Brock University Film Society (BUFS) is offering an unlikely title for Valentine’s Day.

Widows is a blistering, modern-day thriller set against the backdrop of crime, passion and corruption from director Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) and co-writer Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl).

Widows is the story of four women (played by Oscar winner Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki and Cynthia Erivo) with nothing in common who are thrown together by an enormous debt left behind by their dead spouses’ criminal activities. When their husbands’ enemies come to collect, the women are forced to pull off a heist of their own to get their lives back.

The all-star cast also includes Liam Neeson, Colin Farrell, Robert Duvall, Daniel Kaluuya and Brian Tyree Henry.

The Film Stage calls Widows “precision entertainment, a crackling, pulse-pounding heist movie with a sterling cast, a whip-smart script and undeniable social resonance, calling to mind heavyweight champs like The French Connection and Heat.”

Widows “engages with topics as complex as sexism, police brutality and interracial marriage, but it still delivers on the car chases and gunplay,” says IndieWire.

Tickets for all BUFS shows are available at the Film House in the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre (PAC) on the evening of screenings. General admission is $9.50 or $7 for members, plus tax. Memberships are available through the Film House website.

Visit the BUFS web page for a full list of this season’s selections. A calendar of films coming to the PAC over the next few months is posted on the Film House website. Look for the red B that indicates a BUFS-hosted screening.

For more than 40 years, the Department of Communication, Popular Culture and Film has hosted the film society (previously known as a series) to bring some of the best in independent, international and Canadian cinema to St. Catharines.