TELL IT LIKE A WOMAN – Review by Jennifer Green

Marketed around its concept of stories by and about women, this compilation of shorts was co-produced by the non-profit organization We Do It Together, which promotes gender parity in film and media. The stories mostly revolve around women in crisis, which provides narrative drama but doesn’t feel universal or representative of women’s lives in general. While there’s plenty of diversity across the shorts in terms of race, ethnicity and nationality, the focus begs the question of why the film didn’t opt for more diversity in stories and tone. Being a woman doesn’t have to mean overcoming constant crises, does it?

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CONFESS FLETCH – Review by Martha K Baker

Get ready to experience a Fletch film sans Chevy Chase. Get ready to give Jon Hamm a chance at the grail that is Fletch, a charming, discombobulated detective and, most interesting –and to him significant — a former investigative reporter. That life provided expertise for being an investigative detective, he insists. To wit: When interrogated whether he has income from unsavory sources, he responds, “Writing for in-flight magazines is as unsavory as it gets.”

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GIGI AND NATE – Review by T.J. Callahan

Nate is 18. Six weeks away from college. Enjoying the summer swimming and diving in the lakes of North Carolina with his friends when he develops meningitis that renders him a quadriplegic. With the trajectory of his young life changed from freedom to hours of physical therapy and dependence, Nate doesn’t see a reason to live…until his mother signs him up for a service animal. In swings Gigi, a Capuchin monkey rescued from a low rent petting zoo and trained to help humans. Gigi and Nate is a film with life lessons. It brings hope from sorrow without being sappy.

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UNCOUPLED – Review by Martha K Baker

Uncoupled follows a heart-breaking break-up. Together for 17 years, this couple of men defines marital steadiness, a model for their friends and family. Until they don’t. And then they no longer model “till death do us part” on the night of the surprise party that Michael throws for Colin on his 50th birthday. Imagine Colin’s surprise. Heck. Imagine Michael’s.

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LEARNING TO DRIVE, GRANDMA, AFTER WORDS and Other August 17 Openers – Reviews by Jennifer Merin

Three must sees open this week. Learning to Drive is a metaphor for learning to live in filmmaker Isabel Coixet’s absolutely delightful and smart take on how a modern woman (Patricia Clarkson) survives her mid-life crisis. Grandma puts Lily Tomlin, a feisty matriarch, in the driver’s seat on a laugh-laden road trip that leads to mother-daughter reconciliations. After Words stars Marcia Gay Harden as a lonely librarian whose life shatters when she loses her job — but escapes to Costa Rica. Plus Slow Learners, Hitman: Agent 47, The Curse of Downers Grove, In the Pines and House on Rodeo Gulch

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