Opening May 18 to 21, 2021- Margaret Barton-Fumo reports

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 May 17 to 23 that are of particular interest:  

Tuesday, May 18  

• The In-Between – Secret Identity Pictures (VOD) – USA – Drama co-written and directed by Mindy Bledsoe about two women, Mads and Junior, united by their chronic illnesses, who set out from Los Angeles on a road trip.

 

• Miss Angela – Gravitas (VOD) – USA – Documentary about 91 year old Cuban-American singer-songwriter Angela Alvarez who’s lifetime of songs were nearly lost to the world.

 

• Sardar Ka Grandson – Netflix – India – Indian dramedy co-written and directed by Kaashvi Nair. A devoted grandson embarks on a complicated and comic journey to fulfill his ailing grandmother’s last wish.

 

• Take Out Girl – 1091 Pictures (VOD) – USA – Drama co-written by and starring Hedy Wong as Tera, a 20-year-old Asian girl who parlays her Chinese food delivery expertise into a profitable drug hustle in order to give her family a chance at a better life and save their failing restaurant.

Thursday, May 20  

• The Other Side of the Ring – IndieRights (VOD) – USA – A documentary about four women who have entered the arena of male-dominated professional wrestling.

Friday, May 21  

• Dream Horse – Bleecker Street / Topic Studios (Cinemas) – UK – British biographical dramedy starring Toni Collette and Damian Lewis. Collette plays a small-town Welsh bartender who raises an unlikely race horse.

 

• The Dry – IFC Films (Cinemas) – Australia / USA – Australian mystery starring Eric Bana. A federal agent returns to his hometown, opening a decades-old wound as he investigates the death of a teenage girl. The script is an adaptation of Jane Harper’s debut novel of the same title.

 

• Milkwater – Wolfe Releasing (VOD) – USA – Drama written and directed by Morgan Ingari. Feeling abandoned by her friends, Milo rashly decides to become the surrogate for an older gay man she meets at a bar. As the pregnancy progresses, she must contend with the implications of their evolving relationship.

 

• The Retreat – Quiver Distribution (Cinemas, VOD) – Canada – Canadian horror-thriller about a lesbian couple with a rocky relationship that goes to a pre-wedding retreat and ends up fighting for their lives when a group of militant serial killers tries to murder them.

 

• Seance – RLJE Films / Shudder (Cinemas, VOD) – USA – Horror-mystery starring Suki Waterhouse as Camille, a young woman who arrives at the Fairfield Academy following the untimely and violent death of one of its students.

 

• Sound of Violence – Gravitas Ventures (Cinemas, VOD) – USA – Horror-thriller starring Jasmin Savoy Brown as a formerly deaf girl who goes on a killing spree after witnessing the murder of her family.

 

• Spring Blossom – KimStim (Cinemas) – France – French romantic comedy written, directed and starring Suzanne Lindon as a 16-year-old girl, bored with her own age group, who becomes involved with an older man.

 

• Starbright – COPEX International (Cinemas) – USA – Fantasy-drama about a young orphan who escapes the realities of her life by fantasizing about, and then entering, a fairy tale world.

 

• When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit – Greenwich Entertainment (Cinemas: NY & LA) – Germany / Switzerland / Italy – Drama directed by Caroline Link (Nowhere In Africa). A Jewish family flees from the Nazis in Berlin, traveling first to Zurich, then Paris and finally London.

Film descriptions are adapted from press releases. Click on highlighted titles for full reviews. Stay tuned in for next week’s releases! Contact us if we’ve overlooked anything.