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52 FILMS BY WOMEN VOL. SEVEN - SOME REFLECTIONS

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  When I started a blog in 2015 writing about fifty-two films directed by women, I didn’t expect to be doing so eight years later. Much has changed. I am writing this on 29 October 2023, Day 108 of the actors’ strike in Hollywood, led, aptly enough, by a woman (Fran Drescher), over which on-screen talent seek better rewards, a new system for paying cast members of streaming shows, and better protection for actors’ work against artificially generated digital doubles. Film reviewer friends in the UK, no longer able to earn money interviewing big-name stars, are feeling the pinch. I’m also writing this less than twenty-four hours news broke that Friends star Matthew Perry was found dead in his bathtub, aged fifty-four. In the real world, specifically in Gaza and Ukraine, much worse things are happening. Yet, in the somewhat narrow realm of the entertainment industry, there are signs of improvement. This week, in UK cinemas, there are four new releases directed by women: 20,000 Speci...
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52 Films by Women Vol 7. 52. JOY RIDE (Director: Adele Lim)

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  The final film of Volume Seven of this series is a foul-mouthed feelgood comedy about female friendship entitled Joy Ride , co-written by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao and directed by Adele Lim. The first film in this series (volume seven) was also called Joyride , but it is hard to imagine Olivia Colman doing half the stuff that the American Asian cast of Lim’s film act out – or maybe I just don’t want to. Joy Ride goes squarely for the crude belly laugh – nothing wrong with that, it is a form of exercise. At the US box office, it opened against Insidious – The Red Door , a franchise title with nothing new to offer but nonetheless scored an impressive $15 million in its first day of release (7 July 2023). I guess the guys taking dates to their movies are as controlling as an American comedian turned director who wouldn’t let his surfer teacher partner post pictures of herself on social media in a swimsuit. If you were shown The Red Door , maybe you should form an o...
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52 Films by Women Vol 7. 51. SCRAPPER (Director: Charlotte Regan)

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  The penultimate film of this series is low-budget indie, Scrapper , a British, nay, London film written and directed by Charlotte Regan. Regan has directed a bunch of short films, some of which have been screened internationally, helmed pop and corporate videos and has absolutely earned the right to succeed. I have mixed feelings about the end result. I enjoyed it very much, but it veers close to the aesthetic of British – specifically BBC – children’s television. If Regan sought a career directing episodes of Byker Grove or The Story of Tracy Beaker this would not be a bad thing, but my suspicion is that she has ambitions above tea-time in front of the kiddies. Regan deals with a difficult topic – loss. Specifically the loss of one’s mother as experienced by a pre-teenage girl, Georgie (newcomer Lola Campbell). The effect is disorientating, numbing and world collapsing. Regan approaches the subject with good - I would qualify, excellent - humour. Georgie decides to manage ...
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52 Films by Women Vol 7. 50. ALICE, DARLING (Director: Mary Nighy)

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  About as far from the box-office success of Barbie as one can reasonably imagine is Alice, Darling . Written by Alanna Francis and directed by Mary Nighy, this is another American film about female empowerment, albeit one that comes from a very dark place. Released by Lionsgate Films, the company behind John Wick Chapter IV – worldwide gross $432 million and counting - it only was screened in the UK once or twice a day in a handful of independent cinemas in January 2023, having no prospect of commercial success. Happily, it has found its way onto Amazon Prime, which also hosts another Lionsgate release, Living , starring Nighy’s award nominated father, Bill. Nighy might unkindly be described as a nepo-baby. However, there have been numerous offspring of famous actors and directors who have carved out successful careers through virtue of their talent – Maggie and Jake Gyllenhaal, the children of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner to name but two. Nepotism...
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52 Films by Women Vol 7. 49. BARBIE (Director: Greta Gerwig)

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  Greta Gerwig ( Lady Bird , Little Women ) is the first woman Hollywood film director to make three hit movies in a row since Penny Marshall between 1986 and 1992 ( Jumpin’ Jack Flash , Big , A League of Their Own ). Moreover, she’s a writer-director. That’s unheard of. The reported opening US box-office gross for Barbie , a film about a girl’s toy used for female empowerment, isn’t just phenomenal by the standards of woman directors - $70 million earned in one day - but by Hollywood norms. Greta Gerwig outperformed Tom Cruise at this summer’s box office. How crazy is that? If this does not make Hollywood’s biggest star want to work with a female director for the first time in his career, I don’t know what will? Actually, I can guess – it might be some nutty religion that tells him not to take orders from a woman. Barbie benefits from its association with intellectual property. Foremost, it’s a doll enjoyed and accessorised by young girls with moderately well-off parents around...
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52 Films by Women Vol 7. 48. YOU HURT MY FEELINGS (Director: Nicole Holofcener)

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  People are more worried about giving offence than climate change. Perhaps that it isn’t true, but it feels like it. We are hyper-sensitised by other people. No touching, respect the pronouns. Praise don’t criticise. As a parent, you skirt around the big issues out of respect for your children’s choices. How do you use the lessons that you’ve learned if you cannot say ‘no’? How do you address poor performance at work if you have to overlook incapability? Someone says they can do the job without evidence; you have to take their word for it. We live in an age of assertive dishonesty. People lie and you cannot call them out in one-to-one interactions. This behavioural kitsch feels like a bubble about to burst. You have to confront objective facts. In her latest film, You Hurt My Feelings , writer-director Nicole Holofcener ( Lovely and Amazing , Enough Said ) tackles a zeitgeist subject in a domestic setting. She examines a testing point in a marriage, when one partner isn’t being ...
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52 Films by Women Vol 7. 47. PAST LIVES (Director: Celine Song)

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  What does it mean when you say to your partner, ‘we’re meant to be together’? This sentiment is expressed sometimes in repose, sometimes in the waning of a lost argument, a pitiful despatch of the final life raft. I have my own thoughts on the subject. The more romantic will incline towards the film, Past Lives , written and directed by Celine Song, which explores to some extent whether relationships are destined to persist. Song’s film features Greta Lee as Nora Moon (born Na Young), a playwright who reconnects with the Korean boy, Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) who she last saw in person twenty-four years ago. Nora didn’t ‘leave’ Hae Sung. She was separated from him by her parents who relocated to Toronto; her father is a film director. But you know kids – especially precocious ones. They’ll claim the decisions made by others as their own. Koreans, in line with many nationalities, are known for formality and repressed emotions, the latter released with the lethality of steam from a broke...
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