Female Film Critics 24/375
Twice Colonized chronicles the life and activism of Aaju Peter, a revered Inuit feminist lawyer who has fought for equal rights in Canada, Denmark, Greenland and around the world. She is amazingly charismatic and her story is fascinating. Director Lin Alluna has done a wonderful job of telling it. Be prepared to be inspired!!!
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Brilliant actresses Sandra Huller and Susanne Wolff give powerful performances in director Frauke Finsterwalder’s fascinating historical drama Sisi & I. As it chronicles the complex, complicated relationship between Austria’s legendary Empress Elisabeth (Wolff) and her faithful companion, Countess Irma Sztáray (Huller), in the final few years of Sisi’s life at the end of the 19th century, it explores themes of duty, friendship, and devotion — with fabulous period costumes.
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Two strangers make an unexpectedly meaningful connection in writer-director Christy Hall’s feature debut, Daddio. Play-like in the simplicity of its setting and focus on dialogue, this “two hander” drama is a fascinating character study that features nuanced, memorable performances by stars Sean Penn and Dakota Johnson as, respectively, a brash New York City cabbie and the pensive passenger he picks up at JFK airport to drive into Manhattan.
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The crushing weight of grief and the healing power of theater are explored with touching authenticity in Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson’s poignant dramedy Ghostlight. As it gradually reveals the heartbreaking loss at the center of its main characters’ lives, the film shows how the impact of that loss has left them all reeling, unable to move forward until one of Shakespeare’s most iconic plays helps them find a way to process it together.
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An unlikely friendship with a woman three times her age leads to personal growth for a struggling twentysomething in director Lisa Steen’s charming feature directorial debut, Late Bloomers. Starring Karen Gillan as floundering 28-year-old would-be musician Louise and Margaret Sophie Stein (aka Malgorzata Zajaczkowska in her native Poland) as Antonina, the testy Polish woman Louise unexpectedly finds herself spending time with and caring for, the film is a thoughtful take on what it really means to grow up.
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If Chelly Wilson were a fictional character, odds are she’d be deemed “hard to believe” or “too over the top.” But the business-savvy, chain-smoking mom and grandma who came to the United States from Greece in 1939 and operated a string of adult movie theaters in some of the seediest parts of New York City in the 1960s and ’70s is 100 percent real. And, as chronicled in Valerie Kontakos’ documentary Queen of the Deuce, her story is fascinating.
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The Alliance of Women Film Journalists brings together some of the world’s leading female film critics, writers and journalists, and we’re always amazed at the scope and breadth of our colleagues’ creative talents and achievements. Our Member News column spotlights these amazing women and their latest achievements in their professional and personal lives. Help us celebrate our members’ latest successes and milestones.
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Pamela Adlon may be a Gen Xer herself, but she proves that she genuinely understands Millennials in her feature directorial debut, Babes. With its sometimes crude, sometimes sweet script co-written by uber-Millennial comedian Ilana Glazer (who also co-stars), Adlon’s New York City-set comedy follows main characters Eden (Glazer) and Dawn (Michelle Buteau) as they authentically navigate the messy glory of adult life, from motherhood and marriage to friendship and self care.
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If you can suspend your disbelief about the fact that anyone would wonder why a straight man in his 20s would find Anne Hathaway attractive, The Idea of You is a sweet, thoughtful romantic comedy about seizing your joy where you’re lucky enough to find it and ignoring the haters. And the film is undeniably Hathaway’s, thanks to her appealing performance as a 40-year-old divorced mom who’s scared to believe in her own happy ending.
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Blending frank interviews with a treasure trove of archival images and their subject’s own words, filmmakers Alexis Bloom and Svetlana Zill paint an incredibly intimate portrait of a 1960s and ’70s icon in Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg. As a model, actress, mother, muse, and more, Pallenberg lived a life that was turned up to 11 as she became an integral part of the group surrounding the Rolling Stones in their heyday but was never anything less than her own woman.
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