Key Takeaways
- Film Popularity: Hidden Figures continues to gain popularity on streaming platforms.
- Nasa Connection: The film is closely tied to NASA, featuring real women who contributed to the space race.
- Main Cast: The film stars notable actors including Taraji P. Henson and Octavia Spencer.
- Cultural Impact: The film addresses themes of racism and segregation while celebrating women’s contributions.
Few crowd-pleasing awards-era movies have aged as well as Hidden Figures. It’s smart, moving, and still deeply satisfying, which helps explain why it keeps resurfacing every few years once people are reminded it’s available somewhere easy to watch. That’s happening again now.
Hidden Figures is currently rising on the streaming charts, with FlixPatrol showing it moving up notably in its daily rankings. The film was also closely tied to NASA from the start: NASA personnel consulted on the movie, and the agency has continued highlighting the real women behind the story in the years since. We can’t possibly imagine why there’s been an uptick in space exploration viewing, either!
The full main cast of Hidden Figures includes Taraji P. Henson as Katherine Goble Johnson, the mathematical genius whose calculations helped NASA reach the moon; Octavia Spencer as Dorothy Vaughan, the supervisor and programming pioneer; Janelle Monáe as Mary Jackson, the engineer determined to break barriers; Kevin Costner as Al Harrison, the Space Task Group director; Kirsten Dunst as Vivian Mitchell; Jim Parsons as Paul Stafford; Mahershala Ali as Colonel Jim Johnson; Aldis Hodge as Levi Jackson; and Glen Powell as astronaut John Glenn.
How Good Is ‘Hidden Figures’?
Collider’s review stated that Hidden Figures works because it keeps its focus on the women at the center of the story. The film follows Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson as they help NASA during the space race while also dealing with racism and segregation at every step. It is an uplifting movie, but it never forgets how unfair and exhausting that reality was.
“I imagine some will dismiss Hidden Figures as soft-serve drama, and there are times (like the aforementioned scene of Costner knocking down the segregated bathroom sign) where it can be heavy-handed, but Melfi never loses sight of the real reason this film will make you angry and make you cheer. It’s not a film where people casually throw out the n-word or racism is something that’s long since past. Hidden Figures may not be a groundbreaking film, but it’s one we need right now.”
Hidden Figures is streaming now.
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