Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms movie review: the tragedy of the immortal
Epic yet intimate, this is a visually gorgeous and emotionally lush fantasy drama about love and hope set in a violent but beautifully realized invented world.
directed by women
Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist documentary review: counterculture’s wise elder woman
There’s nothing fawning and plenty ironic about this essential first documentary to cover a major female fashion designer, a woman whose life is almost a perfect reflection of the trajectory of 20th-century feminism.
Half the Picture documentary review: a woman’s place is behind the camera (Sundance London 2018)
Authoritative and insightful, this essential film gives much needed cultural breathing room to some remarkable Hollywood women to discuss how they are undermined or shut out entirely from the industry.
The Judge documentary review: social (and legal) justice warrior
A portrait as delightful as its subject: Kholoud Al-Faqih, a pioneer of Islamic jurisprudence and as fiery as any Western feminist. Essential viewing for its smashing of stereotypes.
RBG documentary review: though she be but little she is fierce
A marvelous, funny, deeply moving biography of Ruth Bader Ginsburg from her rise as a legal champion of women’s rights in the 1970s to her ascension as a Supreme Court justice and social-media hero “Notorious RBG.”
Mercury 13 documentary review: the even righter stuff
An essential documentary look at yet another example of historical feminism that should never have been forgotten: the first American in space might have and probably should have been a woman.
Even When I Fall documentary review: a big enough tent for all
An incredibly inspiring story about two young women who come back from dehumanizing experiences to advocate for change. A film of great grace, dignity, beauty, and power.
All I Wish (aka A Little Something for Your Birthday) movie review: sassy birthday
It’s too predictable and too disingenuous about the realities of what it means to be an “older” woman. But Sharon Stone is totally charming.
In the Land of Pomegranates documentary review: is the Middle East fixable?
The state of affairs in the Middle East may actually be thornier than it seems from afar: that is the position this brave, intimate perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems to take.
Brakes movie review: when romance comes crashing down
This ultra-low-budget indie uses its own rough edges to great effect in its skewering of the happily-ever-after rom-com fantasy. Bleak, brutal, absurd, and painfully realistic.
