For a biographical film, Hidden Figures gives audiences an incredibly compelling and encouraging story.

The movie focuses on three women who worked for NASA, Dorothy Vaughn, Mary Jackson, and Katherine Goble. Referred to as human computers due to their incredible calculating speed, they work as a group of female African American mathematicians in the West Computing Group.

Each day, they get assigned to a certain group in NASA. Katherine gets assigned to the Space Task Group, becoming the first African-American in the group. She has to run half a mile to the nearest segregated bathroom and back, and is forced to use a separate coffee pot.

While it pushes no boundaries, the movie stands so well by itself that it is not needed. It also has incredible time accuracy, and has bold costuming decisions that accurately show the divide between characters.

Most of the cast is dressed in monotone outfits. Women are dressed in colors, but only the West Computing Group and the other African American women wear strong colors, as shown in this scene to the left.

Where the Space Task Group’s main team is dressed in plain black and white, Katherine wears a strong purple dress, standing out from the plain colors of the men and contrasting to the yellow that the only other woman wears.

Yet, despite the strong attention to detail, there is one thing that was left out. For a film set in the late 50s to early 60s, there was no smoking shown at all.

Mr. Harrison, supervisor of the Space Task Group, is constantly chewing gum, but there is no other reference. With so many characters, having none of them smoke simply doesn’t call to the story it’s trying to tell.

Hidden Figures is an excellent movie, and a success at that. With raving reviews, a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, and numerous other critics praising it, this film is definitely worth checking out – especially for those who haven’t heard of these three amazing women.