Weekly Update for December 2: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You

Films About Women Opening This Week

Jackie

“Jackie” is a searing and intimate portrait of one of the most important and tragic moments in American history, seen through the eyes of First Lady, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (Natalie Portman). “Jackie” places us in her world during the days immediately following her husband’s assassination. Known for her extraordinary dignity and poise, here we see a psychological portrait of the First Lady as she struggles to maintain her husband’s legacy and the world of “Camelot” that they created and loved so well. (Press materials)

Things to Come — Written and Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve (Opens in NY and LA)

Mia Hansen-Løve’s film is the story of a philosophy professor whose foundation becomes unmoored when her husband leaves her, and her mother, who was very depressed and needed a lot of attention, dies. This is a slice of life movie. Isabelle Huppert’s Nathalie feels the freedom that she will have now that her kids are grown and her mother is dead. As she says to her star pupil who she is close to, “I am free.” Women are so rarely free. This movie is not about showing how sexy she is — it’s about showing how real she is, and that’s what makes her sexy. (Melissa Silverstein)

Read Women and Hollywood’s review of the film here.

Best and Most Beautiful Things (Documentary) (Opens in NY; Opens in LA December 9)

In rural Maine, a bold and magnetic 20-year-old woman named Michelle Smith lives with her mother, Julie. Michelle is quirky and charming, legally blind and diagnosed on the autism spectrum, with big dreams and varied passions. Searching for connection, Michelle explores love and empowerment outside the limits of “normal” through a provocative sex-positive community. Michelle’s joyful story of self-discovery celebrates outcasts everywhere. (Press materials)

Find screening info here.

Desert Hearts (Theatrical Re-Release) — Directed by Donna Deitch; Written by Natalie Cooper (Opens in NY)

This seminal film was the first mainstream lesbian film. Helen Shaver (who is directing lots of TV these days) plays an uptight academic who sets up residency in 1950s Nevada in order to obtain a divorce. She meets a “free spirit” played by Patricia Charbonneau and to her surprise and initial horror falls hard for her. Fans are still waiting on the sequel. (Melissa Silverstein)

The Eyes of My Mother (Opens in NY, LA, San Francisco, and D.C.) (Also Available on VOD)

In their secluded farmhouse, a former surgeon teaches her daughter, Francisca (Kika Magalhaes), to understand anatomy and be unfazed by death. One afternoon, a mysterious visitor shatters the idyll of Francisca’s family life, deeply traumatizing the young girl, but also awakening unique curiosities. Though she clings to her increasingly reticent father, Francisca’s loneliness and scarred nature converge years later when her longing to connect with the world around her takes on a dark form. Genre-inflected, but so strikingly unique as to defy categorization, “The Eyes of My Mother” provides an elliptical presence in Francisca’s world, guiding our imaginations to follow her into peculiar, secret places. (Press materials)

Find screening info here.

A Winter Rose

Winter Rose (Kimberly Whalen) is a would-be singer-songwriter living on the edge. Having grown up as an orphan she trusts in nothing and no one, not even in her own power as an artist. But when she learns that her long-time inspiration, iconic songstress Rachal Love (Theresa Russell), is holding a contest to find the one singer who can rightfully take her place in the largest televised concert in history, Winter takes one last shot. (Press materials)

Videofilia (and Other Viral Syndromes) (Opens in NY; Opens in LA December 7)

A teenage misfit (Liliana Albornoz) spends her first days out of school slacking and experimenting with drugs and cyberspace. She meets Junior (Terom) online — he’s an aspiring amateur porn dealer, into conspiracy theories, and convinced that the Mayan Apocalypse is happening. Once they meet in the “real world,” a series of bizarre events unfold in this contemporary non-love story that portrays a post-modern Lima as a glitchy computer virus full of corruption, psychedelia, and ancient ruins. (Press materials)

Find screening info here.

Films About Women Currently Playing

Miss Sloane
Always Shine — Directed by Sophia Takal
Baden Baden — Written and Directed by Rachel Lang
A United Kingdom — Directed by Amma Asante (Playing in the UK)
The Edge of Seventeen — Written and Directed by Kelly Fremon Craig
Moana — Co-Written by Pamela Ribon
I Am Not Madame Bovary
Daughters of the Dust (Re-Release) — Written and Directed by Julie Dash
Arrival
The Love Witch — Written and Directed by Anna Biller
Elle
Shut In — Written by Christina Hodson
The Eagle Huntress
The Handmaiden
I’m Not Ashamed — Written by Bodie Thoene, Robin Hanley, Kari Redmond, and Philipa Booyens
Certain Women — Written and Directed by Kelly Reichardt
Christine
The Girl on the Train — Written by Erin Cressida Wilson
American Honey — Written and Directed by Andrea Arnold
Denial
Queen of Katwe — Directed by Mira Nair
Ixcanul
Cameraperson (Documentary) — Directed by Kirsten Johnson
Finding Dory

Films Directed by Women Opening This Week

None

Films Directed by Women Currently Playing

Evolution — Directed by Lucile Hadzihalilovic; Written by Lucile Hadzihalilovic and Alanté Kavaïté (Also Available on VOD)
Blood on the Mountain (Documentary) — Co-Directed by Mari-Lynn C. Evans; Co-Written by Mari-Lynn C. Evans and Deborah Wallace
Ne Me Quitte Pas (Documentary) — Co-Written and Co-Directed by Sabine Lubbe Bakker (U.S. Premiere)
National Bird (Documentary) — Directed by Sonia Kennebeck

Films Written by Women Opening This Week

None

Films Written by Women Currently Playing

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them — Written by J.K. Rowling
Bad Santa 2 — Co-Written by Shauna Cross
Magnus (Documentary) — Co-Written by Linn-Jeanethe Kyed
Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life — Co-Written by Kara Holden
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children — Written by Jane Goldman

TV Premieres This Week

Hairspray Live! (Live Musical Special) (Premieres December 7 on NBC)

In 1962 Baltimore, plump teenager Tracy Turnblad’s (Maddie Baillio) dream is to dance on “The Corny Collins Show,” a local TV program. When against all odds Tracy wins a role on the show, she becomes a celebrity overnight and meets a colorful array of characters, including resident dreamboat Link (Garrett Clayton); ambitious mean girl Amber (Dove Cameron); an African-American boy she meets in detention, Seaweed (Ephraim Sykes); and his mother, Motormouth Maybelle (Jennifer Hudson), the owner of a local record store. Tracy’s mother is the indomitable Edna (Harvey Fierstein), who eventually encourages Tracy on her campaign to integrate the all-white “Corny Collins Show.” (Press materials)

Taraji’s White Hot Holidays (Holiday Special) — Co-Produced by Jane Mun and Taraji P. Henson (Premieres December 8 on Fox)

Taraji P. Henson is back this holiday season to spread cheer, goodwill, and some holiday magic in a music and variety special featuring renditions of classic holiday songs by entertainment superstars, including “Empire’s” Jussie Smollett, Taye Diggs, Pharrell Williams, Missy Elliott, Alicia Keys, Darryl McDaniels of Run-DMC, Snoop Dogg, and TLC. The event will also feature cameo appearances by Tyler Perry and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s” Terry Crews, among other surprise guests and performances. (Press materials)

VOD/DVD Releasing This Week

Mad (Netflix, December 5)
All Eyes and Ears (Documentary) — Written and Directed by Vanessa Hope (VOD, December 6)
Me, Myself and Her — Directed by Maria Sole Tognazzi; Co-Written by Francesca Marciano and Maria Sole Tognazzi (DVD/VOD, December 6)
The Model (Netflix, December 6)

Follow Women and Hollywood on Twitter @WomenaHollywood and Melissa Silverstein@melsil.

To contact Women and Hollywood, email melissa@womenandhollywood.com