Films About Women Opening This Week
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2
Three years have passed since Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) fired her first arrow in “The Hunger Games.” She was always a reluctant heroine who didn’t ask for the job as either reality star or rebel leader. Yet she unites people precisely because she’s uncalculating, driven by an emotional sense of what is right, readily sacrificing herself for the people she loves. Still a moody teenager, is she now ready to take on the full responsibility of creating a better world and overthrowing President Snow and his terror regime? The answer in the franchise’s darkest installment is both satisfying and surprising. “Mockingjay — Part 2” is more of a conventional war movie than its predecessors, but poses interesting moral dilemmas about whether one has the right to fight evil with evil — a pressing question in our time. (Freja Dam)
Carol — Written by Phyllis Nagy (Women and Hollywood’s Pick of the Week)
Set in 1952 New York City, “Carol” tells the story of the love between two women. Standing in for Patricia Highsmith, on whose novel “The Price of Salt” the film is based, Therese (played by a never better Rooney Mara) is an observer of the world. Carol is played by the super-terrific Cate Blanchett. The women are opposites in many ways. Blanchett is smoldering and looks like she might explode at any minute, while Rooney is young, restrained and unclear of her place in the world.
What’s so special about “Carol” is that this film puts women’s lives on display in a way I had not experienced before. This is the type of movie we have been desperate to see: Real women struggling and living real lives. Women who make us question the role of society in multiple ways. That’s one of the things that is so satisfying about the film. “Carol” is not a film about shame. It is a film about love. Carol (Cate Blanchett) refuses to be ashamed about who she is and who she loves. (Melissa Silverstein)
Listen to Women and Hollywood’s podcast with “Carol” producers Liz Karlsen and Christine Vachon.
Read Women and Hollywood’s feature about the power and relevance of “Carol”
Mustang — Directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven; Written by Deniz Gamze Ergüven and Alice Winocour
“Mustang” is both a powerful coming-of-age story and a touching tribute to sisterhood. The story follows five sisters in Turkey who cause a stir in their ultra-conservative village when they’re spotted playfighting with local boys at the beach. After being accused of “rubbing” themselves on the boys’ necks (they are innocently sitting on their shoulders), the girls are put under house arrest, and their home transforms into “wife factory” where their freedoms are taken away. The girls are married off in quick succession in an attempt to break their spirits and fit them into more conventional feminine roles. The ensemble piece is beautifully acted — Günes Sensoy in particular stands our as Lale, the youngest sister. These girls and their bond to each other will break your heart, and despite of all the tragedy in the film, “Mustang” is ultimately inspiring and hopeful. (Laura Berger)
Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Deniz Gamze Ergüven
#Horror — Written and Directed by Tara Subkoff
Cyber-bullying gets a genre makeover in “#Horror.” A killer comes after a group of 12-year-old mean girls, who aren’t exactly endearing themselves to each other. Co-starring Chloe Sevigny, Natasha Lyonne and Taryn Manning, “#HORROR,” I wrote in my review for TheWrap, is “made with verve, style, and sparing gore by writer-director (and fashion designer) Tara Subkoff, whose overwrought concern for kids today is more than made up for by her promising debut’s grimly mysterious mood and flair for the hipster grotesque.” (Inkoo Kang)
Films About Women Currently Playing
Ayanda — Directed by Sara Blecher; Written by Trish Malone
Ingrid Bergman — In Her Own Words (Documentary) — Co-Written by Dominika Daubenbüchel
Miss You Already — Directed by Catherine Hardwicke; Written by Morwenna Banks
Brooklyn
Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict (Documentary) — Directed by Lisa Immordino Vreeland; Co-Written by Lisa Immordino Vreeland and Bernadine Colish
Sand Dollars — Co-Written and Co-Directed by Laura Amelia Guzmán
The Outskirts — Co-Written by Suzanne Wrubel
Wrecker
10 Days in a Madhouse
Our Brand is Crisis
The Wonders/Le Meraviglie — Written and Directed by Alice Rohrwacher
Flowers/Loreak
Suffragette — Directed by Sarah Gavron; Written by Abi Morgan
I Smile Back — Written by Amy Koppelman and Paige Dylan
Truth
Crimson Peak
A Ballerina’s Tale (Documentary)
Big Stone Gap — Written and Directed by Adriana Trigiani
Freeheld
He Named Me Malala (Documentary)
The Keeping Room — Written by Julia Hart
The Scarapist
Sicario
Breathe — Written and Directed by Mélanie Laurent
The Second Mother — Written and Directed by Anna Muylaert
Grandma
Learning to Drive — Directed by Isabel Coixet; Written by Sarah Kernochan
Phoenix
Inside Out
Films Directed by Women Opening This Week
Censored Voices (Documentary) — Directed by Mor Loushy
The 1967 “Six-Day” war ended with Israel’s decisive victory, conquering Jerusalem, Gaza, Sinai and the West Bank. It is a war portrayed, to this day, as a righteous undertaking — a radiant emblem of Jewish pride. One week after the war, a group of young kibbutzniks, led by renowned author Amos Oz, recorded intimate conversations with soldiers returning from the battlefield. The recording revealed an honest look at the moment Israel turned from David to Goliath. The Israeli army censored the recordings, allowing the kibbutzniks to publish only a fragment of the conversations. “Censored Voices” reveals the original recordings for the first time. (Press materials)
Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Mor Loushy.
Films Directed by Women Currently Playing
The 33 — Directed by Patricia Riggen
By the Sea — Written and Directed by Angelina Jolie
Love the Coopers — Directed by Jessie Nelson
Song of Lahore (Documentary) — Co-Directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
Democrats (Documentary) — Directed by Camilla Nielsson
Frame by Frame (Documentary) — Directed by Alexandria Bombach and Mo Scarpelli
Heart of a Dog (Documentary) — Written and Directed by Laurie Anderson
The Intern — Written and Directed by Nancy Meyers
Sleeping With Other People — Written and Directed by Leslye Headland
Meet the Patels (Documentary) — Co-Directed by Geeta Patel
Goodnight Mommy — Co-Directed and Co-Written by Veronika Franz
Meru (Documentary) — Co-Directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelvi
Rosenwald (Documentary) — Directed by Aviva Kempner
Films Written by Women Opening This Week
None
Films Written by Women Currently Playing
Man Up — Written by Tess Morris
Casa Grande — Co-Written by Karen Sztajnberg
Room — Written by Emma Donoghue
Labyrinth of Lies/Im Labyrinth des Schweigens — Co-Written by Elisabeth Bartel
VOD/DVD Releasing This Week
MAKERS: Once and For All (Documentary) (MAKERS.com) — Co-Directed by Dyllan McGee
The Square (Documentary) (DVD) — Directed by Jehane Noujaim
