This isn't "an Oscar movie" in the same way that Gone Girl isn't really designed to be an Oscar movie. It's full of terrific actors chewing the scenery, social commentary delivered with a sledgehammer, over-the-top dramatic Zimmer score, and plenty of intentional goofiness/B-movie scenes and lines. It might get Oscar noms regardless, but it's not a "serious" movie the way the Oscar label (or the name Steve McQueen in the credits) may lead you to expect.

I expected McQueen to dive further into serious character development, the way most of his previous work has done, but he seems to enjoy here the fact that he's mostly deploying rote characters with snappy zingers. A few characters get just enough backstory (usually delivered in a monologue) to keep them complex, but even the ones that aren't are still a lot of fun.

Daniel Kaluuya and Robert Duvall are both fantastic playing the types of pure evil characters that wouldn't feel out of place in a Tyler Perry movie, but here, y'know, the acting is good and the dialogue is good and the cinematography is good etc. This is the benefit of brilliant casting. He tosses Garrett Dillahunt and Kevin O'Connor both into roles that could've easily been cardboard cut-outs, but strong character actors and strong production value elevates it.

Plus, y'know, there's just the thrill of the fact that we don't see some of these things onscreen. As Viola Davis has pointed out in the press junkets, we open with a dark-skinned middle-aged female hero engaged in sexual open-mouth kissing. How often do we see that on screen in a mainstream studio movie? How often do we see a complex depiction of the escort lifestyle?

Finally, while some of the social commentary stuff clunks a bit imo, the depiction of politicians is absolutely dynamite, because its two main characters get the most complexity-- maybe even more than the widows do. Farrell is trying to win, not because he's pure evil, but because he can't imagine losing his position in life. He genuinely thinks his programs help people, but he also genuinely likes how much money it puts in his pocket. Meanwhile, Henry is from the neighborhood and wants the rich white outsiders not to control his neighborhood, but he also admits to running for office because it's a means for upward mobility. He's not a noble savior of the common man-- he just is tired of being a thug on a street level and aspires to the legal thuggery of politics. The fact that neither of these guys is a desirable candidate really resonates. (It also allows for a lot of fun monologuing from two actors that can *really* chew scenery.)

Overall a lot to enjoy here. It probably lags a bit here and there, some sequences drag compared to others, etc, but it's an elevated pulp bomb the likes of which we rarely get to see. So I enjoyed it.