What 'Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes' Understands About White Womanhood

It’s been seven years since director Matt Reeves delivered the last installment in the decades-spanning, ever-political “Planet of the Apes” franchise. 2017 was the year after alleged misogynist Donald Trumpwas elected U.S. president and after exit polls showed that 53% of white womenvoted for him. And three years before “racial reckoning” entered the zeitgeist.

But we’re only now getting to a film in the iconic sci-fi series that keys in on the selfish destruction and weaponized victimhood of white women. It couldn’t have come at a better time as we navigate yet another “very important election year.”

Director Wes Ball’s thrilling new movie, “The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” is set between 2300 and 2400, when anthropomorphic apes have taken over the world from the formerly dominant humans who have intellectually and physically ebbed almost to the point of extinction. But the apes are in a tumultuous state.

After fleeing his clan’s near-decimation, a young ape named Noa (a fantastic Owen Teague) embarks on a vengeful journey where he encounters an elder, Raka (an equally great Peter Macon), a lone survivor living largely away from the dangers within the species.

The older ape teaches Noa about their history and the nonviolent philosophy of Caesar, a name fans of the “Apes” franchise will recognize as the forgone leader of the apes from the more recent movies set in a past generation, and the pair become friends. One day, they spot a young white woman who’s revealed to be named Mae (Freya Allan) in distress: slovenly, clothes torn and starving.

Right away and despite historical evidence of turmoil and oppression on behalf of humankind, Raka offers Mae food and Noa’s own blanket for warmth. It’s a moment in the