Tag: Female Directors

Past Lives Powerfully Brings Love to the Big Screen, in All Its Glory and Pain

“If you leave something behind, you gain something too.” Past Lives follows the connection between Na Young (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), two children who befriend each other in South Korea but lose contact with each…

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Flamin’ Hot is a Classic Feel Good Movie, For Better or Worse

Flamin’ Hot is an autobiographical look at the story of Richard Montanez (Jesse Garcia), the son of a Mexican immigrant, who becomes a janitor at Frito-Lay after his wife Judy (Annie Gonzalez) becomes pregnant with their first child…

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You Hurt My Feelings Review (Sundance Film Festival)

You Hurt My Feelings follows novelist Beth (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) who is in the process of writing a new novel after her previous effort failed to make a big splash. Beth’s psychiatrist husband, Don (Tobias Menzies) supports his wife’s…

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Polite Society Highlights Sisterhood and its Cinematic Influences (Sundance Film Festival)

Polite Society follows Ria Khan (Priya Kansara), a London schoolgirl who dreams of using her martial artist training to become a stuntwoman. Her sister Lena (Ritu Arya) is a fellow creative enrolled in art school who helps Ria…

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A Thousand and One is an Impressive, Twisty Look at Family Amidst Poverty and Struggle (Sundance Film Festival)

A Thousand and One finds us alongside Inez (Teyana Taylor), a young woman moving from shelter to shelter in mid-1990s New York City. As a result of her situation, she has lost her 6-year-old son Terry (portrayed as…

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Saint Omer is an Intimate Examination of How the Challenges of Immigration and Women Intersect

Saint Omer is told from the perspective of Rama (Kayije Kagame), the daughter of African immigrants and a novelist by trade, who attends the trial of Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanga), a young woman accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter…

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Women Talking Struggles to Add Anything New or Unique to the Conversation (Middleburg Film Festival)

Women Talking thrusts us into a group of eight women from an isolated Mennonite colony who have learned that the men of their religious community have been drugging and raping their women, even teen girls, for years. A…

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She Said Takes a Deep Dive on Systemic Abuse (Middleburg Film Festival)

The investigation into the behavior of legendary, and now infamous, Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein marked the beginning of a seismic shift in how the country addressed sexual harassment and misconduct. A new film sets to document the journey toward exposing…

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Elizabeth Banks Shines in the Timely Film Call Jane (Sundance Film Festival)

The recent Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization which found that the United States Constitution does not confer a right to abortion was a landmark case that gave American states the right to institute…

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The Woman King: How to Balance Historical Accuracy and Filmmaking

Historically based films in Hollywood have never been lauded for their accuracy. Some of film’s most beloved cinematic masterpieces have been extremely dubious with the truth surrounding their stories, sometimes egregiously so. Despite this, these films are usually…

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