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‘The Woman King’ Review: She Slays

Viola Davis leads a strong cast into battle in an epic from Gina Prince-Bythewood, inspired by real women warriors.

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By Manohla Dargis

The kinetic action adventure “The Woman King” is a sweeping entertainment, but it’s also a story of unwavering resistance in front of and behind the camera. The ascendancy of women filmmakers over the past decade is one of the great chapters in movie history, and as women have fought their way back into the field, they have also taken up space — on screens and in minds — long denied them. Their canvases are again as expansive as their desires.

Certainly one of the most expansive of these canvases is “The Woman King,” a drama about the real women soldiers of the precolonial Kingdom of Dahomey in West Africa. Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, the movie is filled with palace intrigues, sumptuous ceremonies and stirring battles, and features, as golden-age Hollywood liked to brag, a cast of thousands (or thereabouts!). Yet while it evokes the old-fashioned spectacles the studios habitually turned out long before Marvel, there is no precedent for this one.

The story, as moviemakers also like to say, is “inspired” by real events, which in this case are mind-blowing. The tale is rooted in the women warriors of Dahomey whose exact origins remain obscured by tribal myths and oral traditions as well as the obviously biased, self-serving and at times contradictory accounts of European observers. It’s thought that the warriors emerged in the 17th century, and were part of a heavily female social organization that included lots of wives and his-and-her sides of the palatial compound. (The stronghold was about one-eighth the size of Central Park.)

The wives show up now and again in “The Woman King,” seated and standing in a cloud of regal hauteur. They’re lavishly coifed and luxuriously dressed, and, for the most part, passive, as inert and prettily posed as dolls waiting for someone to play with them. That would be King Ghezo, a young monarch amusingly played by John Boyega, who gives the character the nonchalant imperiousness of a very important person who doesn’t seem to do much other than the most essential thing: hold power. If Ghezo wears the crown lightly it’s only because others do his hard, dirty, sometimes murderous work.

It’s the women warriors who do much of the toughest work, and, of course, are the main attractions, which Prince-Bythewood announces at once. So, after a bit of quick, dutiful place-setting — it’s 1823 — the movie takes flight with a showy battle, a grab-you-by-the-throat entrance that gets the story going and blood flowing, yours included. Led by the battle-scarred General Nanisca (Viola Davis), the women soldiers, their bodies oiled to a high gleam, emerge like hallucinations that Prince-Bythewood makes palpably real. Suddenly, the screen fills with intense movement and by turns soaring and falling bodies.

The action scenes are visceral, and more or less rooted in the laws of physics. Even during the darkest of night, Prince-Bythewood anchors you both in the battlefield and the ensuing chaos of the fight, which tethers you visually and, by extension, strengthens the movie’s realism. Put differently, she puts you right on the ground so that you can watch these women fly. They do just that, not with superhero capes and fairy-tale enchantments, but with swords, javelins, twirling ropes and an occasional gun — as well as long, razored fingernails that scoop out enemy eyes, and thighs that crack men like walnuts.

The women are their own greatest weapons, and among everything else it addresses, “The Woman King” is about strong, dynamic Black women, their souls, minds and bodies. Prince-Bythewood frames these warriors, with their gradations of skin tones, lovingly and attentively. (The cinematographer is Polly Morgan.) You don’t need to be a scholar of old Hollywood, which divided Black performers in hierarchies of color, typecasting darker actors in servant roles, to grasp the greater implications of Prince-Bythewood foregrounding women like Davis, Sheila Atim and Lashana Lynch — it’s galvanizing.

The overstuffed story oscillates between intimate, sometimes soppy drama and world-shaking events, most profoundly in terms of the slave trade. That the Dahomey traffic in other people complicates the triumphalism of a movie that celebrates women’s power, a complexity that the story never satisfyingly engages. For the most part, the filmmakers — the script is by Dana Stevens, from a story by her and Maria Bello — navigate the political and moral thickets through Nanisca’s personal qualms about the trade, which she voices to the king, arguing that he can maintain his power more benignly.

Nanisca’s hopes and Dahomey’s future are tangled up with the schemes of the kingdom’s principal rival, the Oyo Empire (Jimmy Odukoya plays its swaggering leader), which also sells other human beings, including to the insatiable Europeans. Accurately portrayed or not, the images of the Oyo, who wear turbans wrapped around their heads and sweep in on horses, startlingly evokes the janjaweed , the mounted militiamen who beginning in the early 2000s ravaged western Sudan. The visual connection to these forces both adds to the movie’s overall sense of the past and bridges the horrors of 19th-century Africa with those of the continent’s post-colonial conflagrations.

Even as the script falters, that history and Prince-Bythewood’s direction imbue “The Women King” with an intensity that’s manifest in every fight and in the clenched faces and straining muscles of the warriors. When Nanisca rallies them before battle, thundering that they must fight or perish, it echoes the vow that it’s better to die on your feet than live on your knees. Women are taught to live on their knees, and part of what makes this film so moving is how it lays claim to a chapter in history that upends received ideas about gender even if the story is more complex than the movie suggests.

“The Woman King” drags here and there, weighted down principally by a subplot that grows more unpersuasive with each scene and involves an unruly young woman, Nawi (an appealing Thuso Mbedu), who’s dumped at the palace by her family. The character, a classic naïf who needs to be schooled and tested, is an obvious narrative contrivance that Mbedu fills in with grit and personality. In part, Nawi serves as a proxy for the audience, who follow her lead as she’s transformed into a fighter and learns from her mentor, Izogie, a ferocious warrior played by a fantastic, charismatic Lynch.

It’s disappointing that the script isn’t always up to its singular source material and Prince-Bythewood’s sure, steady direction. Certainly, if the writing were more nuanced and less bogged down by contemporary ideas about women’s roles — at one point, the movie shifts into a trauma-driven maternal melodrama — Davis would have far more to do than glower or dissolve in tears. She’s good at both, and she gives the role the steeliness it requires, but the character isn’t intricately detailed even if, when Nanisca raises her sword and rallies her women, you feel in your bones what is at stake in this fight.

The Woman King Rated PG-13 for human trafficking and battleground violence. Running time: 2 hours 6 minutes. In theaters.

Manohla Dargis has been the co-chief film critic of The Times since 2004. She started writing about movies professionally in 1987 while earning her M.A. in cinema studies at New York University, and her work has been anthologized in several books. More about Manohla Dargis

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The Woman King review – a thunderously cinematic good time

Magnificent Viola Davis heads Gina Prince-Bythewood’s ass-kicking, thought-provoking epic inspired by a real-life all-female army

M uscular in its action sequences, sweeping in scope; a big, flexing, show-off spectacle of a movie. The Woman King is the kind of historical epic that just doesn’t get made any more. And with a superb cast predominantly composed of Black women, it’s also a film that has never been made before. Gina Prince-Bythewood may not exactly rewrite the cinematic language of the action movie – there’s plenty in her approach that will seem familiar – but she does reclaim and revitalise it.

Loosely inspired by actual historical events , the film focuses on the kingdom of Dahomey, one of the most powerful states of west Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries. Protecting the King (John Boyega) and his considerable fortune is the Agojie, an all-woman army, led by a formidable general, Nanisca (a magnificent, battle-weary Viola Davis). Her closest comrades-in-arms are Amenza ( Sheila Atim ), a seer with the lithe grace of a gazelle and a deadly knack with a javelin, and Izogie (Lashana Lynch), a veteran who mentors one of the newest recruits to the Agojie, Nawi (Thuso Mbedu).

What elevates the picture is that it’s not just about the ass-kicking (although the fight choreography is exemplary and the action is a technical triumph). The Woman King gives its cast the opportunity to properly flesh out their characters; it dares to tackle uncomfortable themes. It’s about overcoming trauma; it confronts and interrogates the role of some African peoples – the Dahomey included – in the enslavement of others. It’s also a thunderously cinematic good time: see it on the biggest screen you can find.

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Movie Reviews

Viola davis is 'the woman king' in an epic story inspired by true events.

Justin Chang

Nanisca (Viola Davis) wields a sword and hacks her way through the many men who get in her way in The Woman King. Ilze Kitshoff/CTMG hide caption

Nanisca (Viola Davis) wields a sword and hacks her way through the many men who get in her way in The Woman King.

One of the more heartening Hollywood comeback stories in recent years has been the return of the director Gina Prince-Bythewood with movies like The Old Guard and now The Woman King . It had been a long wait for many of us who adored her earlier films like Love & Basketball and Beyond the Lights . As Prince-Bythewood has said in interviews, her focus on women protagonists, especially Black women protagonists, had made it hard over the years to get her projects off the ground. Fortunately, the industry is changing, and it's finally come around to recognizing her talent.

Her latest movie, The Woman King, is her most ambitious project yet, a rousingly old-fashioned action-drama, drawn from true events, about women warriors in 19th-century West Africa. The movie originated with the actor Maria Bello , who produced it and wrote the story with the film's screenwriter, Dana Stevens. It opens in 1823 in the kingdom of Dahomey, located in what is now Benin. For several centuries, this kingdom was defended by an army of women fighters called the Agojie.

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In the movie, the Agojie are led by the powerful General Nanisca, played by a galvanizing Viola Davis . She isn't the ruler of this kingdom — that would be the king, played by John Boyega — but given the movie's title, you suspect it's only a matter of time. The Agojie warriors are fighting the male soldiers of the Oyo Empire, who've been attacking Dahomey villages. To build up her army, Nanisca brings in a new batch of female recruits, among them an impetuous teenager named Nawi, played by Thuso Mbedu, the terrific South African star of last year's The Underground Railroad .

Much of the script centers on the growing bond — and the growing tension — between Nanisca and Nawi. As the leader of the Agojie, Nanisca insists that all her warriors follow a strict code that includes lifelong celibacy. Nawi chafes at that restriction, and her independent-mindedness often clashes with the Agojie's values of discipline and self-sacrifice. But by the end, Nawi absorbs those values and becomes a courageous fighter, honing her skills through many exciting scenes of training and competition.

The Woman King was shot on location in South Africa, and its re-creation of the Dahomey villages is so immersive — the costumes, designed by Gersha Phillips, are especially gorgeous — that it just about carries you past some of the messiness of the storytelling. To its credit, the script addresses some of the historical complexities of the situation, including the fact that Dahomey became a rich kingdom by participating in the trans-Atlantic slave trade — a practice that Nanisca wants to end. She also has a personal score to settle with the Oyo warriors, and The Woman King is sometimes a little unsteady in its mix of political plotting and emotional drama. A romantic subplot involving Nawi and a hunky European explorer feels especially tacked-on.

Nanisca may not be the most complex character Davis has played, but it's thrilling to see her take on her first major action showcase as she dons battle gear, wields a sword and hacks her way through the many, many men who get in her way. And she isn't the only one: My favorite performance in the movie comes from Lashana Lynch as Izogie, a top warrior who takes young Nawi under her wing. You might have seen Lynch squaring off with Daniel Craig's James Bond in No Time to Die , and here she manages to be funny, heartbreaking and fierce.

Prince-Bythewood has conceived The Woman King in the grand-scale tradition of epics like Braveheart and Gladiator , this time with women leading the charge. While the action doesn't rise to the same visceral intensity as in those films, it makes for an engrossing and sometimes exhilarating history lesson. I left the theater thinking about how an old civilization recognized the strength of what women could do — and how it's taken the empire of Hollywood so long to do the same.

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2022 Directed by David Moreau

King, a trafficked lion cub, escapes from the airport and takes refuge with Inès and Alex, who then have the crazy idea of getting him back to Africa. Anything can happen when Max their kooky grandfather, decides to join the adventure.

Gérard Darmon Lou Lambrecht Léo Lorléac'h Thibault de Montalembert Clémentine Baert Daniel Semporé Alain Blazquez Laurence Facelina Marie-Sohna Condé Vanessa David Artus Laurent Bateau Marius Blivet Rodolphe Sand Véronique Boulanger Arnaud Poivre D'Arvor Alexandre Brik Juliette Poissonnier

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David Moreau

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David Moreau Zoé Bruneau Jean-Baptiste Andrea Gael Malry

Editor Editor

Guillaume Houssais

Cinematography Cinematography

Antoine Sanier

Full House Maneki Films Borsalino Productions Pathé Bellini Films France 2 Cinéma Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Cinéma

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Releases by Date

14 jul 2022, 16 feb 2022, 10 mar 2022, 30 sep 2022, 12 jan 2023, 03 mar 2023, 15 jun 2023, 09 nov 2023, 16 jun 2022, 20 jul 2022, 22 jun 2022, releases by country.

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The woman king review: an action epic with heart & a stunning ensemble cast.

As The Woman King builds tension, it gains momentum while telling a unique story that is grand in scale, emotional at heart, and well executed.

Gina Prince-Bythewood is back with another phenomenal film. The Woman King assembles an incredible ensemble cast to tell the story of the Agojie, once called the Dahomey Amazons, an all-woman warrior tribe. The film is an action epic with excellent and well-choreographed fight sequences — one of the best in a long while — that doesn't forego the character dynamics at the core of its story. As The Woman King builds tension, it gains momentum while telling a unique story that is grand in scale, emotional at heart, and well executed in almost every way.

Set in the West African kingdom of Dahomey in 1823, the all-female Agojie warriors continue to fight on behalf of King Ghezo (John Boyega) against the dominating Oyo Empire. Led by General Nanisca (Viola Davis), the Agojie — including stern, but free-spirited Izogie (Lashana Lynch) and Amenza (Sheila Atim), Nanisca’s second-in-command and confidant — battle the Oyo, taking those they captured to be sold into the slave trade in exchange for weapons from the Europeans. (It’s a subject The Woman King handles carefully.) Elsewhere, 19-year-old Nawi (Thuso Mbedu) is offered to King Ghezo by her father, who is angry he cannot marry her off. She is quickly taken under the wing of Izogie, who offers her a chance to train with and join the Agojie as a warrior, promising the sisterhood will always be there for her.

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The Woman King looks and feels like a movie that doesn’t get made anymore. Most recently, The Northman came close, but it ultimately lacked the character development needed to make such a film of its magnitude work. The Woman King is Gladiator -esque in that it’s heavily focused on character-driven drama, but with the spectacle that makes it an altogether stunning watch. The musical score by Terence Blanchard is hypnotic, the cinematography by Polly Morgan resplendent, and the costumes and production design by Gersha Phillips and Akin McKenzie, respectively, are truly a sight to behold. Everything comes together exquisitely and, though the film is at times conventional, it leans into its drama, its action, and its characters with intensity and emotional weight. Nothing is too over-the-top and, though the action scenes may be violent (not enough to make give it an R rating), there is a vulnerability and fiery camaraderie that comes with the sisterhood that is the Agojie.

The film is led by Viola Davis , who delivers an outstanding performance as Nanisca. There is a lot that weighs on her shoulders, a burden and trauma she carries. She is not only contending with her past, but with Dahomey’s politics and future. Davis explores the layers of her character’s interiority with immense vulnerability and nuance. The actress takes on a role that is physically and emotionally demanding with depth, strength, and grace. While Davis is always great, The Woman King boasts a spectacular ensemble that works well together. Lashana Lynch, who didn’t get nearly enough shine in No Time to Die , is excellent. She brings the humor, emotion, and fierceness required of an Agojie warrior. Thuso Mbedu is especially a standout. She nearly overshadows Davis as the bold Nawi who is trying to find her place within the Agojie. Mbedu engages with Nawi’s rebellious spirit and big heart, balancing each with ease. Sheila Atim and John Boyega are also wonderful, rounding out a memorable cast. Each of these characters have flaws and that is what makes them engaging and oh so human. They must overcome hurdles, emotional and physical, which is what makes The Woman King all the more powerful on that front.

The Woman King has enough action sequences to please, though it thankfully doesn’t overdo it with the brutality. It’s just enough to showcase the violent nature of the fights without lingering too long on the gore. What’s more, the fight choreography is stunning, as is Prince-Bythewood’s directing in these scenes. It’s the kind of action that one can appreciate, shown in all its glory without employing camera work that would shift away or make it hard to see. The film is epic in scope, but intimate when it comes to its personal story. There is plenty of drama, and the tension rises to a boiling point that will leave audiences cheering and rooting for the Agojie at every turn.

The film is an uplifting crowd-pleaser, certainly, and the combination of the character and political drama with the big action scenes work exceptionally well. The weakest link is Nawi’s romance with Jordan Bolger’s character, a Dahomey descendant who returns in search of his roots, simply because it isn’t as fully developed as many of the film’s other relationships. Minor hiccups aside, The Woman King is a blockbuster with a lot of heart and a clear story that is tightly written; it’s well worth the watch.

The Woman King premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2022. The film releases in theaters on September 16. It is 135 minutes long and is rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence, some disturbing material, thematic content, brief language and partial nudity.

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2019, History/Drama, 2h 20m

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Critics Consensus

While The King is sometimes less than the sum of its impressive parts, strong source material and gripping performances make this a period drama worth hailing. Read critic reviews

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The king videos, the king   photos.

Young Henry V encounters deceit, war and treachery after becoming king of England in the 15th century.

Rating: R (Some Strong Violence|Language)

Genre: History, Drama, Biography

Original Language: English

Director: David Michôd

Producer: David Michôd , Joel Edgerton , Dede Gardner , Jeremy Kleiner , Brad Pitt , Liz Watts

Writer: Joel Edgerton , David Michôd

Release Date (Theaters): Oct 11, 2019  limited

Release Date (Streaming): Nov 1, 2019

Runtime: 2h 20m

Distributor: Netflix

Production Co: Netflix, Porchlight Entertainment, Blue-Tongue Films, Plan B Entertainment

Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

Cast & Crew

Timothée Chalamet

Ben Mendelsohn

Joel Edgerton

Robert Pattinson

The Dauphin of France

Dean-Charles Chapman

Thomas of Lancaster

Sean Harris

Lily-Rose Depp

Thomasin McKenzie

Tom Glynn-Carney

Lord Scrope

Andrew Havill

Archbishop of Canterbury

Nick Wittman

Steven Elder

Edward Ashley

Lucas Hansen

Philip Rosch

Lord Chamberlain

David Michôd

Screenwriter

Dede Gardner

Jeremy Kleiner

Adam Arkapaw

Cinematographer

Peter Sciberras

Film Editing

Nicholas Britell

Original Music

Fiona Crombie

Production Design

Jane Petrie

Costume Design

Des Hamilton

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Critic Reviews for The King

Audience reviews for the king.

An opulent return to the perhaps undeserved romance of Medieval history, this retelling of the coming of age of Henry 5 in war only regrets is in its taking itself too too seriously. Don't let that keep you from the decent slog through history, only while being aware that it will be something of a slog indeed.

Stylish, beautifully-filmed, and richly written, The King is nonetheless bogged down by a stiff, cold atmosphere and an unfortunate lifelessness. Despite impressive cosmetics, the film is rather unmemorable and never stirs any sense of excitement, passion, intrigue, suspense or interest in any of the characters on screen.

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Bunny King ( Essie Davis ) walks home after a long day squeegeeing car windshields at a busy intersection. She's made a couple of bucks. She puts the money into a big glass jar of coins and hides it in her closet. Then she gets undressed, taking off her bra. The bra's underwire has pierced through the frayed fabric. That underwire would have been cutting into her skin all day. But look at the jar of coins. You could get a second-hand bra for less than 20 bucks, but Bunny King doesn't even have that. A new bra is a luxury she cannot afford.

Effective storytelling is usually grounded in detail. "The Justice of Bunny King," an amazing directorial debut from Gaysorn Thavat , is full of details like the bra. Details bypass condescension, and so many films about what is referred to as "the working class" stink with condescension. The recent " Holler " was a notable exception, as are the films of Eliza Hittman . It's refreshing when you don't sense the actors are only in the location for six weeks, with Los Angeles on speed dial right offscreen. Everything in "The Justice of Bunny King"—the clothes, the car, the decor, Bunny's sharpened eyeliner pencil, the plastic cake box, the worn-out bra—hasn't been carefully placed in the frame. They were there before the camera started rolling, and they will be thereafter.

Bunny's kids, Ruben ( Angus Stevens ) and Shannon ( Amelie Baynes ), have been taken away from her, for reasons not revealed in full until near the film's end. The kids are in foster care, and Bunny is allowed short visits, all while a social worker hovers on the sidelines. Ruben is a teenager, and wary of his mother. Shannon is a small disabled child, clinging to Bunny, but young enough to call her foster mom " Mommy " too. Bunny cannot regain custody of her kids until she has a job and adequate housing, but how can she find adequate housing with just a jar of coins? In the meantime, she crashes with her sister Sylvia ( Darien Takle ), Sylvia's husband Bevan ( Erroll Shand ), and Bunny's niece Tonya ( Thomasin McKenzie ). There's tension. Bunny cooks and cleans, feeling like she is imposing on the family. There's a limit to her sister's generosity. Then, one day, Bunny witnesses something, something terrible. She calls it out, shattering the already fragile family dynamic. Bunny is tossed out of the house, her stuff (except for the coin jar) dumped out the window.

It's obvious from Bunny's face that she is running on fumes: there's hysteria at play, an urgent and off-putting energy. People recoil from her. She can be a little bit scary, especially when she is angry or desperate. But her life is  desperate. Even having time to think is a luxury. The social worker sets her up with a "dress for success" consultant, crucial to making a good impression when looking for an apartment or a job. Bunny staggers down the sidewalk in white platform sandals and a tailored blue suit, trying on a competent and confident personality. But people eventually see through it to the raw need underneath. When cornered or frustrated, Bunny makes big bold choices, and many of these choices are beyond the pale, putting her into a state from which she cannot retreat. Eventually, Tonya runs away from home to join up with her outlaw aunt, trailing along as Bunny barges into social workers' offices, filling out forms with impatience bordering on fury. Tonya has her own trauma but being with Bunny is better than being at home.

Sophie Henderson ("Fantail," "Baby Done") wrote the screenplay, which is somehow taut and chaotic at the same time. Bunny's frantic energy is woven into the DNA of the script. There's a dedication to realism: a sequence where Bunny stays with the big boisterous family of her squeegee pal Semu ( Lively Nili ) is particularly well-observed: the elasticity of the family, their calm acceptance of her presence, but then, awfully, the moment Bunny realizes it's time to move on. A long sequence at the end involving Bunny, Tonya and a social worker (the excellent Tanea Heke) catapults the film into an almost " Dog Day Afternoon " arena.

The aural texture of this world has been given pride of place by sound designer Bruno Barrett-Garnier . It's not pumped up artificially, but great care has been given to sounds: Venetian blinds snapping shut, the violent scratch of Scotch tape pulled off the dispenser, a gas-guzzling car roaring to life, even the agonizing sound of the phone ringing. Phone calls are never good in "The Justice of Bunny King." A couple of well-placed songs by The Mess Hall and 4 Non Blondes provide the only respite in the film's emotionally fraught atmosphere.

The storyline, of a desperate working-class woman trying to pull herself up by her bootstraps, never giving up, even against tremendous odds, is well-worn and familiar. These stories are usually built to be inspirational. Cue swelling strings. "The Justice of Bunny King" allows for ambivalence and complexity, and, in fact, wouldn't be the movie it is without those things. It's not that Bunny is a bad person, it's that you can see the social worker's hesitation to allow visitation, you can understand why Ruben keeps his distance from his mother. He's been burned too many times. 

Bunny is unpredictable, and she is capable of great violence, you know that just by looking at her. As the social worker reminds her repeatedly, it is their job to keep her children "safe." Bunny crumbles, setting off sparks of rage: "You mean safe from me." Well, yes. That is what they mean. In a cruel irony, she did try to "keep them safe," and that's why she's in this predicament in the first place. Her commitment to Tonya is not just a replacement for her kids. Tonya is in danger and must be saved. Bunny was the only one brave enough to confront this.

Thomasin McKenzie showed an eerie calm maturity in Debra Granik's 2018 film " Leave No Trace ," where McKenzie played a role similar to that of Tonya: she trails along after her father, fearful of what will happen to him, because she loves him but also because she is a child, she has nowhere else to go. Tonya is trapped. Her wild aunt Bunny offers her a lawless escape. Tonya can perceive Bunny's issues, but at least Bunny isn't tricky and duplicitous. McKenzie is such a centered young actress, easily tapping into Tonya's fear and trauma, but also her hunger for survival. In her own quiet way, she's as bold as Bunny. If anyone is going to come out of this with at least a shot at making a good life, it's Tonya.

Essie Davis embraces complexity, as seen in her towering performance as the insomniac mother in " The Babadook " or the weird wealthy Helen in last year's " Nitram ." Even her performance as the mother of a dying teenager in " Babyteeth " is complex, Davis emanating a deadpan (and very funny) resignation to the absurdity of life. In "The Justice of Bunny King," Davis' face, at times, looks like it's being flayed alive, pared down to the bone, her emotions quivering on the surface of her skin. Davis does not play Bunny as an inspirational figure. What she does play, with everything she's got, is Bunny's objective: to throw a birthday party for Shannon. Bunny may not be able to find a house or get a job, and she can't get her kids back, but she can throw a party for Shannon, and no one can stop her. By the end of the film, Bunny has been put through the wringer, and so have we. Davis outdoes herself.

Now playing in theaters. 

Sheila O'Malley

Sheila O'Malley received a BFA in Theatre from the University of Rhode Island and a Master's in Acting from the Actors Studio MFA Program. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Film credits.

The Justice of Bunny King (2022)

101 minutes

Essie Davis as Bunny King

Thomasin McKenzie as Tonyah

Ryan O'Kane as Detective Jerry Goodman

Erroll Shand as Bevan

Angus Stevens as Reuben

Amelie Baynes as Shannon

Lively Nili as Semu

Bridie Sisson as Robin

• Gaysorn Thavat

Writer (story by)

• Sophie Henderson
• Gregory King

Cinematographer

• Ginny Loane
• Cushla Dillon
• Karl Steven

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Technical specs

• Dolby Atmos
• Dolby Surround 7.1
• IMAX 6-Track

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