after the movie was released? Or do I just say the King is dead?
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