Opening April 27 to May 2, 2021 – Margaret Barton-Fumo previews

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. Our members are feature writers, columnists and regular contributors to a variety of media outlets and many of us publish regularly on the festival circuit. Our critical voices are widespread and diverse. We invite you to join us in tracking weekly releases of particular interest. And we welcome information about new films that will help us to keep our records updated and our critics alert. Below is a concise list of new releases set for the week of April 26 to May 2 that are of particular interest:  

Tuesday, April 27  

• Best Summer Ever – Freestyle Digital Media (VOD) – USA – Musical co-directed by Michael Parks Randa and Lauren Smitelli. A fresh and exhilarating take on the beloved teen musical genre featuring eight original songs and a fully integrated cast and crew of people with and without disabilities.

 

• Labyrinth of Cinema – Mubi – Japan – The final film from House director Nobuhiko Obayashi, centering on a group of young people in a movie theater just before closing, who travel back in time.

Friday, April 30  

• About Endlessness – Magnolia Pictures (Cinemas, VOD) – Sweden/Germany/Norway/France – Swedish director Roy Andersson’s latest drama/fantasy, a reflection on human life in all its beauty and cruelty, its splendor and banality.

 

• Berlin Alexanderplatz – Kino Lorber (Virtual Cinemas: Kino Marquee) – Germany/Netherlands/France/Canada – German drama based on the novel by Alfred Doblin (previously adapted by Rainer Werner Fassbinder). A man from Guinea-Bissau moves to Germany, where he is befriended by a drug dealer and two women.

 

• The County – Dekanalog (Cinemas) – Iceland/Denmark/Germany/France – Female-written and directed Icelandic dramedy about a widowed farmer who begins a new life on her own terms by fighting against corruption and injustice in her community.

 

• Four Good Days – Vertical Entertainment (Cinemas) – USA – Addiction drama starring Glenn Close and Mila Kunis. A mother helps her daughter work through four crucial days of recovery from substance abuse.

 

• Golden Arm – Utopia (VOD) – USA – Female-written and directed comedy. A tough lady trucker trains her wimpy best friend to compete in the National Ladies Arm Wrestling Championship.

 

• Never Gonna Snow Again – Kino Lorber (NY premiere at BAM Kino Polska) – Poland/Germany – NY premiere of the latest drama directed by Polish filmmaker Malgorzata Szumowska (The Other Lamb), co-directed and co-written with Michal Englert, who also shot the film. Zhenia, a Russian-speaking immigrant from the East works as a masseur in Poland and becomes a guru-like figure in a wealthy gated community.

 

• The Taste of Pho – (NY premiere at BAM Kino Polska) – Poland/Germany – NY premiere of the latest Polish drama from Japanese writer-director Mariko Bobrik. A Warsaw-based Vietnamese cook struggles to fit into the European culture, which his ten-year-old daughter has already embraced as her own.

 

• Things Heard and Seen – Netflix – USA – Supernatural drama starring Amanda Seyfried as one half of a Manhattan couple that moves to a historic hamlet in the Hudson Valley and discovers their marriage has a sinister darkness at its core. Co-written and co-directed by Shari Springer Berman.

Film descriptions are adapted from press releases. Highlighted titles have links to full reviews. Stay tuned in for next week’s releases! Contact us if we’ve overlooked anything.