Female Film Critics 24/375
The arrival of Can You Ever Forgive Me? is more than enough evidence that McCarthy is the real deal as she closes off her usual buoyant avenues of emoting for a darker, morose and complex persona – one paved in frustration and failed opportunity that is uniquely female in nature. Her usual brassy bravado is tucked away beneath a frumpy veneer of bitterness, disappointment and deeply seated resentment over anyone else’s success.
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Having read Jane Fonda’s insightful personal 2005 memoir, My Life So Far, I knew of her five so-called acts that were primarily defined by the men in her life, but pictures often speak louder than words, and filmmaker Susan Lacy does a masterful job of summing up this amazing female icon with her documentary, Jane Fonda in Five Acts.
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I was somewhat distracted by a nagging voice in my head as I was savoring the sight of Glenn Close slaying it in The Wife as a devoted yet increasingly fed-up spouse of a self-described “narcissistic bastard” of an acclaimed novelist. “How does she not have an Oscar yet,” it kept saying every time she took her modulated slow-burn performance to the next level of perfectly expressed pique. Yes, it is often annoying when a critic makes awards predictions before the season starts. But with six losses under Close’s belt for career-defining and culturally significant roles – making her the living actress with the most nominations without a win – such speculation is hard to resist.
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Emily Mortimer, Bill Nighy and Patricia Clarkson in one movie? That is a dream team right there. Despite such a quality cast, however, The Bookshop will likely test the patience of those who require peppier pacing and more compelling drama, even in a well-meaning film set in a British seaside village in 1959. Director Isabel Coixet’s screenplay, based on Penelope Fitzgerald’s novel, focuses on Florence, a young widow (Mortimer) who decides to open a book store in an old damp house in the heart of the community.
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Director Crystal Moselle’s Skate Kitchen relies on several choice ingredients to elevate her story above the usual urban disaffected-youth drama.
Read moreKelly Macdonald is never less than good and often much better than that in just about every film and TV
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As documentaries go, 93Queen might be constricted in its scope as it details the recent creation of an all-female Hasidic
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The documentary Dark Money sheds light on the effects of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling in 2010 that opened
Read moreThe very idea of going off the grid sounds mighty appealing right about now. No cable news. No digital gadgets.
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Mountain is a thing unto itself. It isn’t so much a documentary as it is a mesmerizingly immersive tone poem.
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