Feminist Fantasies: The Woman King & Don't Worry Darling

This past weekend, I got to watch two movies written and directed by women. Readers of the blog know there is little that brings me more joy that seeing the work of women behind the camera and these two movies are perfect examples of what riches we get when we let the ladies take over. If you haven't seen these movies already, you're in for such a treat.

The Woman King: Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and written by Dana Stevens, this is the true story of the Agojie, a group of African warrior women who protected the Dahomey kingdom of West Africa during the 17th to 19th centuries. In this movie, we follow Nanisca (Viola Davis), a fierce general who harbors many secrets. Over the course of two hours, we get to see her confront her demons, train her warriors, and lead an army who could put the fear of god into any man, woman, or child. It is quite something to behold.

The acting in this film is superb. Of course Viola Davis is scintillating, but I was particularly riveted by Thuso Mbedu, who plays Nawi, a young woman who is handed over to the Agojie by her father because she is proving to be too temperamental and refuses to be married off to an abusive old rich man like he wants. Nawi is strong, willful, and eager to prove herself to these warrior women, and her growth as a fighter, but also as a woman coming to grips with her emotions and what she wants from the world, is captivating. And then there's Lashana Lynch as her mentor Izogie. She is spectacular, providing a little bit of comic relief, a little bit of emotional support, and a whole lot of swagger and skill with her weapons.

The stunt choreography in this movie is particularly sublime (shoutout to stunt coordinator Danny Hernandez who deserves an Oscar). There are a LOT of battle scenes, but they never get wearying - there's always some new move to watch, some fantastic use of a knife or a rope, and everyone is putting the human body through its paces. You will want to stand up and cheer numerous times, particularly when the colonizers are getting their comeuppance. While this movie tells a powerful story of slavery and the painful history that many Africans suffered through, this tale is more focused on resilience, joy, and healing through that pain. This is a story of Black women sticking together, fighting oppression, and being truly excellent, so much so that they can be kings. Bow down and revel in their glory.

Don't Worry Darling: This movie has been an absolute nightmare for its publicists. There have been innumerable stories about behind-the-scenes drama and all manner of conflicts between the cast and crew, and all of that seems to have bled into this becoming a pretty poorly reviewed film. But I'm here to tell you to forget all that and just watch this movie on its own merits. As far as I can tell, the reason it has gotten such bad reviews is because most film critics are white men and they probably feel far too attacked by this movie. 

This movie is a MOOD. I spent two hours in the theatre feeling paranoid and freaked out, and never being quite sure what was going to happen next. Thanks to the undeniably weird and great score from John Powell and the twisty plot from screenwriter Katie Silberman, you will feel vaguely unsettled for the entire runtime as you try to piece together what exactly is going on and what lies beneath the surface of this seemingly picture perfect 1950s world where the men all go off to work at some mysterious place called the Victory Project, while their wives wear beautiful outfits (kudos to costume designer Arianne Phillips), cook delicious meals (I have never craved bacon and eggs more), and live a life of idle luxury. We follow Alice (the incandescent Florence Pugh) who is terribly in love with her husband, Jack (Harry Styles, putting in a shockingly good performance), and appears to be fond of her life in this idyll. However, she suddenly starts to have bad dreams, and is overwhelmed by a dread that something is not quite right. And the audience will then be taken on a frantic journey to figure out what exactly has gone wrong here.

It is wild to me that after directing Booksmart, this is what Olivia Wilde chose to direct next. It is a completely different genre, but is directed with such self-assurance on an epic scale that captures all the glamour of this world as well as its exceedingly seedy underbelly. This is a movie about women and their rich inner lives, and men's desires to squash those inner lives. Wilde captures all that psychological turmoil masterfully, using weird and wonderful imagery, with a noble assist from cinematographer Matthew Libatique to give us this gorgeous and gripping tale. Once all the publicity dies down around this film, give the woman a budget to direct whatever she wants to next, because I, for one, am ready to see any story she wants to tell. 

Splendid Satires: See How They Run & Do Revenge

I recently watched two movies that are both excellent examples of their genres whilst also serving as loving satires of those genres. Whether you’re into British murder or American vengeance, read on for more about these wickedly funny and smart films.

See How They Run: Heading into this film, I knew it was a period piece, had a phenomenal cast, and they needed to solve a murder. But boy oh boy, I was so ridiculously pleased to discover that it was an homage to Agatha Christie. And not just in theory: the movie is set in 1953 London and is built around the premise that someone has been murdered backstage in the theater where The Mousetrap has played its 100th show (The Mousetrap is still running in London today, and has now completed more than 28,000 shows). And if you’re a Christie fan, there may be a fun surprise for you towards the end of the movie.

Saoirse Ronan, ever wondrous, stars as Constable Stalker, a new recruit in the London police force. The police are trying out a diversity initiative to introduce more women into their ranks, so the Commissioner pairs her up with Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell, who is great, but as one of the few non-British cast members, has a questionable accent). Stoppard is world-weary and has a bit of a drinking problem, while Stalker is eager to prove herself and likes to take copious notes, so we get a nice Odd Couple to investigate this murder and its numerous red herrings.

The supporting cast is stacked with the likes of David Oyelewo, Ruth Wilson, and Adrien Brody, and everyone looks like they are having the absolute time of their life swanning about in these wonderful costumes on fabulous sets, spouting classic murder mystery dialogue at each other. The script is exceedingly meta, with flashbacks and callbacks, and a running commentary on the classic structure of murder mysteries in general but Agatha Christie novels in particular. Written by Mark Chappell and directed by Tom George, this movie is a delight, fast-paced and captivating, and I had a big smile on my face for the entire runtime. I grew up on these books and to see them spoofed so lovingly but still with a truly well-plotted mystery at the core was a joy. Bring on the sequel.

Do Revenge: I hadn't heard of this movie until a friend (hi Joe!) mentioned reading an article about it. When the Netflix algorithm started pestering me to watch it, I figured I’d give it a shot, and within a few minutes, I was quickly sucked into a dazzling tale of high school drama and retribution.

Maya Hawke and Camila Mendes star as Eleanor and Drea, two girls who become unlikely allies when they decide to team up and ruin the lives of the people who turned them into social outcasts. They both attend Rosehill, an elite high school in Miami filled with entitled rich kids, and one of the main targets of their Revenge is Max (Austin Abrams), who took an intimate video Drea had sent him, shared it with the entire school, and promptly broke up with her. Now he’s dating some new girl and smarmily trying to spin the whole incident into an extracurricular club where he can pretend he's an ally to women. He has got to go down.

The casting of this movie is pristine, and reflects how far we’ve come with the Netflix Cinematic Universe. Hawke is (initially) playing a very similar character to her role as Robin in Stranger Things while Abrams is playing deliciously against type after his turn as the heartthrob in Dash & Lily (though let’s be honest, Dash is still an annoying rich teenage boy, just less evil than Max). The Headmaster of the school is Sarah Michelle Gellar, a brilliant tip of the hat to her turn in Cruel Intentions, and this movie is clearly a loving ode to all the 90s teen movies millennials grew up on. There’s a bit of a makeover a la She’s All That, there’s lots of airheads and high fashion a la Clueless, and while the film boasts a spectacular Gen Z soundtrack featuring the likes of Tate McRae and Olivia Rodrigo, the tail end of this movie features songs that are so quintessentially 90s that I have no illusions as to who the target audience is. It’s me.

Co-written and directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, this is a movie about all those teen movies we loved growing up, but boy there are some excellent twists and turns. The final half hour gave me whiplash; I was never quite sure which character had the upper hand and who was going to come out on top. And the production and costume design is pastel perfection. The plot is taking place in this bizarre universe that only exists in the movies, but is nonetheless insanely good fun. Watch this movie when you need two hours of solid entertainment, and if you’re a millennial, inject this directly into your veins for a solid shot of nostalgia with a Gen Z chaser. If this is what millenial women are doing when they’re given the power to write a script and direct a movie, praise be.

"B" Movies: Barbarian, Brahmastra: Part One - Shiva, Breaking

Yes, I have now watched so many films that I'm starting to categorize them alphabetically. What follows is some horror, Bollywood, and drama, all catering to a variety of tastes and demographics. Wade on in to see if you find something you like. 

Barbarian: I had zero interest in watching this movie - I saw the trailer in front of a lot of movies all summer long and it seemed like a straight-up horror movie about strangers who get terrorized by something lurking in the basement of their Airbnb. But then the reviews said this movie had other elements that weren't captured by the trailer. Most crucially...it was funny. Well then. You know that the only horror I'm into is funny horror, so I headed out to see what all the fuss was about.

Written and directed by Zach Cregger, this is a film that is told in three acts, and while the smash cuts are abrupt and give you a bit of whiplash, all three parts coalesce to a wonderful whole about how white men are the scourge of this earth. Or at least, that's my feminist interpretation. The movie opens with Tess (Georgina Campbell) and Keith (Bill Skarsgard) who are strangers sharing an Airbnb after a booking mishap. When Tess discovers a creepy hidden room in the basement, she naturally wants to run far away. Keith, as a typical white man, thinks she is being hysterical and goes down to investigate. Which is when things go very wrong. I won't provide further details about what happens after that, but let me just say it involves more white men doing dumb/evil things, and it all escalates in fine fashion. 

There are some laugh-out-loud moments in the second act of this film involving an unexpected actor. And the third act is very gory and dramatic, but all lends itself to this film's central premise - when all is said and done, who is truly the Barbarian in this movie? 

Brahmastra: Part One - Shiva (God that's a lot of punctuation): Again, I had zero interest in watching this movie, Bollywood's attempt to create an "Astraverse," which is like a Marvel Cinematic Universe but based on a ramshackle ode to Hindu mythology. However, my boyfriend dragged me to the theatre and what followed was a three-hour extravaganza that was pretty dumb, but made me laugh a lot at how dumb it was, so that was a win.

My main takeaway is that Bollywood has finally learned how to do special effects. I couldn't fault the CGI in this film; it was all very well done and I didn't cringe at any of the effects-laden action scenes. But oh boy did I cringe at the dialogue. The central romance between Shiva (Ranbir Kapoor) and Isha (Alia Bhatt) involves barely any communication beyond randomly saying "I love you" to each other at stark intervals, and the rest of the movie is just exposition upon exposition to explain the convoluted jimjams and McGuffins that make up this universe. There's so much world-building required here, and writer-director Ayan Mukerji is very into Tell, not Show. 

So yeah. Expect this movie to be dumb. But you can revel in its dumbness and have a great time. There's not enough music and dancing, so if that's your main draw for a Bollywood movie, you will be disappointed, but if you just want Amitabh Bachchan fighting mythological warriors with a flaming sword, you might be sated.

Breaking: Finally, a movie that I did want to see. And it certainly did not disappoint. Deftly directed by Abi Damaris Corbin, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Kwame Kwei-Armah, this film is based on the true story of Brian Brown-Easley, a Marine Corps veteran who walked into a bank and took two managers hostage in order to gain attention about how unfairly he is being treated by the Veterans Administration.

John Boyega plays Brian, while Nicole Beharie and Selenis Leyva are Estel and Rosa, the two bank managers trying to stay calm while dealing with this man who is strangely polite and considerate but also claims to have a bomb in his bag that will blow the bank up. And I was surprised and moved to realize that this movie also stars Michael K. Williams in his final film role as Eli Bernard, the negotiator tasked with talking to Brian and ensuring that this situation doesn't continue to escalate. Connie Britton also plays a pivotal role as Lisa Larson, a local TV news producer who Brian contacts to get some publicity. As she calmly talks to him to get the whole story, she is definitely channeling Tammy Taylor from Friday Night Lights.

This is a sad but also enraging story that picks at many of the scabs of American society - the lack of an adequate safety net, the shoddy way we treat our veterans, how easy it is to slide into financial ruin, and of course, the extreme danger of being a Black man in America. Throughout the film, Brian knows he's on thin ice because he is a Black man committing a crime, and the two bank managers, who are both women of color, whilst terrified, also have such empathy for his plight. But as much as these characters are trying to help each other, the system is going to get in the way. It's a taut, moving film, with a tour de force central performance from Boyega. It's not a feel-good watch, but it certainly feels like a necessary one.

The Other Two & Mo: Comedy Gold

Over the past month, I binged all of Mo in two days and then made my way through two seasons of The Other Two. One's a New York comedy about a showbiz family, the other is about a Palestinian asylum-seeker in Houston. They could not be more different but they are both hilarious and deserve your eyeballs. Let's get into it.

Mo: Created by and starring Mo Amer as the titular character, the show is loosely based on his story of growing up as a Palestinian refugee in Houston. This is not the typical sitcom character we get to see on television and it's absolutely revelatory. The show was co-created by Ramy Youssef, which explains why it gave me strong Ramy vibes, but it is a unique and wonderful foray into the American immigrant experience and the endless hustle and paperwork it entails.

There's a lot of Arabic, which of course made me happy, but there's also a fair amount of Spanish, showcasing the cultural hodgepodge that immigrants are so often quick to embrace. Teresa Ruiz plays Mo's longtime girlfriend, Maria, a Catholic Latina, which sets up some wonderful religious tensions with the family and Mo himself who does embrace his Muslim identity and thinks she should convert. It's very funny to see his discomfort when he walks into a church and wants to take his shoes off, or his horror if she makes the sign of the cross over him as that might anger Allah. And watching his mother (played by the extraordinary Farah Bsieso) reconcile herself to the fact that her son is dating this woman, makes for a fun adventure. 

The supporting cast is rounded out by Omar Elba as Sameer, Mo's possibly autistic brother, Tobe Ngigwe as Nick, Mo's Nigerian best friend, and Lee Eddy as Lizzie Horowitz, Mo's lawyer. This is a dynamic, vibrant cast that plays off each other in interesting and endlessly compelling ways for eight episodes. It's a comedy but it also features a great deal of drama - there's a lot of trauma that Mo needs to unpack about his undocumented status in America, what happened to his family in Palestine, and how to deal with everything going on in his life. It's a singularly beautiful show that has much to say about mental health, family, chosen family, and why you always need to carry a bottle of olive oil around with you. I laughed, I cried, it was a wild ride. And it all ends with a bang that ensures I will be the first in line to hit Play on Season 2.

The Other Two: I cannot think of any other comedy I have recently watched that is so eminently quotable. For example, my boyfriend can't stop saying "I sell milk" and loudly cackling, while I keep going "I am his son. I am straight. I am from Kansas." None of this will make any sense to you, but my God, just start watching this show and fall down the rabbit hole with us.

The show is about the Dubek family, consisting of Pat (the great Molly Shannon) and her three children. The two oldest, Brooke and Cary (Helene York and Drew Tarver) are millennials struggling to carve out an identity for themselves in New York City. Cary is a struggling actor, who never seems to find a decent guy to be with, while Brooke is a former dancer who now has no idea what to do with her career or her love life. When their thirteen-year old brother, Chase (Case Walker, who is basically a mini Justin Bieber), becomes insanely famous after a song he released on YouTube goes viral, the two older siblings must reconcile themselves to playing second fiddle to their kid brother, but also perhaps leech off his fame to make their own dreams come true. 

Ken Marino also stars as Streeter, Chase's hapless manager, and over the course of two seasons, this show has leaped from strength to strength in developing its characters. In the first season, everyone was coming to grips with Chase's fame and what this meant for them. In the second season, everyone is more established, getting more famous, and therefore becoming more self-absorbed, causing many spirals of increasingly complex hilarity. This show could so easily be a cynical satire, but what really makes it sing is that at the end of the day, this is a family that truly cares about each other and wants each member to be happy. So no matter how wacky their antics get, there is so much heart as they find their way back to each other and seek out some normalcy underneath all the trappings of fame. Created by Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider, each episode is a tightly-scripted farce that will make you laugh till you cry. You could watch and re-watch endlessly and still find another joke to crack you up. So start your binge and prepare to never stop.

Mid-September Movie Round-Up: Vengeance, Three Thousand Years of Longing, Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul., Pinnochio

It's official, there are too many movies. So this month, you're gonna get a real hodgepodge of reviews of all the things I've been watching in theaters and on demand. Settle in for a mish mash of genres, settings, and actors - it's gonna be a bumpy ride!

Vengeance: Written and directed by B. J. Novak, who also stars, this is a story about Ben, a New York podcaster who flies down to Texas for the funeral of a girl he was "hanging out" with in that wonderfully noncommittal fashion shared by the straight men of NYC. The family of the dead woman mistakenly believed that he was her serious boyfriend, and he, in search of a good subject for a podcast, lets them continue to think that. The woman's brother, Ty (Boyd Holbrook), is convinced she was murdered, and that the official verdict of death by overdose is a cover-up. Ben doesn't believe him, but still thinks the story is worth pursuing as a treatise on America. He meets the people around this sleepy Texan town, spouts some aphorisms about the South, and is generally a pretentious dimwit. But then things take a turn...maybe that murder theory wasn't so wild after all?

This movie is...fine. It is wonderfully satirical about podcasters and pretentious coastal elites trying to stereotype Texans, and is also excellent at painting a scathing portrait of a very particular kind of white cis-het man. The opening scene literally consists of Ben and John Mayer (yes, THE John Mayer) talking about their inability to commit and the nameless women they are currently pursuing. The movie is funny, but then it also tries to have some sort of deeper meaning, and that's where it fails. If the tone of the film had been light throughout, it would have been a much more worthy watch, but as it currently stands, it's a good streaming film for when you need to while away some time on the couch.

Three Thousand Years of Longing: Somewhere, there's a director's cut of this film that hopefully does a better job of expressing what George Miller (who also co-wrote the movie with Augusta Gore, basing the script on a short story by A. S. Byatt) wanted to say. Unfortunately, what I saw in the theatre was some sort of sad One Thousand and One Nights adaptation that quickly fizzled out. 

Tilda Swinton stars as Alithea, a narratologist (someone who studies stories from across the world - I want that job) who picks up an old glass bottle in Istanbul and opens it to find a Djinn (Idris Elba). Naturally, he offers her three wishes, but she has read all the stories and knows there are always consequences and tricks in making any magical wishes. The Djinn, desperate to convince her to make her wishes, proceeds to tell her the story of how he came to be in this bottle, a story that spans many masters, love affairs, and tales of heartbreak. His tales are whimsical, with great production and costume design, but there’s also way too much gratuitous female nudity and general fetishizing of Arabian lore that made me squirm. And when the Djinn finally finishes his tale, the movie takes an abrupt turn with Alithea getting to play more of a central part. But her character is vastly underwritten and her motivations are somewhat pathetic; it is a waste to relegate an actress like Tilda Swinton to such a nothing role. Overall, this movie could have been something, but it got too consumed with the aesthetics and completely lost the plot. Scheherazade is rolling over in her grave. 

Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. Written and directed by Adamma Ebo, this movie is a solid comedy that then veers into drama but without giving you too much whiplash. It is anchored by two great performances from Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown as First Lady Trinitie Childs and her husband, Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs who led a Southern Baptist megachurch until a scandal forced them to shut down. A year later, they now have a documentary film crew following them around to showcase the weeks leading up to their grand re-opening. The Childs are decked out in amazing get-ups (shoutout to the film’s costume designer, Lorraine Coppin, who does a great deep dive here about the film's fashions) and praising the Lord, but as the film progresses, it becomes clear that their marriage is struggling, they have competition for their congregation, and the Pastor’s pride is about to goeth before a fall.

The script does a beautiful job of eking out the nature of the scandal that befell the Childs. It took three revelations before I was fully up to speed on what exactly Pastor Childs had done, and I appreciated that slow burn alongside all the silliness of watching this man strut his stuff for the camera crew. But speaking of slow burns, Regina Hall is magnificent as the long-suffering wife of a great man, a woman who is trying her best to support this peacock of a husband who has dragged her name through the mud. The mounting anger and resentment is delicious to behold and I loved watching how it all played out at the very end. I do think the script could have been a bit tighter with some snappier dialogue and less emphasis on the Pastor’s speechifying. But for a debut movie, Adamma Ebo knocked it out of the park, and I look forward to seeing what she brings us in future films.

Pinocchio: Listen. The less said about this movie, the better. I was bored, it was on Disney+, it starred Tom Hanks as Geppetto, I thought how bad could it be?! Well, turns out, pretty bad. I can’t remember if I’ve ever seen the original 1940 animated movie apart from assorted clips, but I cannot fathom why Disney would choose this for a live-action remake, though it does make sense why they didn’t bother releasing it in theaters. I assume Tom Hanks wanted something to show his grandkids, but otherwise, this movie is a bust. The animation is beautifully done and showcases the strides we've made at integrating animation into these live-action remakes, but this is a story no one was clamoring for. There’s no consistency in terms of when characters are humans or when they are arbitrarily talking animals, and there’s no fun modernization of this tale to make it feel worthy of an adaptation, apart from maybe a commentary on people’s obsession with becoming famous? The only lesson I learnt from this movie was that it’s bad to tell lies, so here’s the truth. This movie does not need to exist, and you do not need to watch it. Yeesh.