After a limited release, Hidden Figures is hitting theaters nationwide to tell the tale of three black female mathematicians (played by Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monáe) breaking barriers at NASA in the 1960s. Based on the book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly, the film has a 92% rating from critics and audiences alike on Rotten Tomatoes. Here's what critics are saying:
- Think a movie about math problems must be a drag? Not in this case, writes Stephanie Zacharek at Time, calling Hidden Figures "both a dazzling piece of entertainment and a window into history." She adds "Henson, Spencer and Monáe all give superb, luminous performances: watching them is pure pleasure."
- Amy Nicholson points out the "candied history" in a movie that's "too eager to please. Yet at the end, I found myself tearing up anyway," she writes at MTV, noting the focus "on people, not numbers or policies or platitudes." She applauds the film's ability to depict "unspoken tension" and its use of wardrobe to make the women "as out-of-place in the frame as they were in reality."