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

Films About Women Opening

Belle — Directed by Amma Asante; Written by
Misan Sagay

There’s nothing quite like Belle on
the contemporary film scene — a luxurious period film and a sweet, gentle
romance that wears its smart, nuanced politics on its silk sleeves. In my review for TheWrap, I wrote of the film,
“Based on the life and accomplishments of an actual 18th-century
noblewoman, this warmly poignant tale of two illegitimate sisters’ (Gugu
Mbatha-Raw and Sarah Gadon) efforts to marry despite their social handicaps
(one is dowry-less, the other half-black) offers all the passionate idealism,
the precise social insights, and the delightfully sharp-tongued dialogue that
recall the best of Sense and Sensibility.” (Inkoo Kang)

Read Women and Hollywood’s two-part interview
with Amma Asante here and here.

Decoding Annie Parker

Based on true events, Decoding Annie
Parker tells the life-affirming story of two remarkable women; the
irrepressible Annie Parker (Samantha Morton), a three-time cancer survivor, and
the geneticist Mary-Claire King (Helen Hunt), whose discovery of the breast
cancer BRCA gene mutation is considered one of the most important discoveries
of the 20th century. (Rotten Tomatoes)

Breastmilk (doc) — Directed by Dana Ben-Ari

With unexpected humor, with an unflinching
camera, with some guilt and some pain, this film takes the unusual risk of
examining what breast milk truly means. We are often told that breast milk is
better. Better for babies, better for mothers, better for nutrition, health,
well-being, and society. Many accept this and yet there are still very few
women who succeed in breastfeeding exclusively for the recommended six months
and beyond. What would it take to change? (Rotten Tomatoes)

For a Woman — Written and Directed by Diane
Kurys

After the death of her mother, Anne (Sylvie Testud) makes a
shocking discovery: an old photograph casts doubt on her origins and leads her
to discover a mysterious uncle who lived with her parents after the war. As she
lifts the lid on a long forgotten family secret, the young woman learns that
her mother (Melanie Thierry) once succumbed to an amorous passion that was as intense as it was
short-lived. (Indiewire)

Ida

From acclaimed director Pawel Pawlikowski (Last
Resort, My Summer of Love) comes Ida, a moving and
intimate drama about a young novitiate nun in 1960s Poland who, on the verge of
taking her vows, discovers a dark family secret dating from the years of the
Nazi occupation. 18-year old Anna (stunning newcomer Agata Trzebuchowska), a
sheltered orphan raised in a convent, is preparing to become a nun when the
Mother Superior insists she first visit her sole living relative. Naive,
innocent Anna soon finds herself in the presence of her aunt Wanda (Agata
Kulesza), a worldly and cynical Communist Party insider, who shocks her with
the declaration that her real name is Ida and her Jewish parents were murdered
during the Nazi occupation. This revelation triggers a heart-wrenching journey
into the countryside, to the family house and into the secrets of the repressed
past, evoking the haunting legacy of the Holocaust and the realities of postwar
Communism. (Rotten Tomatoes)

Journey of a Female Comic — Co-Directed by
Kiki Melendez, Written by Kiki Melendez and Lyn McCullough

It sure doesn’t pay going against the grain in
Hollywood. The “docu-comedy” Journey of a Female Comic traces
Kiki Melendez’s years-long efforts to find a niche for herself in showbiz.
In my LA Times review, I wrote,
“Her efforts to remake Hollywood in her own image — by experimenting with
bilingualism, promoting female comics of color and attempting to attract
backers to her Christian script — consign her to the niches of the
entertainment industry. Introduced one after another, her doomed projects
implicitly indict the social conservatism of the film and comedy worlds.”
(Inkoo Kang)

Walk of Shame

Walk of Shame stars Elizabeth Banks as a resourceful
reporter whose one-night stand with a handsome stranger (James Marsden) leaves
her stranded the next morning in downtown Los Angeles without a phone, car, ID,
or money — and only 8 hours before the most important job interview of her
career. (Rotten Tomatoes)

The M Word

Set in a struggling Los Angeles television
station threatened by economic downturn, possible in-house graft and massive
job loss, Tanna Frederick plays Moxie, a children’s TV show actress who
unexpectedly turns into a Joan of Arc when she finds herself leading an
extraordinary band of rebelling women demanding their rights as they anxiously
face uncertain futures after their new boss (Michael Imperioli) and his
second-in-command (Robert Hallak) arrive from New York on a devastating
cost-cutting mission. All of Moxie’s personal and professional assumptions and
those of her long-time boyfriend (Corey Feldman) are turned upside-down as her
mother (Frances Fisher), her two aunts (Mary Crosby and Eliza Roberts), and her
stepfather (Gregory Harrison), join with dozens of her fellow female office
workers to illuminate the struggles, challenges and joys of what is still, in
some circles, referred to as “the change of life.” (Rotten Tomatoes)

Films About Women Currently Playing

Bright Days Ahead — Directed by Marion
Vernoux; Co-Written by Marion Vernoux and Fanny Chesnel

The Other Woman — Directed by Melissa Stack

Young and Beautiful

Gabrielle — Written and Directed by Louise Archambault

Half the Road: The Passion, Pitfalls, & Power of Women’s Professional
Cycling (doc) — Directed by Kathryn Bertine

Proxy

Redwood Highway

Hateship Loveship — Directed by Liza Johnson

Frankie and Alice — Co-Written by Cheryl Edwards, Mary King, Anna
Waterhouse

Nymphomaniac: Part Two

Under the Skin

Finding Vivian Maier (doc)

Divergent — Co-Written by Vanessa Taylor

On My Way — Co-Written and Directed by Emmanuelle Bercot

Single Mom’s Club

Child’s Pose

Gloria

Films Directed by Women Opening

Beneath the Harvest Sky — Co-Directed and
Co-Written by Gita Pullapilly

Casper (Emory Cohen) and
Dominic (Callan McAuliffe) have been fiercely loyal friends since childhood.
Desperate for a way out of their quiet town on the Maine-Canada border, the
boys make a pact to pool their earnings on a car and hit the road. But when
Casper is drawn into drug smuggling with his outlaw father (Aidan Gillen) to
pay his share, their friendship is pushed to the brink and adult choices forced
on them all too soon. (Tribeca Film Festival)

Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Gita Pullapilly here.

Friended to Death — Written and Directed by Sarah Smick

Friended to Death charts the extremes to which a desperate
Facebook junkie will go in order to figure out who his true friends are. Laced
with satire, this tongue-in-cheek bro-mantic comedy tells the story of
obnoxious Los Angeles parking enforcement officer Michael Harris (Ryan Hansen).
After being fired from his dream job and ditched by his best friend Michael
begins to question whether anyone would care if he died. So with the help of
his pushover ex-coworker Emile (James Immekus), Michael does what any social
media-obsessed loner would do: He fakes his death online to see who will show
up at his funeral. In just hours, Michael’s fake death post attracts a promising
22 ‘Likes.’ Giddy and eager to milk the prank, Michael convinces Emile to help
him stage a faux memorial service. But as plans start taking shape, Michael’s
reality gradually implodes, forcing him to reconsider what it means to be a
“friend” in today’s hyper-connected world of social media. (Press
Material)

Films Directed by Women Currently Playing

The German Doctor — Written and Directed by Lucia Puenzo

Tanzania: A Journey Within (doc) — Directed by Sylvia Caminer

Authors Anonymous — Directed by Ellie Kanner

Vanishing Pearls: The Oystermen of Point a la Hache (doc)
– Directed by Nailah Jefferson

Dancing in Jaffa (doc) — Directed by Hilla Medalia

The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden (doc) — Co-Directed by Dayna Goldfine
and Co-Written by Dayna Goldfine and Celeste Schaefer Snyder

Watermark (doc) — Co-Directed by Jennifer Baichwal

Films Written by Women Currently Playing

50 to 1 — Co-Written by Faith Conroy

About Last Night — Co-Written by Leslye Headland

Films by and About Women on DVD or on Demand