Female Film Critics 24/375
A spirited DIY movie that blends road comedy, drama, romance and wistful memory, For Now is a welcome introduction to Australian filmmaker and actor Hannah Barlow who co-directs her debut feature with Kane Senes.
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As if further proof were needed that Julianne Moore can play any character in any genre and light up the screen, along comes “Gloria Bell.” This deceptively light look at the inner life of a middle-aged, divorced woman who fends off loneliness and boredom by dancing at a local disco is a love letter to its central character and to the luminous Moore.
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One might recalls the disturbing news in 2012 of Ohio high school football players who allegedly raped a 16 year old girl at a party, and the rush to blame the victim in a city where high school football and its players are prized. But the documentary Roll Red Roll gives a much more detailed and far more disturbing picture of a culture of toxic masculinity in the city of Stubensville, Ohio where many students, parents, school administrators and coaches were complicit in fostering such a hostile climate for young women.
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Screenwriter Patricia Resnick is an ardent feminist. “I say to male friends and family members, if 95 percent of movies and television about men were written and directed by women, would you not think that would be a skewed view of men? That’s what we live with. I know there’s more of a fight now for female directors but it also needs to be a fight for female writers and female show runners.”
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When I see a modern movie advertisement with eight faces of men and maybe one woman off to the side, I know it’s “that” kind of movie. That’s not to say I won’t see it, and maybe even find something of worth in it, but it is not made for me, aimed at me and doesn’t include me.
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There’s an urgency and a poignancy to the timing of this fact-based drama. With the current president and his base bent on creating border walls, Saint Judy is the eye-opening story of Los Angeles lawyer Judy Wood (Michelle Monaghan) and her dogged efforts on behalf of immigrants, especially women, seeking political asylum in the US due to the threat of violence and murder in the patriarchal countries they fled.
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Two very different women in a sleepy small town, bound by a shared secret … if that sounds like a Lifetime movie, or even a delicious Douglas Sirk melodrama, Daughter of Mine, from director Laura Bispuri, is anything but. It’s a compelling, naturalistic tale of motherhood and mother love, with a memorable young girl, Vittoria (Sara Casu), at the center of a stormy, primal relationship.
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What a perfect title for this heart-wrenching and necessary film. Who Will Write Our History written and directed by Roberta Grossman and executive produced by Nancy Spielberg, not only brings to light a vital historical event but resonates across space and time about what it means to bear witness.
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It’s fitting that Rust Creek opens with a young woman running a track course with long, easy strides, her ponytail flying. College student Sawyer (Hermione Corfield) will not only do a lot of running during this taut survival thriller but will also display brains, stamina and all-around badass attitude.
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Communion is an intimate, immersive documentary that Zamecka has shot and structured like a feature. It opens right in the middle of a small moment — a boy struggling to put on his belt — and we’re pulled immediately into the family dynamics.
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