Weekly Update for July 22: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You

Films About Women Opening This Week

Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie — Directed by Mandie Fletcher; Written by Jennifer Saunders

The big-screen version of the British sitcom couldn’t have arrived at a more perfect moment. If you’re anything like me, you spend part of your time reading the latest news stories with a creeping sense of horror, and part of it actively avoiding media because you just can’t take any more awfulness. The torrent has reached a new high-water mark this week via the RNC, where the ever-expanding war on women and minorities is being codified and celebrated by a convention hall full of angry white men (and a few various others who inexplicably stick around).

It’s all very dark, darling. Which is why the 90 minutes I spent watching the “AbFab” movie, out Friday, were such a blissful relief. The candy-colored, slapstick world in which best friends Edina Monsoon (Jennifer Saunders), PR agent and fashion victim, and Patsy Stone (Joanna Lumley), a fashion editor with a Keith Richards-level tolerance, exist is one where men matter very little. They’re sources of sex and general objectification and occasionally money, but that’s about it.

Women rule here, and not just any women: OLDER women. Hard-drinking women. Women — daffy as they are — who wield withering put-downs and ulterior motives and senses of humor. Briefly, I entertained a fantasy of Patsy and Edina stomping around the RNC, swilling Champagne and scaring the senators. (Sara Stewart)

Read Women and Hollywood’s review of “Absolutely Fabulous.”

Hooligan Sparrow (Documentary) — Directed by Nanfu Wang (Opens in NY; Opens in LA July 29)

The danger is palpable as intrepid young filmmaker Nanfu Wang follows maverick activist Ye Haiyan (also known as Hooligan Sparrow) and her band of colleagues to Hainan Province in southern China to protest the case of six elementary school girls who were sexually abused by their principal. Marked as enemies of the state, the activists are under constant government surveillance and face interrogation, harassment, and imprisonment. Sparrow, who gained notoriety with her advocacy work for sex workers’ rights, continues to champion girls’ and women’s rights and arms herself with the power and reach of social media. Filmmaker Wang becomes a target along with Sparrow, as she faces destroyed cameras and intimidation. Yet she bravely and tenaciously keeps shooting, guerrilla-style, with secret recording devices and hidden-camera glasses, and in the process, she exposes a startling number of undercover security agents on the streets. (Press materials)

Summertime — Directed by Catherine Corsini; Written by Catherine Corsini and Laurette Polmanss (Opens in NY and LA)

In “Summertime,” Catherine Corsini gives us a love story about two women (Izïa Higelin and Cécile de France) in Paris and the French countryside at the dawn of the feminist movement in the early 1970s. These women are forging a relationship with each other as well as the world around them with newfound attitudes and beliefs about how women should be treated. (Melissa Silverstein)

Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Catherine Corsini.

Lights Out

When Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) left home, she thought she left her childhood fears behind. Growing up, she was never really sure of what was and wasn’t real when the lights went out… and now her little brother, Martin (Gabriel Bateman), is experiencing the same unexplained and terrifying events that had once tested her sanity and threatened her safety. A frightening entity with a mysterious attachment to their mother, Sophie (Maria Bello), has reemerged. But this time, as Rebecca gets closer to unlocking the truth, there is no denying that all their lives are in danger… once the lights go out. (Press materials)

Nerve — Written by Jessica Sharzer (Opens July 27)

Industrious high school senior Vee Delmonico (Emma Roberts) has had it with living life on the sidelines. When pressured by friends to join the popular online game Nerve, Vee decides to sign up for just one dare in what seems like harmless fun. But as she finds herself caught up in the thrill of the adrenaline-fueled competition partnered with a mysterious stranger (Dave Franco), the game begins to take a sinister turn with increasingly dangerous acts, leading her into a high stake finale that will determine her entire future. (Press materials)

Fight Valley (Also Available on VOD)

UFC superstars Miesha Tate, Holly Holm, and Cris “Cyborg” star as three fighters involved with an underground fighting ring in the new MMA thriller “Fight Valley.” Twenty-two year old Tory Coro (Chelsea Durkalec) is found dead in Fight Valley, an unofficial neighborhood where fighters go to earn money. Her sister Windsor (Susie Celek) moves to town to begin her own investigation and train with Jabs (Bantamweight champ Tate). Jabs teaches Windsor how to survive in the Valley as they prepare to come face to face with Tori’s killer. (Press materials)

Films About Women Currently Playing

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)
The Fits — Written and Directed by Anna Rose Holmer
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
Eye in the Sky
Miracles From Heaven — Directed by Patricia Riggen
Zootopia

Films Directed by Women Opening This Week

On Meditation (Documentary) — Co-Directed by Rebecca Dreyfus (Opens July 27 in NY)

“On Meditation” is an evolving series of portrait films that explore the deeply personal practice of meditation. Practiced for thousands of years, meditation is at once profound and simple: the focused attempt to move beyond conditioned “thinking” into a deeper state of awareness. Yet, what does that path — the path of the inner journey, which is above all a private, interior one — really look like? “On Meditation”conveys first-hand experiences of those who have developed meaningful practices and are willing to share their experiences. Each film, or portrait, focuses on a single individual — and explores how meditation works for them, how it has changed or continues to change them in the deepest or subtlest ways, and what it looks like on the most basic physical level. (Press materials)

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
Kung Fu Panda 3 — Co-Directed by Jennifer Yuh

Films Written by Women Opening This Week

The Childhood of a Leader — Co-Written by Mona Fastvold (Also Available on VOD)

A child’s angelic face conceals a budding sociopath in the audacious feature debut from actor Brady Corbet. A powerhouse international cast led by Robert Pattinson and Bérénice Bejo (“The Artist”) headlines this dark domestic nightmare. Set amidst the turmoil of World War I and its aftermath, it follows the young son of an American diplomat living in France as he learns to manipulate the adults around him — a monstrous coming of age that ominously parallels the rising tide of Fascism in Europe. (Press materials)

Films Written by Women Currently Playing

The Infiltrator — Written by Ellen Brown Furman
The BFG — Written by Melissa Mathison
High-Rise — Written by Amy Jump

TV Premieres This Week

Indiscretion (TV Movie) — Co-Written by Laura Boersma (Premieres July 23 on Lifetime)

In this steamy and stylish psychological thriller, Mira Sorvino stars as Veronica, a politician’s wife whose brief affair with a troubled young artist comes back to haunt her when he begins to infiltrate every part of her life. While her husband (Cary Elwes) and daughter (Katherine McNamara) are away, New Orleans psychiatrist Veronica Simon (Sorvino) enjoys a weekend fling with Victor (Christopher Backus), an alluring young sculptor. But after Veronica calls off the affair, Victor refuses to let go and will stop at nothing to have Veronica for himself. (Press materials)

VOD/DVD Releasing This Week

Barbershop: The Next Cut — Co-Written by Tracy Oliver (DVD, July 26)
The Boss — Co-Written by Melissa McCarthy (DVD, July 26)
L’Attesa (The Wait) (DVD, July 26)
A Light Beneath Their Feet — Directed by Valerie Weiss; Written by Moira McMahon (DVD, July 26)
Tricked — Co-Written by Kim van Kooten (DVD, July 26)