Hidden Figures

If Quentin Tarantino really only has two movies left, I pray that at least one of them stars Janelle Monáe. In Theodore Melfi’s moldy but watchable Hidden Figures, the music star and fledgling actress Monáe (she also played a memorable role in Moonlight) comes off like a cross between Tarantino muses Pam Grier and Uma Thurman, all sizzling attitude and soul fire in a part that feels barely conceived. Monáe, Taraji P. Henson and Octavia Spencer play NASA employees who each face their own racially charged work conflicts, all in the shadow of a space race in which Henson’s math genius Katherine Johnson plays a crucial role. The three leads are all good, especially when they’re onscreen together (which is unfortunately not that often), but the film is nobly maple-glazed, timid and perfunctory at every turn. Kevin Costner adds another slowly melting authoritarian to his stable of Stoic American Men. D.B.