Pam Grady – Page 2 – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

BARBENHEIMER Rules: Conflating BARBIE and OPPENHEIMER – Pam Grady Comments

July 21, 2023July 27, 2023 Pam Grady barbenheimer, Barbie, Benny Safdie, Billie Eilish, Christopher Nolan, Cillian Murphy, Cyndi Lauper, David Krumholtz, Dua Lipa, emily blunt, florence pugh, greta gerwig, Margot Robbie, Oppenheimer, rhea perlman, robert downey jr, Ryan Gosling

There are places where the two films intersect, making Barbenheimer less ridiculous than the memes suggest: Both Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) and Barbie (Margot Robbie) are midcentury icons, Oppenheimer as the father of the atomic bomb that forever changed the way humans live in the world, and Barbie as the doll that broke the mold, freeing little girls from the tyranny of baby dolls and forever changing the way children play with dolls.

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BARBIE – Review by Pam Grady

July 20, 2023July 27, 2023 Pam Grady america ferrera, Ariana Greenblatt, Barbie, Billie Eilish, Cyndi Lauper, Dua Lipa, greta gerwig, Indigo Girls, Jacqueline Durran, lizzo, michael cera, noah baumbach, rhea perlman, Rodrigo Prieto, Ryan Gosling, Sarah Greenwood, Spice Girls. Margot Robbie

It’s not easy being a stereotypical doll. At least, if your name is Barbie and you find yourself unexpectedly facing an existential crisis. Hype for this rendering of the life of Mattel’s classic toy had so many photos of Margot Robbie and a bleached blonde Ryan Gosling, as Barbie and her boytoy Ken spread across so many websites, that the production became a candy-colored mystery but with Greta Gerwig at the helm and a script by her and husband Noah Baumbach,) it seemed likely Barbie would not be a feature-length kiddie toy commercial. And it isn’t. This is, to borrow a phrase from the Eurythmics, sisters doing it for themselves. With dolls.

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AWFJ Presents: WHITE RIOT – Review by Pam Grady

December 30, 2022August 19, 2023 Pam Grady documentary, Red Saunders, Rock Against Racism, Roger Huddle, Rubika Shah, Temporary Hoardings, White riot

Punk rock met political activism when Rock Against Racism rose up in Britain, pushing back at the rise of racism, xenophobia, and the far-right National Front movement in the 1970s. It might seem like ancient history but in Rubika Shah’s electrifying 2019 documentary, an organization defunct since the early 1980s feels more vital than ever. In our own age of creeping fascism, it imparts lessons about pushing back against the darkness. History is not dead in Shah’s telling, but part of a continuum and what transpired four decades ago impacts our lives even now.

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BABYLON – Review by Pam Grady

December 20, 2022December 20, 2022 Pam Grady babylon, brad pitt, Damien Chazelle, diego calva, jean smart, Margot Robbie, tobey maguire

You have to hand it to Damian Chazelle, who should win all the awards for forewarning the audience of the three-hour-long punishment-to-come when one of his opening images is of an elephant in closeup. From the rear. Defecating straight into the camera lens. Well, shit…This is not a love letter to cinema, more like hate mail, odd coming from a director who has been treated well and lauded by his industry. And good grief, don’t summon the ghost of Singin’ in the Rain if it only serves to remind people that, yes, there are far better movies about moviemaking out there than Babylon.

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SUMMERING – Review by Pam Grady

August 9, 2022August 11, 2022 Pam Grady Eden Grace Redfield, James Ponsoldt, lake bell, Lia Barnett, Madalen Mills, Megan Mullally, Sanai Victoria

A quartet of pre-teen girls while away the dwindling days of summer before they start middle school when they make a shocking discovery in the woods. If that sounds a little bit like Rob Reiner’s 1986 classic drama Stand By Me, the bones of that Stephen King adaptation are definitely in this film’s DNA. But director James Ponsoldt and his co-writer Benjamin Percy take that outline in entirely different directions in this warm, thoroughly enjoyable story of kids on the cusp of big life changes going all in on one last grand adventure.

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AWFJ Presents: WHITE RIOT – Review by Pam Grady

July 15, 2022December 28, 2022 Pam Grady documentary, Red Saunders, Rock Against Racism, Roger Huddle, Rubika Shah, Temporary Hoardings, White riot

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GABBY GIFFORDS WON’T BACK DOWN – Review by Pam Grady

July 4, 2022July 12, 2022 Pam Grady betsy west, documentary, Gabby Giffords, Gabby Giffords: Won’t Back Down, Julie Cohen, Mark Kelly, motw, Movie of the Week

Julie Cohen and Betsy West have made a resonant documentary, one the reflects its subject’s optimism, which remains firm despite everything that’s happened to her. It is also a film that champions the cause that no doubt will command her attention for the rest of Gifford’s life: the fight for sane gun laws to ratchet down the violence that infects the United States. Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down is essential viewing.

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CLARA SOLA – Review by Pam Grady

June 20, 2022July 2, 2022 Pam Grady Ana Julia Porras Espinoza, clara sola, Daniel Castañeda Rincón, Flor María Vargas Chavez, magical realism, motw, Movie of the Week, Nathalie Álvarez Mesén, Wendy Chinchilla Araya

At age 40, Clara (beautifully portrayed by Wendy Chinchilla Araya) lives in an almost childlike state, trapped there by her mother, Fresia (Flor Maria Vargas Chavez), who so dominates her daughter’ life that she won’t even allow Clara the spinal surgery that would relieve her of lifelong pain.

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HOLD YOUR FIRE – Review by Pam Grady

June 6, 2022June 6, 2022 Pam Grady documentary, Harvey Schlossberg, Hold Your Fire, hostage negotiation, Shu'aib Raheem, Stefan Forbes, TIFF 2021

Taking place only months after the bank robbery/hostage situation that inspired Dog Day Afternoon, the January 1973 incident at John and Al’s Sporting Goods in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, went on far longer – lasting nearly four days – and resulted in the death of a cop. It is also the event credited with ushering in the modern age of hostage negotiation. And it is has been pretty much lost to history – until now with coverage in Stefan Forbes’ Hold Your Fire, a riveting documentary on the subject.

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PAM & TOMMY – Review by Pam Grady

February 1, 2022February 2, 2022 Pam Grady hulu, Lily James, mini-series, Pam & Tommy, Pamela Anderson, Rand Gauthier, Robert Siegel, Sebastian Stan, Seth Rogen, sex tapes, taylor schilling, Tommy Lee

Pam & Tommy is tabloid television given an elegant veneer by its A-list cast and the fig leaf of feminism offered by the women on the production team and women like Lake Bell who direct some of the episodes. But nearly 30 years after all of this first started, this show is really just the latest chapter in the ongoing exploitation of Pamela Anderson, a woman who does not deserve it.