Finding Altamira movie review: family at the intersection of science and art
Couched in a tale of scientific discovery is a lovely portrait of a father-daughter relationship grounded in intellect and curiosity, a rare thing onscreen.
girls/women
Bridget Jones’s Baby movie review: how to infantilize women
The desperation, the neuroticism, and the idiocy of Bridget Jones continues to be appalling, not appealing. She is not the everywoman she is meant to be.
Zoom movie review: zoom out
This is what happens when men try to tell a story primarily about women — and also try to ape Charlie Kaufman — and fail miserably.
cult classic film virgin: Sid & Nancy
Riveting and repulsive, with a claustrophobic perspective that mirrors its subjects: all id, all in the moment. But it’s also shallow, all on the surface.
Equity movie review: a disappointing return on investment
We’ve never seen this before, multiple female characters open about ambition, power, and money. But representation alone does not make for a gripping tale.
The Intervention and There Is a New World Somewhere movies review: women on the verge
Two movies about women at crossroads in their lives explore the sort of personal crisis — lost mojo! — typically reserved for men onscreen.
Black movie review: tragically bad
A facile riff on Romeo & Juliet amongst Brussels gangs. Banal, clichéd, and treats its teenage-girl protagonist in a spectacularly disgusting way.
The Shallows movie review: she’s gonna need a bigger surfboard
Pure popcorn thrills. Whips up visceral suspense and maintains it till you’re breathless as it cements the arrival of “woman versus nature” as a subgenre.
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates movie review: a meeting of childish minds
A sweetly silly trounce of the idea that overgrown frat boys are charming. Shakes up the subgenre in a way remarkably, if perhaps accidentally, feminist.
classic film through a feminist lens: Baby Face (1933)
It’s easy to see an anti-feminist “Just look what happens to women who break the rules” underneath what is most obviously simply straight-up salaciousness.
