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Reviews 

PRETTY BABY: BROOKE SHIELDS – Review by April Neale

April Neale , , , , , , , ,

Is someone born with the lion’s mane of hair, perfect features, and length of limb as Brooke was, suffering imposter syndrome? Tale as old as time: Girls are under pressure to be physically perfect. What is perfect and how cultural shifts decide these markers are the only fluctuation, as it was for Shields, who comic Eddie Murphy described as the “most Caucasian” of women when making light of her friendship with Michael Jackson. Shields had a symmetry and arresting presence that she never had to grow into. She was born with it from day one, unlike many who weather the ugly duckling years until a swan is born. Shields was and is a showstopper in every regard.

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Reviews 

COCAINE BEAR – Review by Susan Granger

Susan Granger , , , , , , , , , ,

According to the news in 1985, 40 pounds of cocaine was dropped from a bungled aerial drug run into the Chattahoochee National Forest in Georgia in September; the 175-pound black bear that ate much of it was found dead in December. While the action-comedy caper Cocaine Bear is loosely based on that story, screenwriter Jimmy Warden depicts a much different situation – following a giant, cocked-up, apex predator on a rampage through the woods, hunting for as much blow as possible.

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Reviews 

SPACE ODDITY – Review by T.J. Callahan

T. J. Callahan , , , , ,

Kevin Bacon is one degree of separation from his wife, Kyra Sedgwick, as he co-stars in her directorial theatrical feature debut. Bacon plays a flower farmer who is trying to keep his family’s legacy business alive on Earth while supporting his troubled son Alex’s wish to live on Mars in Space Oddity. Alex says space is safe and so was Sedgwick with her storytelling.

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Movie of the Week 

MOVIE OF THE WEEK March 31, 2023: A THOUSAND AND ONE

Jennifer Merin , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Teyana Taylor is fiercely compelling as Inez, a mother with a complicated history who will do anything for her son, Terry, in writer/director A.V. Rockwell’s powerful drama A Thousand and One. That includes pulling him out of the foster system without permission (in other words, kidnapping him) and giving him a new name to protect him and their life together. As the film follows Inez and Terry over more than a decade, it captures the highs and lows of their relationship and the bond that connects them.

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Lists 

Opening Mar 27 to Apr 2, 2023 – Margaret Barton-Fumo reports

Margaret Barton-Fumo , ,

The Alliance of Women Film Journalists highlights movies made by and about women. With a vigilant eye toward current releases, we maintain an interactive record of films that are pertinent to our interests. Be they female-made or female-centric productions, they are films that represent a wide range of women’s stories and present complex female characters. As such, they are movies that will most likely be reviewed on AWFJ.org and will qualify for consideration for our annual EDA Awards, celebrating exceptional women working in film behind and in front of the camera.

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Reviews 

GIRAFFE – Review by Leslie Combemale

Leslie Combemale , , , , ,

When my AWFJ editor assigned me Danish writer/director Anna Sophie Hartmann’s Giraffe to review, she had no way of knowing that only two years ago my parents sold our 1800s family farm to developers, who summarily plowed it and all the hundred-year-old trees down to make way for a new development. Ever since, I’ve been musing about place, memory, and belonging. Those subjects are exactly what are examined in Hartmann’s film. Like most viewers, I suspect, I watched it with a strange mix of dread, melancholy, acceptance and hope.

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Reviews 

A GOOD PERSON – Review by T.J. Callahan

T. J. Callahan , , , ,

A Good Person is about a good person involved in a tragic incident and the actions she takes to feel good about herself again. Florence Pugh is Allison. A woman with a promising career, loving fiancé, and supportive family and friends. Life is good for this person, until she finds herself the sole survivor of a car accident that kills her soon to be sister and brother-in-law. Pain and guilt consume her. The former pharmaceutical salesperson turns to her own product.

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Reviews 

ROISE AND FRANK – Review by Maitland McDonagh

Maitland McDonagh , , , , , , ,

Writer/director team Rachael Moriarty and Peter Murphy’s Roise and Frank is a feelgood movie from its cold, black nose to its ever-wagging tail. But it has just that touch of bracing awareness that life can be short and happiness is often dusted with a coating of the bittersweet reality for which Irish comedies are either famous or notorious, depending on how you like your laughs.

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Reviews 

SPACE ODDITY – Review by Lois Alter Mark

Lois Alter Mark , , , , ,

Kyra Sedgwick’s directorial debut is a charming little film with lofty aspirations. Space Oddity is about a young man named Alex (Kyle Allen) who is preparing for his upcoming trip to Mars. No, he is not an astronaut and, no, this is not a NASA-sanctioned mission. Rather, he has been enlisted by a private group whose legitimacy is questionable at best. But, despite his family’s misgivings, he is determined to leave behind the life he knows for a one way trip to a world no one has ever even visited.

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