Weekly Update for June 9: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You

Films About Women Opening This Week

Megan Leavey — Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite; Co-Written by Pamela Gray and Annie Mumolo

“Megan Leavey” is both a story of war and a story of love. Megan (Kate Mara) is a woman at the end of her rope. She joins the Marines and winds up in a K9 unit with a problematic and intense dog, Rex. They become partners in more ways than one. While women weren’t supposed to be on the front lines, Megan and Rex were actually in front of the front lines searching for IEDs. Megan and Rex were inseparable, and once Megan left the Marines she worked for years to adopt Rex after he was decommissioned. She fought as if her life depended on it all the way to Congress and was finally able to bring him home to be with her until he died. A wonderful, emotional film directed by the award-winning director of “Blackfish,” Gabriela Cowperthwaite. (Melissa Silverstein)

Find screening info here.

Beatriz at Dinner

Beatriz (Salma Hayek), an immigrant from a poor town in Mexico, has drawn on her innate kindness to build a career as a health practitioner in Southern California. Don Strutt (John Lithgow) is a real estate developer whose cutthroat tactics have made him a self-made, self-satisfied billionaire. When these two polar opposites meet at a dinner party, their worlds collide and neither will ever be the same. (Press materials)

Find tickets and screening info here.

As Good As You — Directed by Heather de Michele; Written by Gretchen M. Michelfeld (Opens in LA)

Jo (Laura Heisler) is having a bad year. She has major writer’s block, a rather dire caffeine addiction, and is deeply mourning the untimely death of her beautiful wife. To top it all off, her biological alarm clock is ringing off the wall. In an attempt to address the latter issue, Jo asks her late-partner’s brother, Jamie (Bryan Dechart), to be her sperm donor. Craziness ensues in the form of a visit to the fertility clinic’s psychologist (Annie Potts), and a love triangle with her two best friends (Raoul Bhaneja and Anna Fitzwater). “As Good As You” is a serious comedy about trying to grieve the right way, and maybe growing up a bit in the process. (Press materials)

Moka (Opens June 14)

To find the driver of the vintage mocha-colored Mercedes which she thinks hit her son and devastated her life, Diane Kramer (Emmanuelle Devos) embarks on a trip to take revenge. She goes to Évian, where she has learned the driver of the Mercedes lives, but she now has to face another woman, Marlene (Nathalie Baye) — beauty salon proprietor and owner of the car. In order to get closer to her, Diane pretends to be a potential buyer for the car, but the path of revenge is more tortuous and complicated than it seems. (Press materials)

Films About Women Currently Playing

Wonder Woman — Directed by Patty Jenkins
Sámi Blood — Written and Directed by Amanda Kernell
Letters from Baghdad (Documentary) — Directed by Sabine Krayenbühl and Zeva Oelbaum
Past Life
Didi’s Dreams
Love, Kennedy
Beautiful Accident
Berlin Syndrome — Directed by Cate Shortland
The Women’s Balcony — Written by Shlomit Nehama
Hermia & Helena
Everything, Everything — Directed by Stella Meghie
Icaros: A Vision — Co-Written and Co-Directed by Leonor Caraballo
Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan (Documentary) — Co-Directed by Linda Saffire
Snatched — Written by Katie Dippold
Paris Can Wait — Written and Directed by Eleanor Coppola
The Wedding Plan — Written and Directed by Rama Burshtein
Hounds of Love (Also Available on VOD)
Manifesto
Like Crazy — Co-Written by Francesca Archibugi
Tomorrow Ever After — Written and Directed by Ela Thier
The Circle
Citizen Jane: Battle for the City (Documentary)
Unforgettable — Directed by Denise Di Novi; Co-Written by Christina Hodson
A Quiet Passion
Maudie — Directed by Aisling Walsh; Written by Sherry White (Canada)
Colossal
Their Finest — Directed by Lone Scherfig; Written by Gaby Chiappe
The Zookeeper’s Wife — Directed by Niki Caro; Written by Angela Workman
God Knows Where I Am (Documentary)
The Levelling — Written and Directed by Hope Dickson Leach
Beauty and the Beast
A Woman, a Part — Written and Directed by Elisabeth Subrin
Personal Shopper
Hidden Figures — Co-Written by Allison Schroeder

Films Directed by Women Opening This Week

Raising Bertie (Documentary) — Directed by Margaret Byrne

Set in Bertie County, a rural African American-led community in Eastern North Carolina, “Raising Bertie” takes audiences deep into the emotional lives of three boys — Reginald “Junior” Askew, David “Bud” Perry, and Davonte “Dada” Harrell — over six years as they come of age. “Raising Bertie” movingly weaves the young men’s stories together as they try to define their identities, interconnecting narratives of family, youthful innocence, first love, systemic racism, educational inequity, poverty and unemployment, and the will to succeed in the face of formidable odds. (Press materials)

Find screening info here.

P.S. Jerusalem (Documentary) — Directed by Danae Elon (Opens in LA)

Filmmaker Danae Elon began to film her three young sons the moment she and her partner Philip decided to leave New York and return to Jerusalem. The decision was prompted by the death of her father, leading Israeli intellectual and writer Amos Elon. It was his dying wish that Danae not return, but her attachment to the place she always called home was stronger. On a journey back Danae’s camera captures her three young boys growing up, asking endless questions, and confronting the reality around them. The place she once saw as “home” challenges her relationship with her partner and the future of her kids. It is through the prism of parenthood, children, and a family that the story of this film exposes a deep, complex, and painful portrait of Jerusalem today. (Press materials)

Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Danae Elon.

Find screening info here.

Films Directed by Women Currently Playing

Films Written by Women Opening This Week

I Love You Both — Co-Written by Kristin Archibald (Also Available on VOD)

Twins Krystal and Donny (real life siblings Doug and Kristin Archibald) have been codependent for 28 years, still living together in a converted one-bedroom house. When they both meet and start dating the same guy (Lucas Neff), they remain in denial until he picks only one of them, forcing them to confront that they can no longer live the same life. With nowhere to turn for advice except each other and their only two friends — Linda (Artemis Pebdani), Krystal’s co-worker, and their mother (real life mom Charlene Archibald) — the twins are finally forced to look for answers from within. (Press materials)

Find screening info here.

Awakening the Zodiac — Co-Written by Jennifer Archer (Also Available on VOD)

In 1968 one of the deadliest serial killers in U.S. history disappeared without a trace. His identity and cryptic messages remained unsolved for decades…until now. After a fortune-seeking couple (Shane West and Leslie Bibb) uncovers a 40-year-old film reel depicting two gruesome murders taken by the killer himself, they set out to solve the mystery and claim the $100,000 reward. But the situation quickly changes, as the hunters become the hunted. (Press materials)

Radio Dreams — Co-Written by Aida Ahadiany (Opens in LA)

Hamid (actor/musician Mohsen Namjoo) immigrates to the U.S. to pursue his writing career and the American Dream. Instead, he winds up working at a small Iranian radio station. Meanwhile, the owners of the station try to cash in on Hamid’s only program that they see fit for commercial success — the bringing together of an on-air jam session with Kabul Dreams and their long-time idols, Metallica. The ensuing collision between artistic integrity and crass commercialism resonates with hilarity and a poignant message, as Hamid fights to maintain a balance between his ambitions and his moral compass. (Press materials)

Find screening info here.

Films Written by Women Currently Playing

Churchill — Written by Alex von Tunzelmann
3 Idiotas — Co-Written by Martha Higareda
God of War — Co-Written by Maria Wong
Champion — Written by Missy Reed and Sarah Inabnit
Free Fire — Co-Written by Amy Jump
Tommy’s Honour — Co-Written by Pamela Marin
Smurfs: The Lost Village — Written by Stacey Harman and Pamela Ribon
The Red Turtle — Co-written by Pascale Ferran

TV Premieres This Week

An American Girl Story: Summer Camp, Friends for Life (TV Movie) — Written and Directed by Alison McDonald (Premieres June 9 on Amazon)

When a group of friends arrive at summer camp and have their tech devices taken away, they are confident that the summer is doomed. However, things take an exciting turn when a camp counselor sends them on a great and mysterious adventure. (Press materials)

My Only Love Song — Co-Created by Soo-Jin Kim (Premieres June 9 on Netflix)

When things don’t go her way during a shoot for her new show, a top actress runs away in an old van that guides her on a time-traveling journey. (Press materials)

Claws — Co-Executive Produced by Rashida Jones and Janine Sherman Barrois (Premieres June 11 on TNT)

“Claws” is a midnight-dark, wickedly funny meditation on female badness set in a South Florida nail salon. It follows the rise of five diverse and treacherous manicurists working at the Nail Artisan of Manatee County salon, where there is a lot more going on than silk wraps and pedicures. “Claws” is about good women caught in bad places with worse men. It’s the story of hardworking women trying to get by in this economy, set against the surreal, bright, gritty landscape of Florida and the luscious, absurd, extreme excesses of the crime world. (Press materials)

AFI Lifetime Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Diane Keaton (Premieres June 15 on TNT)

Ellen DeGeneres, Meryl Streep, Reese Witherspoon, Morgan Freeman, and Steve Martin will help honor the 45th AFI Life Achievement Award recipient, Diane Keaton, at a gala tribute. (Deadline)

VOD/DVD Releasing This Week

3 Generations — Directed by Gaby Dellal; Written by Gaby Dellal and Nikole Beckwith (DVD/VOD, June 13)
Alone in Berlin — Co-Written by Bettine von Borries (DVD/VOD, June 13)
Don’t Knock Twice (DVD/VOD, June 13)
Prevenge — Written and Directed by Alice Lowe (DVD/VOD, June 13)
Table 19 (DVD/VOD, June 13)
Two Women — Directed by Vera Glagoleva; Written by Olga Pogodina and Svetlana Grudovich (DVD/VOD, June 13)
Was it Rape Then? (Short) — Directed by Kari Lee Cartwright (Vimeo, Available Now)

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