movies by or about women opening UK/Ire from Fri May 18
Saoirse Ronan has trouble on her honeymoon; Laetitia Dosch has trouble with everything; plus, documentaries about women navigating personal and political strife.
Paris
Jeune Femme (aka Montparnasse Bienvenüe) movie review: the heroine of her own life
Laetitia Dosch burns with a passionate anxiety in French writer-director Léonor Serraille’s debut, a clever, wise, wildly unsentimental portrait of a woman learning how to be herself.
Saving Brinton documentary review: the man with a mission to rescue a slice of cinema history
A charming tribute to one remarkably dedicated cinema fan and historian, and to his decades-long hard work to save an essential piece of the pop-culture past and cultivate its story for the future.
Let the Sunshine In (Un beau soleil intérieur) movie review: her own worst enemy
Juliette Binoche’s search for midlife love is drenched in ennui and punctuated by weary philosophizing. There’s not a lot of satisfaction in it, nor much by way of resolution. Very French.
Madame movie review: maid up
What starts out as a genial drawing-room satire on class and snobbery soon turns to a sly romantic comedy about the fantasy of romance and the crushing expectations placed on women.
movies by or about women opening US/Can from Wed Feb 14
Zosia Mamet, Kristin Scott Thomas, Patricia Clarkson, Maika Monroe, Ellen Burstyn, and Catherine Keener are all starring in new movies this week… but good luck finding them on a screen near you.
The 15:17 to Paris movie review: hell on wheels
Clint Eastwood turns a terrorist attack into a bit of post-hoc reality “entertainment” with the stunt casting of the actual heroes as themselves in a stilted, tone-deaf piece of Christian-American propaganda.
Fifty Shades Freed movie review: no shades of gray
My Fifty Shades of Grey fantasy: Anastasia Steele gets a restraining order against Christian Grey, writes a tell-all book about him, and becomes a #MeToo/#TimesUp heroine. Mmm, sexy.
Final Portrait movie review: the not-so-fine making of fine art
A bleakly funny, genteelly twisted gloss on the clichés of temperamental creative genius, via the relationship between an artist and his subject, one that questions the sometimes high personal price of great art.
Ballerina (aka Leap!) movie review: lowering the barre
Cheesy Euro ballerina-porn cartoon is full of dated animation, cringeworthy attempts at humor, bizarre anachronisms, and a terrible message for little kids.
