Female Film Critics 24/375
Anxiety. Claustrophobia. Dread. Paranoia: Sender has all the good stuff. To this psychological thriller mix, writer-director Russell Goldman had the good sense to add Britt Lower as the lead, with Lower (Darkest Miriam) playing Julia, a recovering alcoholic. Julia manages to be charismatic, funny and earnest all at once, and you go along happily with her on this increasingly crazed journey. The tough part is figuring out what’s real …
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Promised Sky is an understated drama about migrant life. The film examines the daily lives of three women, all of them strangers in a strange land, and offers a glimpse of the devastating reality of living as an outsider in a place where racism and authoritarian rule are in play. That could be anywhere from Myanmar to Minnesota, but in this case, it’s Tunisia, and the women are sub-Saharan African refugees, Promised Sky begins with three women tending to a child who has obviously survived a deadly Mediterranean crossing attempt. Director and co-writer Erige Sehiri (with a big assist from cinematographer Frida Marzouk) holds a viewer close to present a heartbreaking story in a beautiful place.
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Being a teenager is kind of a horror story by definition, something director Emma Higgins puts to good use in her feature debut, Sweetness, a coming-of-age tale of fan obsession and teenage life, a lethal combo that is gross and bloody and funny, but also an indictment of the isolated world kids live in now, with everything gleaned from social media and online educational videos.
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Viewers of a certain age will be thrown back in time at Honey Bunch, a clever horror entry with subversive things to say about long-term commitment. The film is steeped in the sights and sounds of the early 1970s —real life and reel — and some of the dread on tap is rooted in movie nostalgia. The story begins as a recovering accident victim and her earnest husband drive to an elegant private care facility set in a secluded spot off the main road. Shades of Hill House and Horror Hospital. Please … don’t go down to the basement. As cinematic sleight-of-hand goes, Honey Bunch manages to be simultaneously disturbing and delightful — no mean feat. The movie wraps up in a way that makes one keen to see what writers-directors Dusty Mancinelli and Madeleine Sims-Fewer do next.
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The Pink Pill: Sex, Drugs & Who Has Control, the informative (and infuriating) film from director Aisling Chin-Yee, centres on entrepreneur Cindy Eckert, founder of Sprout Pharmaceuticals and fierce advocate for women’s sexual health and gender equity. Outspoken and always dressed in bright pink, Eckert worked for years to get the drug flibanserin, which ameliorates low sex drive in women, approved by the FDA. Her journey is captured here. The hardest part to watch is coverage of the 2016 election and the events that follow —the rigging of the Supreme Court, the end of Roe v Wade, the 2024 election. The Pink Pill presents the bleak landscape of rights erosion for everyone except straight white males.
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Magnetosphere is a charming YA movie tailor-made for anyone who found adolescence challenging. So yeah — it’s for everyone. Maggie is a middle-school student whose parents have just moved the family to pokey Sault Ste. Marie in Ontario, Canada. That means a new school and automatic outsider status, as any 13 year old can attest. This is an interesting, good-natured film about all the social anxiety and general angst available in adolescence, and how one eventually becomes oneself. And figures it all out. And that’s a hopeful message.
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Awards prognosticators have had Nuremberg on their list since even before the film had a world debut at TIFF 2025. Small wonder, given the important historical subject matter and a great cast that includes Russell Crowe, Michael Shannon, Rami Malek and Richard E. Grant. There’s no doubt it has an important message: the atrocities of WWII happened because people let them happen: “They didn’t stand up until it was too late,” as one character says. Given that it’s already too late, let’s hope the film inspires viewers to take a good look around. And stand the hell up.
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There was a lot of wind-up for Chandler Levack’s new film, Mile End Kicks, a coming-of-age tale mixed with a bit of romantic comedy. It doesn’t quite live up to all the hype, but it’s an okay story with strong performances and great music. Whether it has resonance with young women as a rite-of-passage story remains to be seen — a few fully three-dimensional characters in the protagonist’s orbit could have helped.
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Isabel Coixet’s Three Goodbyes is a deeply moving film about love and loss. As Marta (Alba Rohrwacher) puts it at a crucial moment, “Life is just a beautiful accident.” This is a love letter to life, and Coixet quietly tosses works of art into the film — shots of Madonnas on buildings, of a single lighted room in a dark apartment, of two men passing by and carrying a mirror. Breathtaking to look at and both transporting and heartbreaking to experience, Three Goodbyes
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It’s a warts ’n’ all examination of the industry, an industry that needs to be regulated like any other so that dignity and human rights can be part of the deal. It’s a heavy subject, but Andrea Werhun and director Nicole Bazuin put their message across with humor and high energy, featuring engaging interviews, spirited re-enactments and even some delightful animation. It’s a beautifully made film.
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