Finding Emily movie review: call waiting
A smart, funny switched-up Cinderella for the social-media era with lots to say about modern dating and gender relations that is caustic, optimistic, and exasperated all at once. Instant comfort movie.
directed by women
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma movie review: no such thing as “just a movie”
A blood-gushing, cheerfully horny phantasmagorical black comedy fueled by writer-director Jane Schoenbrun’s unique understanding of fandom and the intense relationships we can have with pop culture.
Superboys of Malegaon movie review: making movies with his friends
Gentle, charming dramedy about pals in middle-of-nowhere India making amateur movies. The giddy glee in this winsome portrait of geeky passion and enduring friendship is all-around infectious.
Nightbitch movie review: live, bark, love
Replaces the novel’s rage with gentle comedy, biting its tongue and undercutting its protagonist. Still, mundane truths about women’s realities that rarely get public airings are on welcome display.
Your Monster movie review: embrace the beast
Sure, the humor may be bitter, the horror may be audacious, and the overriding genre may be “anti-romance.” But this hugely original, grimly delightful howl of feminine rage is actually kinda sweet.
Lee movie review: the things she saw, and the way she saw them
It barely scratches the surface of the enormous audacity of WWII photographer Lee Miller, but still this is an important movie. It’s also joyous filmmaking, with terrific performances all around.
Back to Black movie review: no justice for Amy Winehouse
Marisa Abela is very good as Amy Winehouse, the one saving grace of this cowardly biopic of the wild and wise musician, which hangs its subject out to dry just as the people closest to her did, too.
Wicked Little Letters movie review: the cheek is in the mail
An upending of the period costume drama that’s cheerfully indecent, gloriously naughty, and full of female rage at the expectations women operate under. Funny as hell and bursting with impudent energy.
Madame Web movie review: absurdly tangled
A travesty of corporate cynicism. Its desperation to ride Spider-Man’s coattails is pathetic, but its convoluted, coincidence-laden nonsense is duller than you’d imagine: it’s not even so bad it’s fun.
I.S.S. movie review: burns up on reentry
It looks amazing and the cast is fab, but while this could-happen-tomorrow story wants to appropriate the magic of science fiction, it fails to think imaginatively about longstanding human problems.
