Female Film Critics 24/375
Six sassy seasons and two movies later, Sex and the City is back, streaming on HBO Max in its new incarnation: And Just Like That. Yes, Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Miranda Hobbs (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte York-Goldenblatt (Kristin Davis) have remained close friends.
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There are snippets of Kael’s own voice in archival footage although first-time director Rob Garver fills in the blanks by employing actress Sarah Jessica Parker to read sections of her writing while the critic’s daughter Gina James and other associates provide commentary. Kael, who had a way of picking just the right searing or celebratory word, rattled the intellectual crowd while pooh-poohing the backers of critic Andrew Sarris’s auteur theory.
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I don’t know whether to be heartened or depressed by What She Said, a terrific documentary about the life and work of legendary film critic Pauline Kael. We hear how challenging it was to make a living as a critic, the abuse she took from readers, and just the general awfulness of men, in her personal life as well as professionally.
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Introspective and contemplative, Fabien Constant’s drama Here and Now follows talented singer Vivienne (Sarah Jessica Parker) through roughly 24 hours after she’s diagnosed with a serious form of brain cancer and learns she may have no more than 14 months left to live. With everything from her upcoming tour to her time with her teenage daughter now up in the air, Vivienne struggles to come to terms with this unexpected twist of fate.
How would a day unfold when it starts with a doctor delivering a grim diagnosis? That’s the premise of Here and Now, a modest but affecting drama written by playwright and House of Cards scribe Laura Eason. It’s an intimate character study that rests on the lead performance from Sarah Jessica Parker.
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Writer Laura Eason’s screenplay effectively mines the anonymity and isolation of modern life, where people connect more easily through technology than face-to-face; we often see Vivienne surrounded by people but utterly, desperately alone. And if Fabien Constant’s direction sometimes over-eggs the pudding, the emotional truth of the story, and Parker’s nuanced, sympathetic performance, prevent it from straying too far into melodrama.
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Starring Sarah Jessica Parker, the story takes place in Manhattan, but is a far cry from her Cosmopolitan-swilling single lady escapades in Sex and the City. Instead, it is about a moody singer in the midst of preparing for a major engagement who learns that she has a possibly deadly brain tumor.
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Sarah Jessica Parker stars in Here and Now, a character study of a jazz singer diagnosed with a brain tumor, following her over the course of the day before she is scheduled for surgery. The New York-set drama is a sort of homage to French New Wave director Agnes Varda 1962 classic Cleo from 5 to 7.
Read moreHow to juggle marriage, motherhood and a career? That’s the dilemma hotshot Boston investment analyst Kate Reddy (Sarah Jessica Parker)
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