Weekly Update for July 29: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You

Films About Women Opening This Week

Equity — Directed by Meera Menon; Written by Amy Fox (Opens in NY and LA)

“Equity” tells the story of a driven female investment banker who is working on the deal of a lifetime. As she puts the deal together, she’s faced with sabotage all around her — some related to her being an ambitious woman, and some related to the high-stakes financial world in which she works that have nothing to do with gender. Anna Gunn shows the compromises and sacrifice it takes to succeed on Wall Street. Audiences get to see this world from a female perspective for the first time, witnessing bold female ambition and how the world reacts to it. This film is not only a take on Wall Street: it also helps normalize female ambition, which is something that we as a culture need to become more comfortable with. Ambition is not gendered. Women and men are both ambitious, but women get judged very differently for demonstrating this quality. “Equity” is directed by the terrific Meera Menon, who has a great career ahead of her. (Melissa Silverstein)

Listen to Women and Hollywood’s podcast with Meera Menon.

Bad Moms

Amy (Mila Kunis) has a seemingly perfect life — a great marriage, over-achieving kids, beautiful home, and a career. However, she’s over-worked, over-committed, and exhausted to the point that she’s about to snap. Fed up, she joins forces with two other over-stressed moms (Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn) on a quest to liberate themselves from conventional responsibilities — going on a wild, un-mom-like binge of long overdue freedom, fun, and self-indulgence — putting them on a collision course with PTA Queen Bee Gwendolyn (Christina Applegate) and her clique of devoted perfect moms. (Press materials)

Tallulah — Written and Directed by Sian Heder (Also Availible on Netflix)

“Tallulah” is about a young woman (Ellen Page) who lives outside the mainstream. By happenstance she takes a baby from a neglectful mom and winds up on the doorsteps of her ex-boyfriend’s mom (Allison Janney), passing off the baby as the woman’s grandchild. Lots of confusion ensues. (Melissa Silverstein)

Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Sian Heder.

Into the Forest — Written and Directed by Patricia Rozema

For a predominant portion of their lives sisters, Eva (Evan Rachel Wood) and Nell (Ellen Page) lived with their parents near the redwood forests of Northern California, educated at home by their father, Sam (Callum Keith Rennie), a schoolteacher. All is well until humanity is struck by the inevitable crumble of society. Over 30 miles from the nearest town, and several miles away from their nearest neighbor, Nell and Eva struggle to survive as society begins to decay and collapse around them. No single event precedes society’s fall. The sisters consume the resources left in the house, waiting for the power to return. In their bittersweet arrival into adulthood, they are forced to re-examine their place in the world, their relationship to the land, and one another. (Press materials)

Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Patricia Rozema .

Miss Sharon Jones! (Documentary) — Directed by Barbara Kopple (Opens in New York)

On the eve of the release of her new album, internationally recognized soul singer Sharon Jones was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Tour dates were cancelled, the album was pushed back, and Sharon entered into a fight for her life and career. “Miss Sharon Jones!” intimately follows this intense and courageous year in Sharon’s life. (Press materials)

Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Barbara Kopple.

Lace Crater (Opens in New York and on VOD, Opens August 5 in Los Angeles)

After a bizarre sexual encounter with a ghost, a twenty-something woman (Lindsay Burdge) begins experiencing inexplicable changes in her body. (Press materials)

Shelley — Co-Written by Maren Louise Käehne

A young Romanian woman Elena (Cosmina Stratan) arrives in the Danish countryside to work as a housekeeper for a recovering Louise (Ellen Dorrit Petersen) and her husband Kasper (Peter Christoffersen). Desperate for a child, Louise offers Elena a generous financial deal to be the couple’s surrogate mother. Elena’s pregnancy brings joy to the home of Louise and Kasper, but only briefly. Bizarre hallucinations and unbearable sensations drive Elena to believe that something is frightfully wrong. The life growing inside of her is taking shape too fast, upsetting the lives of everyone like an evil force. (Press materials)

Films About Women Currently Playing

Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie — Directed by Mandie Fletcher; Written by Jennifer Saunders
Hooligan Sparrow (Documentary) — Directed by Nanfu Wang
Summertime — Directed by Catherine Corsini; Written by Catherine Corsini and Laurette Polmanss
Lights Out
Nerve — Written by Jessica Sharzer
Fight Valley
Ghostbusters — Co-Written by Katie Dippold
Under the Sun (Documentary)
Our Little Sister
The Innocents — Directed by Anne Fontaine; Co-Written by Anne Fontaine, Sabrina B. Karine, and Alice Vial
The Shallows
The Neon Demon — Co-Written by Mary Laws and Polly Stenham
Wiener-Dog
Adult Life Skills — Written and Directed by Rachel Tunnard (Playing in the UK)
Finding Dory
The Witness (Documentary)
Me Before You — Directed by Thea Sharrock; Written by Jojo Moyes
Alice Through the Looking Glass — Written by Linda Woolverton
Presenting Princess Shaw (Documentary) (Also available on VOD)
Maggie’s Plan — Written and Directed by Rebecca Miller
Sunset Song
Love & Friendship
Dark Horse (Documentary) — Written and Directed by Louise Osmond
The Meddler — Written and Directed by Lorene Scafaria
Hello, My Name is Doris — Co-Written by Laura Terruso
Zootopia

Films Directed by Women Opening This Week

Women He’s Undressed (Documentary) — Directed by Gillian Armstrong; Written by Katherine Thomson

During the Hollywood boom years, the legendary Orry-Kelly was costume designer on an astonishing 282 motion pictures, dressing Marilyn Monroe, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Rosalind Russell, and many more. Orry was as big behind the scenes as the on-screen legends he adoringly dressed. Three times an Oscar winner, Orry was talented, daring, brash, bold, and the toast of Hollywood, but also the thorn in the side of many a studio head. (Press materials)

Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Gillian Armstrong

Films Directed by Women Currently Playing

Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You (Documentary) — Directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
Indian Point (Documentary) — Directed by Ivy Meeropol
Our Kind of Traitor — Directed by Susanna White
Weiner (Documentary) — Co-Written and Co-Directed by Elyse Steinberg
Money Monster — Directed by Jodie Foster

Films Written by Women Opening This Week

None

Films Written by Women Currently Playing

The Childhood of a Leader — Co-Written by Mona Fastvold
The Infiltrator — Written by Ellen Brown Furman
The BFG — Written by Melissa Mathison
High-Rise — Written by Amy Jump

TV Premieres This Week

Kerri Walsh Jennings: Gold Within (Documentary) (Premieres July 31 on NBC)

Follow Kerri Walsh Jennings, three-time U.S. Olympic gold medalist in beach volleyball, in her quest to win a fourth consecutive gold medal at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Three-time Emmy Award-winning director and producer Gabe Spitzer offers rare, intimate access to Jennings as she balances life as a mother of three, recovering from a shoulder injury, and competing with new partner April Ross in their quest for the gold. (Press materials)

Meet the Donors: Does Money Talk? (Documentary) — Directed by Alexandra Pelosi (Premieres August 1 on HBO)

Alexandra Pelosi looks at money in politics and interviews wealthy donors to Republican and Democratic parties about their contributions and philosophies. Also: a look at efforts to enact campaign-finance reform. (Press materials)

VOD/DVD Releasing This Week

The American Side — Co-Written and Directed by Jenna Ricker (DVD, August 2)
April and the Extraordinary World (DVD, August 2)
The Bronze — Co-Written by Melissa Rauch (DVD, August 2)
Difret (DVD, August 2)
High-Rise — Written by Amy Jump (DVD, August 2)
High Strung — Co-Written by Janeen Damian (DVD, August 2)
Marguerite — Co-Written by Marcia Romano (DVD, August 2)
Meet the Blacks — Co-Written by Nicole DeMasi (DVD and VOD, August 2)
Most Likely to Die — Written by Laura Brennan (DVD, August 2)
Mother’s Day — Co-Written by Anya Kochoff and Lily Hollander (DVD, August 2)
Septembers of Shiraz — Written by Hanna Weg (DVD, August 2)
Songs My Brothers Taught Me — Written and Directed by Chloé Zhao (DVD, August 2)
There Is A New World Somewhere — Written and Directed by Li Lu (VOD, August 2)
Viral — Co-Written by Barbara Marshall (DVD, August 2)