#Pick of the Day
Pick of the Day: “I’m Your Woman”
I have two theories about “I’m Your Woman,” Julia Hart’s latest feature and AFI Fest 2020’s opening film. The first: This movie is the photonegative of the classic...
Pick of the Day: “Happiest Season”
Hark! The Herald Drag Queens Sing: Clea DuVall’s “Happiest Season” has finally arrived. Eagerly anticipated since it was first announced, the gay rom-com sees Kristen Stewart and...
Pick of the Day: “Run”
Mommie Dearest does her best impression of Marmee in “Run.” Picture-perfect, warm, and loving on the surface, Diane (Sarah Paulson) is a mom whose true nature is gradually revealed in the...
Pick of the Day: “Born to Be”
Although it covers a very different topic, “Born to Be” reminds me of another doc that came out this year, “Aggie.” Like the latter’s protagonist, Agnes Gund,...
Pick of the Day: “I Am Greta”
Greta Thunberg never expected to become a household name helping to lead the charge on climate activism. Her life, she explains in “I Am Greta,” now seems like a movie or dream,...
Pick of the Day: “Dirty God”
Sacha Polak’s BIFA-nominated drama “Dirty God” takes on the nexus of gendered violence and sexual objectification through the portrait of one young woman. Jade (newcomer Vicky...
Pick of the Day: “Coded Bias”
With “Coded Bias,” Shalini Kantayya wanted to explore “the dark underbelly of big tech.” She was following the lead of Joy Buolamwini, an MIT media lab researcher who...
Pick of the Day: “Proxima”
“Proxima” charts a different kind of hero’s journey. The astronaut drama is decidedly more grounded than what we’ve come to expect from stories about space exploration. From...
Pick of the Day: “The Donut King”
With “The Donut King,” director Alice Gu hopes to “challenge any preconceived notions of what a refugee is, or looks like, and that the film helps put a human face on refugees and...
Pick of the Day: “The Queen’s Gambit”
Anya Taylor-Joy plays a brilliant chess prodigy besieged by addiction in “The Queen’s Gambit,” Netflix’s bingeworthy adaptation of the 1983 novel of the same name. Set in the...
Pick of the Day: “Bad Hair”
If you’re already missing “Lovecraft Country” and wishing HBO would just go ahead and frickin’ renew it already, then “Bad Hair” is just what the doctor ordered....
Pick of the Day: “Belly of the Beast”
Though it’s most closely associated with Nazi Germany, eugenics has a history stateside as well. And it’s not just a thing of the past. “Belly of the Beast” tells the story of...
Pick of the Day: “What the Constitution Means to Me”
As I write this, the Amy Coney Barrett confirmation hearings are winding down. Described as “unashamedly pro-life” and a self-proclaimed constitutional originalist, she will most likely...
Pick of the Day: “Time”
Even as it turns an unwavering eye on the criminal justice system, “Time” is an extremely hopeful film. Garrett Bradley’s documentary feature debut is the story of Fox Rich, a woman...
Pick of the Day: “The Forty-Year-Old Version”
A struggling playwright decides to reinvent herself as a rapper in “The Forty-Year-Old Version,” this year’s winner of Sundance’s Directing Prize. Written and directed by Radha Blank, the...
Pick of the Day: “Aggie”
Before “Aggie” was selected for Sundance 2020, I had never heard of Agnes Gund. Unless you’re very tuned into the worlds of art and social justice, you probably haven’t...
Pick of the Day: “Dick Johnson Is Dead”
“Dick Johnson Is Dead” sees a filmmaker struggling to come to terms with her father’s mortality the best way she knows how: by making a movie. “Just the idea that I might ever lose this...
Pick of the Day: “The Great American Lie”
Burnt out educators, activists fighting for minimum wage in the restaurant industry, unemployed factory workers voting against their own best interests, single parents holding down four jobs to get...
Pick of the Day: “The Vow”
“The Vow” is a horror story. The HBO docuseries pulls the curtain back on the NXIVM organization, a headline-making “sex cult” that operated under the guise of a self-help group....
Pick of the Day: “Boys State”
There’s much to love about “Boys State,” a Grand Jury Prize winner at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss’ doc gives an all-access look into an...
Pick of the Day: “Represent”
The past few years have seen a record-breaking number of women running for office. Hillary Bachelder follows three of these women — Myya Jones, Bryn Bird, and Julie Cho — in her feature...
Pick of the Day: “A Thousand Cuts”
“A Thousand Cuts” is a powerful portrait of an indomitable journalist and an impassioned call to arms. Described by director Ramona S. Diaz as a film about “the erosion of democracy,...
Pick of the Day: “I Used to Go Here”
A former professor and crush beckons Gillian Jacobs back to her old stomping grounds in “I Used to Go Here.” Kris Rey’s latest sees the “Community” alumna returning to a...
Pick of the Day: “Spinster”
“Spinster” is not a subtle film — again, its title is “Spinster.” The pic, from director Andrea Dorfman and writer Jennifer Deyell, features a few clunky conversations...
Pick of the Day: “Sam Jay: 3 In The Morning”
Sam Jay is comfortable with being uncomfortable. In her new Netflix special, “3 In the Morning,” the comedian — a masculine-presenting Black queer woman — wrestles with hard...
Pick of the Day: “The Fight”
Every day of the three-and-a-half years that we have endured the Trump presidency has felt like a fight — a fight for our rights and for the world we want to live in. The lawyers of the ACLU...
Pick of the Day: “Yes, God, Yes”
Described by writer-director Karen Maine as “a love story between one woman and her vagina,” “Yes, God, Yes,” stars “Stranger Things’” Natalia Dyer as a teenage girl who discovers...
Pick of the Day: “Amulet”
“Amulet” features several horror staples: a derelict house, a mysterious family, a handsome, tortured hero, and a young woman in need. And yet Romola Garai’s feature directorial...
Pick of the Day: “Blessed Child”
If, in 2020, you’ve ever even heard of the Moonies — i.e. the followers of the Unification Church, founded by Reverend Sun Myung Moon — it’s probably been as a punchline:...
Pick of the Day: “Relic”
A manifestation of dementia wreaks havoc on three generations of women in “Relic,” Natalie Erika James’ terrifying and touching feature debut. Inspired by her grandmother’s...
Pick of the Day: “P-Valley”
“P-Valley” is full of strong women — not “strong” in the nebulous, she’s-an-interesting-character-but-also-a-woman! way. I mean strong as in athletic, powerful,...
Pick of the Day: “Scheme Birds”
“If you stay here you either get locked up or knocked up,” explains Gemma, the Scottish teenager at the center of “Scheme Birds.” Still, she hopes to spend the rest of her...
Pick of the Day: “And She Could Be Next”
Sometimes “And She Could Be Next” is a joy to watch, and sometimes it’s infuriating. Seeing so many women of color running and winning political races is incredibly exciting. Grace...
Pick of the Day: “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark”
True crime’s got a bad reputation for exploiting victims, and rightfully so. The genre has made a habit of dehumanizing those affected by violent crime in its glamorization of rapists and...
Pick of the Day: “House of Hummingbird”
Among all the people you know, how many do you understand? This question, posed by a teacher, visibly stirs 14-year-old Eun-hee (Ji-hu Park). Despite being surrounded by classmates, teachers, and...
Pick of the Day: “Miss Juneteenth”
Today’s release of “Miss Juneteenth” couldn’t be more welcome or better timed. As calls for making Juneteenth a federal holiday gain further momentum amidst Black Lives Matter...
Pick of the Day: “Babyteeth”
The slog of long-term illness can do weird things to people — not just those who are actually sick, but their loved ones, as well. Shannon Murphy’s “Babyteeth,” the story of a...
Pick of the Day: “Seahorse: The Dad Who Gave Birth”
Shortly before I watched “Seahorse: The Dad Who Gave Birth,” Jeanie Finlay’s documentary about a trans man embarking upon pregnancy and parenthood, “Harry Potter” author...
Pick of the Day: “The High Note”
I realize Dakota Johnson has been on-screen for a while now, but having not seen any of the “Fifty Shades of Grey” franchise or her more recent films, I was unfamiliar with her work....
Pick of the Day: “On the Record”
In the two-plus years since the #metoo movement changed the culture, most of those who have been removed from power for misdeeds have been older white men — Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer,...
Pick of the Day: “Hannah Gadsby: Douglas”
Hannah Gadsby’s show “Douglas” — named for her dog — is her brilliant follow-up to “Nanette.” I was lucky enough to see “Douglas” in person last year...
Pick of the Day: “I Will Make You Mine”
“I Will Make You Mine” “explores the experience you have when you are confronted by your past,” writer-director-star Lynn Chen explains in her director’s statement....
Pick of the Day: “The Great”
“The Great” tells the story of woman who won’t let sexism or her hilariously incompetent husband stand in the way of her destiny. Billed as “an occasionally true story,”...
Pick of the Day: “How to Build a Girl”
Beanie Feldstein is a special performer. She grabbed at us as Julie, Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson’s best friend, and then shined alongside Kaitlyn Dever in the terrific...
Pick of the Day: “Becoming”
“Becoming” is not a hard-hitting, warts-and-all look at former First Lady Michelle Obama — Nadia Hallgren’s Netflix doc is produced by the Obamas’ Higher Ground...
Pick of the Day: “Saint Frances”
Motherhood — the prospect of motherhood, too, really — is complex. (Duh.) We still don’t talk about that often enough. Women who generally dislike kids can be wonderful mothers. Women who enjoy...
Pick of the Day: “South Mountain”
I’m always happy when female actresses, particularly ones over 40, who have spent years playing supporting characters finally get the chance to step into a starring role. That’s the case...
Pick of the Day: “The Half of It”
I remember going to see Alice Wu’s directorial debut, “Saving Face” — probably at the Angelika in NYC. It was the first movie I saw with queer Asian women. It was a great jolt....
Pick of the Day: “Normal People”
An adaptation of Sally Rooney’s best-selling novel, “Normal People” tells the story of an on again/off-again couple in Ireland who keep finding their way back to one another. At...
Pick of the Day: “Vida”
Women and Hollywood has temporarily suspended our recommendations newsletter. We’ll be sharing some of the week’s highlights in TV, VOD, and streaming via blog posts. I can’t tell you why...
Pick of the Day: “To the Stars”
Women and Hollywood has temporarily suspended our recommendations newsletter. We’ll be sharing some of the week’s highlights in TV, VOD, and streaming via blog posts. When we spoke to Martha...