Sarah Paulson – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

HOLD YOUR BREATH – Review by Susan Granger

October 18, 2024January 8, 2026 Susan Granger Alona Jane Robbins, Amiah Miller, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Hold Your Breath, hulu, Sarah Paulson

Set in 1933 in the Oklahoma Panhandle at the height of the dust storm season, Hold Your Breath revolves around Margaret Bellum (Sarah Paulson) and her two young daughters. Margaret’s husband has been gone for quite a while, looking for construction work, leaving her wearied of assuming all the responsibilities of maintaining their homestead amid the constantly encroaching dust. Margaret must repeatedly reassure the girls that the ghostly Gray Man, a mysteriously villainous character in one of their storybooks, is mythical and will not harm them. While Sarah Paulson’s distraught performance grounds the family drama, it’s not enough to evoke the implied terror.

Awards Intelligencer

AWARDS INTELLIGENCER: The Year of Women Over Fifty and Beyond – Thelma Adams reports

June 20, 2024June 23, 2024 Thelma Adams awards intelligencer, best actress, carol kane, CCH Punder, Dolly de Leoon, jamie lee curtis, jean smart, jodoe foster, juliette binoche, june squibb, meryl streep, Sarah Paulson, women over 50

As Thelma roars into theaters, following its win of the audience award at the Provincetown Film Festival, it anticipates this year’s awards trend. Starring Oscar nominee June (Nebraska) Squibb, 94, in the title role, the actress gets her first lead role as a grandmother with agency who takes on scammers preying on seniors. Squibb is one of the many women over 50 killing it whether in lead or support, on big screen or small. And Broadway, too. Here are ten actresses on our radar.

Reviews

RUN – Review by Susan Granger

November 23, 2020November 23, 2020 Susan Granger hulu, Kiera Allen, run, Sarah Paulson

After Netflix’s Ratched, Sarah Paulson has become TV’s malevolent angel-of-mercy. In this new thriller, she plays a possessively controlling mother suffering from Munchausen syndrome-by-proxy. That’s a mental health issue – a form of child abuse -in which a warped caregiver causes an illness to a person under her care – like a child with a disability.

Reviews

RUN – Review by Ulkar Alakbarova

November 16, 2020November 22, 2020 Ulkar Alakbarova 0 Comments Aneesh Chaganty, Kiera Allen, run, Sarah Paulson, Sev Ohanian

Words cannot describe the love a mother has for her child. Her methods of nurturing, protecting and selfless sacrifice are undeniably laudable. Every day, the child is blessed to have someone who unconditionally gives them a shoulder to lean on, cry and laugh. Sadly, there is a side-effect to that love, called an unhealthy obsession.

Reviews

RATCHED – Review by Diane Carson

October 6, 2020October 11, 2020 Diane Carson 0 Comments Amanda Plummer, Corey Stoll, cynthia nixon, evan romansky, Judy Greer, netflix, ratched, Sarah Paulson, series, Sharon Stone

Every frame of Ratched communicates the off-kilter nightmare realm. The art direction, including lighting, gives an expressionistic twist to its bizarre, hermetically sealed setting. The cinematography intensifies the garish greens, antiseptic whites, shimmering blues, and rainbow of psychedelic colors, complemented by red lipstick, so bright it all but jumps off the women’s lips that look more like wounds.

Reviews

RATCHED – Review by Susan Granger

October 6, 2020October 8, 2020 Susan Granger 0 Comments judy davis, netflix, ratched, Sarah Paulson, series, Sharon Stone

Serving as an origin prequel for the tyrannical nurse in Ken Kesey’s novel/ Milos Forman’s film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, this new, eight-part Netflix series, set in 1947, introduces stern, sharp-tongued Mildred Ratched (Sarah Paulson), who oozes calculating, condescending control over those she encounters.

Reviews

THE COASTAL ELITES – Review by Martha K Baker

September 24, 2020September 25, 2020 Martha K. Baker (Archived Contributor) 0 Comments bette midler, hbo, issa rae, jay roach, kaitlyn dever, paul rudnick, Sarah Paulson, The Coastal Elites

Anyone who has followed Paul Rudnick’s career and appreciates it knows to keep following, nuisance-close lest missing a word. The Coastal Elites outshines his every other brilliance. It expands upon what it means to manage these agonizing days with heart and soul, laughter and vinegar.

Reviews

GLASS – Review by Brandy McDonnell

January 23, 2019January 26, 2019 Brandy McDonnell 0 Comments bruce willis, Glass, James McAvoy, M. Night Shyamalan, samuel l. jackson, Sarah Paulson, split, Unbreakable

With the help of arbitrary deadlines, handy coincidences and characters explaining comic book tropes, Shyamalan attempts a series of elaborate plot twists – of course – that he doesn’t quite pull off cleanly but that are still pretty nifty and unveil some interesting surprises. Herculean performances by McAvoy, Willis and Jackson keep “Glass” watchable even when the narrative gets murky.

Movie of the Week Reviews

AWFJ Movie of the Week, November 17-November 23: CAROL

November 16, 2015December 22, 2018 Nikki Baughan 0 Comments carol, cate blanchett, drama, nell minow, Pam Grady, Patricia Highsmith, Phyllis Nagy, rooney mara, Sandra Kraisirideja, Sarah Paulson, Todd Haynes

Opening November 20, AWFJ’s Movie of the Week is Carol, director Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven, I’m Not There sumptuous new drama staring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara as two women who are drawn to each other in the strict moral landscape of 1950s New York. Read on…