Female Film Critics 24/375
Tow is inspired by a true story. Academy Award nominee, Rose Byrne plays Amanda Ogle, a woman who became homeless and forced to live in her car after a few wrong turns in life thrust her into poverty. When her only means of support is taken she loses all trust in herself. But she doesn’t give up and that’s what Tow is all about. Even if you tow the line and try to do the right thing, bureaucracy swallows you up.
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A day after watching Tow, Stephanie Laing’s gut-puncher of a film, I’m still outraged about two things: 1) The never-should-have-happened true story that inspired the movie and 2) the fact that Rose Byrne remains so underrated despite an Oscar nomination. Tow could easily fix both of those. The movie starts by sharing the staggering statistic that there are between one and three million vehicular residents in the United States. That means that millions of people are sleeping in their cars every single night. Amanda Ogle (Byrne) is one of them. Tow is a David and Goliath story and it’s impossible not to root for underdog Amanda, especially when Byrne makes her so real and so empathetic.
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In the curiously titled If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, writer/director Mary Bronstein explores the fraught interior landscape of Long Island therapist Linda. In a truly incredible performance, Rose Byrne plunges credibly and wholly into Linda’s mental unraveling as she struggles to navigate the care of her ill daughter, the unhelpful indifference of her own therapist (Conan O’Brien), her combative husband away for work (Christian Slater), and difficult patients that complicate her own problems. Told entirely from Linda’s perspective, this deep dive never sugarcoats the arduous, crushing daily experiences Linda faces with a daughter, always off camera, whom she must feed through a tube she conscientiously monitors.
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A 1991 Toyota Camry is easy to dismiss, much like its owner in Tow, a star-studded David and Goliath story about homelessness that unfortunately spins its wheels in spots. Based on a true story, the film sees Amanda (Rose Byrne, Physical) living out of the car in Seattle while she hunts for a job as a veterinary technician. During one of her job interviews, someone steals the Toyota, which winds up on a private towing lot.
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When a 15 year old boy on the autism spectrum, acting in his first movie, outshines his heavy hitting Hollywood co-stars, you know he’s something special. If only his film, Ezra, was just as exceptional. William A. Fitzgerald is Ezra. The teen was a mild mannered New Jersey school boy who liked acting when, on a whim, he auditioned for the film and won the part. He makes the movie watchable, stealing every scene he is in, which fortunately is a lot.
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Sci-fi movies about AI and robotics can be terrifying or tortuous – I Am Mother falls into the latter category. Set in a massive, automated, underground laboratory, the story begins with an angular, one-eyed android – embodied by Luke Hawker (who supervised its manufacture at New Zealand’s Weta Workshop) and softly voiced by Rose Byrne. Calling itself Mother, it chooses one test-tube embryo out of thousands in cryogenic stasis to begin the job of repopulating humanity after a horrific global extinction event.
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With her homespun humor, sharp wit, and undeniable talent, Dolly Parton is a beloved inspiration—not just in the United States but around the world. Yet what makes someone want to be Dolly 24-7 gets short shrift in the dramatic comedy Seriously Red. Writer and star Krew Boylan is a likable and believable Parton impersonator in this tale about finding your voice in someone else’s heels, but the humor and emotional beats never fully click. Seriously Red has loads of affection for Parton, but its character development is only skin-deep.
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I’m stunned that this Apple TV+ half-hour comedy-drama series was renewed for a second season. Set in the 1980s, it revolves around troubled Sheila Rubin (Rose Byrne), a svelte housewife/mom who has an inexplicably strange self-image, resulting in chronic bulimia, a serious eating disorder. This is manifested by her buying lots of fast-food, then taking it to a motel room, where she gorges and purges.
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In 2018 when the Sony released the first ‘hip’ hybrid live-action/digital-animation adventure, I was less than enchanted by mischievous Peter (voiced by James Cordon). Nevertheless, on a $50 million budget, it earned $351.13 million worldwide. Hence, this sequel….
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Primetime Emmy-winning writer and producer Dahvi Waller, whose premier previous credits include Mad Men and Halt and Catch Fire was looking for an intriguing angle to delve into 1970s feminism, and she found it in Mrs. America.
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