Weekly Update for March 10: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You

Films About Women Opening This Week

Personal Shopper

Olivier Assayas, the internationally-acclaimed director of “Clouds of Sils Maria” and “Summer Hours,” returns with this ethereal and mysterious ghost story starring Kristen Stewart as a high-fashion personal shopper to the stars who is also a spiritual medium. Grieving the recent death of her twin brother, she haunts his Paris home, determined to make contact with him. (Press materials)

Find tickets and screening info here.

Raw — Written and Directed by Julia Ducournau (Opens in NY and LA)

Everyone in Justine’s (Garance Marillier) family is a vet. And a vegetarian. At 16, she’s a brilliant and promising student. When she starts at veterinary school, she enters a decadent, merciless, and dangerously seductive world. During the first week of hazing rituals, desperate to fit in whatever the cost, she strays from her family principals when she eats raw meat for the first time. Justine will soon face the terrible and unexpected consequences of her actions as her true self begins to emerge. (Press materials)

Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Julia Ducournau.

Find screening info here.

This Beautiful Fantastic

A contemporary fairy tale revolving around the unlikely of friendship between a reclusive young woman with dreams of being a children’s book author and a cantankerous widower, set against the backdrop of a beautiful garden in the heart of London. Bella Brown (Jessica Brown Findlay) is a beautifully quirky young woman who dreams of writing and illustrating a successful children’s book. When she is forced by her landlord to deal with her neglected garden or face eviction, she meets her nemesis, match, and mentor in Alfie Stephenson (Tom Wilkinson), a grumpy, loveless, rich old man who lives next door and happens to be an amazing horticulturalist. (Press materials)

Find tickets and screening info here.

Brimstone (Also Available on VOD)

“Brimstone” is a triumphant epic of survival and a tale of powerful womanhood and resistance. Our heroine is Liz (Dakota Fanning), carved from the beautiful wilderness, full of heart and grit, hunted by a vengeful preacher (Guy Pearce) — a diabolical zealot and her twisted nemesis. But Liz is a genuine survivor — a woman of fearsome strength who responds with astonishing bravery to claim the better life she and her daughter deserve. (Press materials)

Find tickets and screening info here.

The Ottoman Lieutenant

The first movie to explore the eastern front of World War I, “The Ottoman Lieutenant” tells the story of a beautiful, strong-willed woman (Hera Hilmar), who, frustrated by the ongoing injustice at home, leaves the United States after meeting Jude, an American doctor (Josh Hartnett) who runs a remote medical mission within the Ottoman Empire — a world both exotic and dangerous, and on the brink of what is about to become the first World War. There, she finds her loyalty to Jude and the mission’s founder (Ben Kingsley) tested when she falls in love with a lieutenant in the Ottoman Imperial Army (Michiel Huisman). Now, with invading army forces at their doorstep, and the world about to plunge into all-out war, she must decide if she wants to be what other people want her to be, or to be herself. (Press materials)

Find tickets and screening info here.

Kidnap

A mother (Halle Berry) stops at nothing to recover her kidnapped son, causing multiple deaths and injuries along the way. (Press materials)

Find tickets and screening info here.

A Very Sordid Wedding (Opens in Palm Springs, CA)

It’s 2015, 17 years after Peggy tripped over G.W.’s wooden legs and died in “Sordid Lives,” and life has moved into the present for the residents of Winters, Texas. Sissy Hickey (Dale Dickey) is reading the Bible, cover to cover, trying to make some kind of sense out of what it really says about gay people. Her niece, Latrelle Williamson (Bonnie Bedelia), has divorced her husband, Wilson (Michael MacRae). Latrelle’s out and proud gay son Ty (Kirk Geiger) is on his way back to town with his man and news of their own. As the sordid saga continues, an anniversary memorial service is being planned at Bubba’s Bar while the Southside Baptist Church is planning an “Anti-Equality Rally” to protest the advancement of same-sex marriage. Both events are to take place on the same night, so the cast of colorful characters are all on a collision course for shenanigans and fireworks, and a surprise wedding! (Press materials)

Find screening info here.

The Dark Below (Opens in LA)

A woman (Lauren Mae Shafer) struggles for survival beneath a frozen lake while a serial killer stalks her from the surface. (Press materials)

Find screening info here.

Films About Women Currently Playing

Before I Fall — Directed by Ry-Russo Young; Written by Maria Maggenti
The Last Word
Catfight (Also Available on VOD)
Table 19
Lavender (Also Available on VOD)
The Institute — Co-Directed by Pamela Romanowsky (Also Available on VOD)
Burlesque: Heart of the Glitter Tribe (Documentary) (Also Available on VOD)
The Women’s Balcony — Written by Shlomit Nechama
XX (Anthology) — Directed by Roxanne Benjamin, Sofia Carrillo, Karyn Kusama, Annie Clark (St. Vincent), and Jovanka Vuckovic; Co-Written by Roxanne Benjamin and Jovanka Vuckovic (Also Available on VOD)
Lovesong — Co-Written and Directed by So Yong Kim
Everybody Loves Somebody — Written and Directed by Catalina Aguilar Mastretta
Rings
The Lure — Directed by Agnieszka Smoczynska
Sophie and the Rising Sun — Written and Directed by Maggie Greenwald (Also Available on VOD)
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter
20th Century Women
Underworld: Blood Wars — Directed by Anna Foerster
Hidden Figures — Co-Written by Allison Schroeder
Toni Erdmann — Written and Directed by Maren Ade
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Julieta
Jackie
Moana — Co-Written by Pamela Ribon
Arrival
Elle
The Eagle Huntress
The Handmaiden
The Love Witch — Written and Directed by Anna Biller

Films Directed by Women Opening This Week

Tickling Giants (Documentary) — Directed by Sara Taksler (Opens in NY March 14)

Following the Arab Spring and in need of a laugh, Dr. Bassem Youssef left heart surgery to try his hand at comedy. “Al Bernameg,” the first political satire show in Egypt, had 30 million weekly viewers. “Tickling Giants” shows that comedy can be cathartic. This movie shows people who fight oppression with their jokes, not their fists. (Press materials)

Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Sara Taksler.

Find screening info here.

Films Directed by Women Currently Playing

Revolution
Uncertain (Documentary) — Co-Written and Co-Directed by Anna Sandilands (Opens in the UK March 10) (Available on VOD March 17)
Kushuthara: Pattern of Love — Written and Directed by Karma Deki (Also Available on VOD)
Water & Power: A California Power Heist (Documentary) — Directed by Marina Zenovich
The Last Laugh (Documentary) — Directed by Ferne Pearlstein
Fair Haven — Directed by Kerstin Karlhuber (Also Available on VOD)
Nakom — Directed by T. W. Pittman and Kelly Daniela Norris; Co-Written by T. W. Pittman
Viceroy’s House — Directed by Gurinder Chadha; Co-Written by Moira Buffini
Namour — Written and Directed by Heidi Saman (Available on Netflix March 15)
Jasper Jones — Directed by Rachel Perkins (Australia)
A United Kingdom — Directed by Amma Asante

Films Written by Women Opening This Week

None.

Films Written by Women Currently Playing

My Life as a Zucchini — Written by Céline Sciamma
A Dog’s Purpose — Written by Cathryn Michon
The Red Turtle — Co-written by Pascale Ferran
Sleepless — Co-Written by Andrea Berloff
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them — Written by J.K. Rowling

TV Premieres This Week

Tangled: Before Ever After (TV Movie) (Premieres March 10 on Disney)

Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) grapples with the responsibilities of being a princess and the overprotective ways of her father. While she wholeheartedly loves Eugene (Zachary Levi), Rapunzel does not share his immediate desire to get married and settle down within the castle walls. Determined to live life on her own terms, she and her tough-as-nails Lady-in-Waiting Cassandra (Eden Espinosa) embark on a secret adventure where they encounter mystical rocks that magically cause Rapunzel’s long blonde hair to grow back. Impossible to break and difficult to hide, Rapunzel must learn to embrace her hair and all that it represents. (Press materials)

American Jihad (Documentary) — Directed by Alison Ellwood (Premieres March 11 on Showtime)

This documentary probes into the phenomenon of homegrown Jihadism, analyzing the strategic outreach and tactics employed by terrorists in order to reach susceptible members of society and what can be done to prevent it. “American Jihad” features intimate stories from former Jihadists radicalized to commit violent acts of terrorism and their families and communities caught in the crosshairs. (Press materials)

VOD/DVD Releasing This Week

Burning Sands — Co-Written by Christine Berg (Netflix, March 10)
Elle (DVD/VOD, March 14)
The Love Witch — Written and Directed by Anna Biller (DVD, March 14)
One Under the Sun (VOD, March 14)
When the Bough Breaks (Documentary) — Written and Directed by Jaimelyn Lippman (VOD, March 14)
Namour — Written and Directed by Heidi Saman (Netflix, March 15)

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