Weekly Update for March 16: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You

Films About Women Opening This Week

Tomb Raider — Co-Written by Geneva Robertson-Dworet

Lara Croft (Alicia Vikander) is the fiercely independent daughter of an eccentric adventurer who vanished when she was scarcely a teen. Now a young woman of 21 without any real focus or purpose, Lara navigates the chaotic streets of trendy East London as a bike courier, barely making the rent, and takes college courses, rarely making it to class. Advised to face the facts and move forward after seven years without her father, even Lara can’t understand what drives her to finally solve the puzzle of his mysterious death. Going explicitly against his final wishes, she leaves everything she knows behind in search of her dad’s last-known destination: a fabled tomb on a mythical island. If she survives this perilous adventure, it could be the making of her, earning her the name tomb raider. (Press materials)

Find screening info and tickets here.

Mary Magdalene — Written by Helen Edmundson and Philippa Goslett (Opens in the UK)

Set in the Holy Land in the first century, a young woman leaves her small fishing village and traditional family behind to join a radical new social movement. At its head is a charismatic leader, Jesus of Nazareth (Joaquin Phoenix), who promises that the world is changing. Mary (Rooney Mara) is searching for a new way of living, and an authenticity that is denied her by the rigid hierarchies of the day. As the notoriety of the group spreads, and more are drawn to follow Jesus’ inspirational message, Mary’s spiritual journey places her at the heart of a story that will lead to the capital city of Jerusalem, where she must confront the reality of Jesus’ destiny, and her own place within it. (Press materials)

Furlough — Directed by Laurie Collyer (Opens in NY and LA) (Also Available on VOD)

In between caring for her mother (Whoopi Goldberg), a young woman (Tessa Thompson) works part time at a prison. The rookie guard gets a chance to prove her mettle when she’s tasked with accompanying a hell-raising inmate (Melissa Leo) on an emergency furlough to visit her dying mother. But things soon spiral out of control, sending the pair on a hilarious, surprising, and ultimately touching road trip. (Press materials)

Allure (Opens in NY and LA) (Also Available on VOD)

Laura (Evan Rachel Wood) works as a house cleaner for her father’s company but her personal life is not so pristine. Rough around the edges, looking for love in all the wrong places, her heartbreaking behavior points to hardships of the past. One day on the job, in yet another house, Laura meets Eva (Julia Sarah Stone), a quiet teenager unhappy with her disciplined life. In Eva, Laura rediscovers an innocent tenderness. In Laura, Eva finds a thrilling rebel who can bring her into unknown territories. The mutual attraction soon morphs into obsession as Laura convinces Eva to run away and secretly come live with her, perilously raising the stakes for the young, impressionable girl as Laura’s emotional instability becomes increasingly clear. As their world closes in, they must unearth certain truths to find a way out. (Press materials)

No Light and No Land Anywhere — Written and Directed by Amber Sealey (Opens in NY)

“No Light and No Land Anywhere”: Amber Sealey

Grieving her mother’s death and her own failing marriage, Lexi (Gemma Brockis) boards a plane from London to Los Angeles in search of the estranged father who abandoned her when she was three years old. Based out of a seedy Hollywood motel, she follows a tenuous trail of breadcrumbs, beginning with his aging former in-laws, collecting numbers and addresses in the hopes that one will lead to her father. Along the way, she establishes other unexpected connections: her father’s ailing former second wife, her bitter half-sister Tanya and her caregiver girlfriend, and two local barflies. A stranger in the City of Angels, Lexi’s reckless searching leads to cautious discoveries in this atmospheric and introspective quest. (Press materials)

Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Amber Sealey.

Find screening info here.

Flower

Rebellious, quick-witted Erica Vandross (Zoey Deutch) is a 17-year-old firecracker living with her single mom, Laurie (Kathryn Hahn), and mom’s new boyfriend, Bob (Tim Heidecker), in LA’s San Fernando Valley. When Bob’s mentally unbalanced son, Luke (Joey Morgan), arrives from rehab to live with the family, Erica finds her domestic and personal life overwhelmed. With Luke and her sidekicks Kala (Dylan Gelula) and Claudine (Maya Eshet) in tow, Erica acts out by exposing a dark secret of high school teacher Will (Adam Scott), with perilous results. (Press materials)

Find screening info here.

The Happys (Opens in LA)

Twenty-one-year-old Tracy (Amanda Bauer) thinks she has it all — great boyfriend, new city, and a bright future — but then she walks in on her boyfriend Mark (Jack DePew) having sex with a man! As their relationship deteriorates, Tracy’s world opens up when she befriends the quirky residents in her Los Feliz neighborhood: Sebastian (Rhys Ward), a troubled recluse; Luann (Janeane Garofalo), a true free spirit; Krista (Melissa McBride), Mark’s hard-charging talent manager; Jonathan (Stephen Guarino), a gay magazine reporter; and Ricky (Arturo del Puerto), the owner of a failing food truck. As Tracy discovers her sense of self and true passion for cooking, she is a catalyst that forces them all to grow and connect in unforeseen ways. (Press materials)

Apocalypsis

Set in a parallel universe entering a black hole, a woman reading the book of Revelation has visions of regeneration during Anthropocene. (Press materials)

Films About Women Currently Playing

A Wrinkle in Time — Directed by Ava DuVernay; Written by Jennifer Lee
Thoroughbreds
Meditation Park — Written and Directed by Mina Shum (Canada) (Also Available on Netflix)
Claire’s Camera
Girls vs Gangsters — Co-Written and Directed by Chun-Chun Wong
Los Angeles Overnight
Red Sparrow
Oh Lucy! — Written and Directed by Atsuko Hirayanagi
Annihilation
Dark River — Written and Directed by Clio Barnard (UK)
Hannah
Finding Your Feet — Co-Written by Meg Leonard (UK)
November
The Silent Child (Short) — Written by Rachel Shenton
Heroin(e) (Short Documentary) — Directed by Elaine McMillion Sheldon
Traffic Stop (Short Documentary) — Directed by Kate Davis
Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405 (Short Documentary)
La Boda de Valentina — Co-Written by Issa López
Double Lover
Tehran Taboo
Winchester
A Fantastic Woman
Mary and the Witch’s Flower — Co-Written by Riko Sakaguchi
The Post — Co-Written by Liz Hannah
Proud Mary
Vazante — Co-Written and Directed by Daniela Thomas
Pitch Perfect 3 — Directed by Trish Sie; Co-Written by Kay Cannon
In the Fade
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
In Between — Written and Directed by Maysaloun Hamoud
Molly’s Game
I, Tonya
The Shape of Water — Co-Written by Vanessa Taylor
Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story (Documentary) — Written and Directed by Alexandra Dean
The Breadwinner — Directed by Nora Twomey; Written by Anita Doron and Deborah Ellis
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Lady Bird — Written and Directed by Greta Gerwig
Jane (Documentary)
The Florida Project

Films Directed by Women Opening This Week

Keep the Change — Written and Directed by Rachel Israel (Opens in NY; Opens in LA March 23)

Set in New York, this quirky, unconventional story centers on David (Brandon Polansky), who is struggling to come to terms with his own high-functioning autism, when he unexpectedly falls for a vivacious woman named Sarah (Samantha Elisofon), whose lust for life both irks and fascinates him. (Press materials)

Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Rachel Israel.

Find screening info here.

Take Your Pills (Documentary) — Directed by Alison Klayman (Available on Netflix)

The pressure to achieve more, do more, and be more is part of being human — and in the age of Adderall and Ritalin, achieving that can be as close as the local pharmacy. No longer just “a cure for excitable kids,” prescription stimulants are in college classrooms, on Wall Street, in Silicon Valley — any place “the need to succeed” slams into “not enough hours in the day.” But there are costs. In the insightful “Take Your Pills” documentarian Alison Klayman focuses on the history, the facts, and the pervasiveness of cognitive-enhancement drugs in our amped-up era of late-stage capitalism. (Press materials)

Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Alison Klayman.

In the Land of Pomegranates (Documentary) — Directed by Hava Kohav Beller (Opens in LA)

“In the Land of Pomegranates” is a suspenseful, multi-layered documentary about a group of young people who were born into a violent and insidious ongoing war. They are young Palestinians and Israelis invited to Germany to join a retreat called “Vacation From War” where they live under the same roof, and face each other every day. In these highly charged encounters they confront the entrenched myths and grievances that each side has for the other. As they try to gain insight into the seemingly irreconcilable narratives, the paradoxes and contradictions born of legend and history, along with passionately held ideals, and the daily fight for survival surface. (Press materials)

Maineland (Documentary) — Directed by Miao Wang (Opens in NY)

Filmed over three years in China and the U.S., “Maineland” is a multi-layered coming-of-age tale that follows two affluent and cosmopolitan teenagers as they settle into a boarding school in blue-collar rural Maine. Part of the enormous wave of “parachute students” from China enrolling in U.S. private schools, bubbly, fun-loving Stella and introspective Harry come seeking a Western-style education, escape from the dreaded Chinese college entrance exam, and the promise of a Hollywood-style U.S. high school experience. As Stella and Harry’s fuzzy visions of the American dream slowly gain more clarity, they ruminate on their experiences of alienation, culture clash, and personal identity, sharing new understandings, and poignant discourses on home and country. (Press materials)

Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Miao Wang.

Find screening info here.

Dear Dictator — Co-Written and Co-Directed by Lisa Addario (Also Available on VOD)

When political turmoil forces a British-Caribbean dictator, General Anton Vincent (Michael Caine), to flee his island nation, he seeks refuge with his pen pal, a rebellious teenage girl (Odeya Rush) in suburban America, and teaches her how to start a revolution and overthrow the “mean girls” in her high school. (Press materials)

Films Directed by Women Currently Playing

Our Blood Is Wine (Documentary) — Directed by Emily Railsback
Viva Kino! (Documentary) — Written and Directed by Lia Beltrami
Itzhak (Documentary) — Directed by Alison Chernick
The Party — Written and Directed by Sally Potter
Western — Written and Directed by Valeska Grisebach
Negative Space (Short Animation) — Co-Directed by Ru Kuwahata
Watu Wote: All of Us (Short) — Directed by Katja Benrath; Written by Julia Drache
Edith + Eddie (Short Documentary) — Directed by Laura Checkoway
Forever My Girl — Written and Directed by Bethany Ashton Wolf
Faces Places (Documentary) — Co-Directed by Agnès Varda

Films Written by Women Opening This Week

Love, Simon — Co-Written by Elizabeth Berger

Seventeen-year old Simon Spier has yet to tell his family or friends he’s gay, and he doesn’t actually know the identity of the anonymous classmate he’s fallen for online. Resolving both issues proves hilarious, terrifying, and life-changing. “Love, Simon” is a funny and heartfelt coming-of-age story about the thrilling ride of finding yourself and falling in love. (Press materials)

Find screening info and tickets here.

Films Written by Women Currently Playing

Shining Moon — Co-Written by Victoria Wharfe McIntyre
The Leisure Seeker — Co-Written by Francesca Archibugi
The 15:17 to Paris — Written by Dorothy Blyskal
Before We Vanish — Co-Written by Sachiko Tanaka
The Insult — Co-Written by Joëlle Touma
The Greatest Showman — Co-Written by Jenny Bicks

TV Premieres This Week

On My Block — Co-Created by Lauren Iungerich (Premieres March 16 on Netflix)

A coming-of-age comedy about four bright and street-savvy friends navigating their way through the triumph, pain, and the newness of high school set in the rough inner city. (Press materials)

Beyond the Opposite Sex (Documentary) — Co-Directed by Emily Abt (Premieres March 16 on Showtime)

This documentary picks up the respective stories of Rene and Jamie, 13 years after their Gender Affirmation Surgeries. The two subjects let us back into their very changed worlds and find that their surgeries, which had been lifelong goals, were far from the finish line of their journeys — in fact, they turned out to be only the beginning of more difficult, arduous, and true lifelong experiences. (Press materials)

Edha (Premieres March 16 on Netflix)

A dramatic series set in the fashion-conscious city of Buenos Aires, as seen through the eyes of a trendsetting designer, Edha, whose untraditional male model, Teo, becomes her muse. Their chemistry inspires Edha to create a stunning new fashion line, but Teo’s hidden agenda will set in motion a series of betrayals that cause their worlds to unravel. (Press materials)

Christiane Amanpour: Sex & Love Around the World (Docuseries) (Premieres March 17 on CNN)

Christiane Amanpour travels the world covering global affairs but hadn’t explored the love lives of strangers — until now. Amanpour gets personal with women she meets in various corners of the globe by inquiring about their intimate lives. In the process, she shines a light on what sex and love look like around the world. (Press materials)

Armed with Faith (Documentary) — Co-Directed by Geeta Gandbhir (Premieres March 18 on WORLD Channel)

“Armed with Faith,” co-directed by acclaimed director Geeta Gandbhir, follows men in a bomb disposal unit at the front lines of the war against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan. The film follows these men as they fight for control over a vulnerable area of their country and work to protect themselves and their families. (Press materials)

Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Geeta Gandbhir.

Arthur Miller: Writer (Documentary) — Directed by Rebecca Miller (Premieres March 19 on HBO)

One of the greatest playwrights of the 20th century, Arthur Miller created such celebrated works as “Death of a Salesman” and “The Crucible,” which continue to move audiences around the world today. He also made headlines for being targeted by the House Un-American Activities Committee at the height of the McCarthy Era and entering into a tumultuous marriage with Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe. Told from the unique perspective of his daughter, filmmaker Rebecca Miller, “Arthur Miller: Writer” is an illuminating portrait that combines interviews spanning decades and a wealth of personal archival material. (Press materials)

Epic Warrior Women (Docuseries) (Premieres March 19 on Smithsonian Channel)

Lynda Carter, the original TV Wonder Woman, recounts real-life stories of history’s most iconic female fighters through the centuries, women who are symbols of empowerment, independence, and strength. From the legendary Amazon horse warriors of the Steppe in Central Asia to the highly trained female gladiators of the Roman Empire to the all-female fighting force of West Africa that helped shape that continent, evidence shows that, throughout history, warfare has not only been the purview of men; women were often in on the fight — fighting just as fiercely and skillfully. (Press materials)

Station 19 — Created by Stacy McKee (Premieres March 22 on ABC)

In Seattle, all firefighters are also trained EMTs and the crew at Station 19 is second to none. Working in 24-hour shifts, these professionals spend so much time together that they build relationships unlike any others. Practically raised at the station, Andy Herrera (Jaina Lee Ortiz) is a confident, badass firefighter who is also the daughter of Captain Pruitt (Miguel Sandoval), the formidable head of the firehouse. Captain Pruitt was Andy’s primary inspiration to become a firefighter, and is a mentor to both Andy and Jack Gibson (Grey Damon), the lieutenant at Station 19. Passionate and energetic, Jack is fearless — just the kind of guy you want coming to your rescue. While Jack is fearless, Andy plays by the rules — but when these two are together, sparks fly and opposites attract. (Press materials)

VOD/DVD Releasing This Week

Imitation Girl — Written and Directed by Natasha Kermani (VOD, Available Now)
11/8/16 (Documentary) — Co-Directed by Sheena M. Joyce, Petra Epperlein, Alma Har’el, Alison Klayman, Ciara Lacy, Martha Shane, and Elaine McMillion Sheldon (DVD, March 20)
Delirium — Co-Written by Lisa Clemens (DVD, March 20)
The Divine Order — Written and Directed by Petra Volpe (DVD, March 20)
Pitch Perfect 3 — Directed by Trish Sie; Co-Written by Kay Cannon (VOD/DVD, March 20)