ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

Female Film Critics 24/375

Willa Fitzgerald

Reviews 

18 1/2 – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

Valerie Kalfrin , , , , , , ,

The Watergate scandal revolved around a 1972 burglary of the Democratic National Committee’s Washington, DC, headquarters and eventually led to the 1974 resignation of President Richard Nixon. One ongoing mystery of those days is what happened to eighteen and a half minutes of presumably damning conversation recorded at the White House. Nixon’s longtime personal secretary, Rose Mary Woods, claimed to have erased that tape accidentally. Enter 18 1/2, where a young government transcriber, Connie (Willa Fitzgerald, Reacher), stumbles across a duplicate recording with the deleted portion intact.

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Reviews 

18½ – Review by April Neale

April Neale , , , , , , , ,

Looking backward and rewriting actual historical events are the order for director Dan Mirvish’s 18½. This film is a thriller laced with enough comedy to keep it off-kilter, as the premise toys with what might have happened back in 1974 when a White House transcriber named Connie (Willa Fitzgerald) with a GS2 clearance finds herself in the middle of the Watergate scandal. She has access to the “missing tape,” an 18½ minute gap in Nixon’s recorded tapes, but it conveniently disappeared. Co-writers Daniel Moya and Mirvish’s rendering of Watergate events manages to be both a fun watch, food for thought, and subtly comedically brilliant effort in its alt-historical premise.

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Reviews 

REACHER – Review by Diane Carson

Diane Carson , , , , , , ,

The The Amazon Prime eight-episode series Reacher manages a suspenseful, amusing achievement, balancing an admirably diverse, atypical cast and a weighty dig at heartless corporate greed. Based on Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels, the first season adapts Killing Floor, Child’s 1997 debut, as its blueprint. And, as with many series, a murder provides the catalyst for subsequent events.eight-episode series Reacher manages a suspenseful, amusing achievement, balancing an admirably diverse, atypical cast and a weighty dig at heartless corporate greed. Based on Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels, the first season adapts Killing Floor, Child’s 1997 debut, as its blueprint. And, as with many series, a murder provides the catalyst for subsequent events.

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