Female Film Critics 24/375
For anyone who hears the name “E. Jean Carroll” and thinks “that woman who sued Donald Trump,” do yourself a favor and watch Ivy Meeropol’s engaging documentary Ask E. Jean sooner than later. Because, yes, Carroll did do that, but she’s also done so much more (let’s just say that you don’t get nicknamed “the female Hunter S. Thompson” for being boring), and she deserves to be just as well known for all of that, too.
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It’s been a turbulent few years for the organization behind Toronto’s annual Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival, but each spring they still manage to deliver a sure-footed 10-day event filled with a host of must-see features and shorts. The 2026 edition was no exception. And like many recent festivals, this year’s slate gave movie-lovers engaging stories from home and around the world and from both up-and-coming and established filmmakers. Programmers put a real effort into making their line-up diverse–from every viewpoint–and it shows.
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Whether you’re someone who can’t get enough of movies overflowing with blood and guts or have to hide your face behind your hands whenever anything scary is about to happen on screen, chances are you’ll get a kick out of director Donna Davies’ brisk documentary 1000 Women in Horror. Based on the book by horror expert (and AWFJ member!) Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, it’s a smart, thought-provoking look at the way the genre both impacts and is impacted by women.
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1000 Women in Horror is a fascinating feminist primer and analysis of the horror genre, chronicling its evolution from the earliest days of cinema to the present — 1895 to 2018, to be exact. The enlightening documentary covers the impressive history of women creatives who’ve focused on horror and have fully developed female-centered subgenres such as those base in experiences of abuse and rape revenge, challenging postpartem psysiological and psychological conditions, coming of age and dealing with aging, along with others that storytell about strictly female issues.
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Teenage Wasteland’s 90s-era high schoolers were 80s kids first. As they grew up across both decades, they danced towards adolescence and then ran at adulthood during one of teen cinema’s heydays, as well as in a prime time for films about life-changing teachers. Their tale, so that of Middletown High School pupils Rachel Raimist, Mike Regan, Jeff Dutemple, David Birmingham and others in New York’s Orange County, could easily give rise to a throwback movie perfectly of their coming-of-age period: about a ragtag gang of disparate and rebellious youths brought together in a single class (not Saturday detention, but The Breakfast Club does quickly spring to mind) and the educator who taught them not just to seize the day Dead Poets Society-style but to truly care about the world that they live in.
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If news stories about fear-driven book bans leading to bare school library shelves leave you gnashing your teeth, you will love/hate watching The Librarians. Director Kim A. Snyder’s timely, important documentary follows the brave, determined folks who are on the ground fighting for kids’ right to read the types of stories that might lead to pearl clutching by some adults but ultimately offer young people powerful new ideas and the chance to feel seen and understood.
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It’s disturbing to say the least to watch Moms for Liberty members, male and female, routinely attack librarians as “pedophiles” in public meetings or online while convicted or credibly accused sexual abusers at the highest levels of government walk free. The hypocrisy is glaring and chilling. But The Librarians isn’t just about exposing injustice; it’s also about the courage of the librarians who stand up for young people who deserve access to books and a clarion call for anyone who cares about free speech and public education.
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Whether you live with anxiety yourself or care about someone who does, odds are good that Wendy Lobel’s documentary Anxiety Club will strike a resonant chord. As the comedians the movie follows share their stories — and their worries (so very many worries) — they reveal that no matter how funny they are on stage, they’re raw and vulnerable off stage. And that revelation makes them and their experiences all the more relatable.
Read moreAt first blush, Wendy Lobel’s Anxiety Club may seem like another straightforward exploration of individual comics battling their demons amid the broader questions about comedy and mental illness. Even Marc Maron, the OG of digging through emotional muck together, is on hand. Yet he is there as a sort of founding father passing on the torch to a new generation who have already internalized the power of vulnerability as critical to both their well-being and their comedy. They are so fluent and self-aware, seamlessly capturing their generation’s earnestness and their own keen ability for expression.
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In subtitling this documentary A Film For Pina, filmmaker Wim Wenders clearly announces his intention to deliver a cinematic tribute to the brilliant German dancer and choreographer, Pina Bausch, who is its leading subject and character. Wenders and Bausch were in pre-production for the film in 2009 when Bausch died of cancer, just five days after she’d been diagnosed with the disease. Wenders continued to work on the production of the film, and eventually shot it using members of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, the dance company that Bausch helmed since 1974. Wenders shot the dances in 3D, and the effect is gorgeous.
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