There is a holiness to the heart's affection.
Weekly Directed By Women Viewing Guide
This week I am recommending a new thriller starring Nicole Kidman, a French pastoral coming-of-age film, Jenni Olson shorts, the final film in a comic book franchise, an Elaine May classic, a satirical rom-com starring Michelle Pfeiffer, and a sweetly comedic short film from Palestine.
Tomorrow at 11:00am I will be presenting Jane Campion’s under-appreciated masterwork Bright Star, about the star-crossed relationship between poet John Keats and his muse Fanny Brawne (my cat’s namesake), on glorious 35mm. I may promptly die afterwards, but if not I will be in conversation with the Chicago Reader’s Kat Sachs and then be signing copies of my book Cinema Her Way in the lobby at the Music Box Theatre. You can get tickets here, and trust me, you will not want to miss this rare screening!!! Also, you can read a bit more about my book in my interviews with Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune and Eunice Alpasan of WTTW PBS.
I wasn’t the biggest fan of director Mimi Cave’s previous film Fresh, but I believe the road to equality is paved with as many mediocre women as it is men, and I love Kidman’s commitment to working with women directors, so I did indeed watch Cave’s latest film Holland. Vaguely set in the early 2000s, the thriller stars Nicole Kidman as Nancy Vandergroot, a teacher in the small midwestern town of Holland, Michigan who slowly begins to suspect her husband Fred (Matthew Macfadyen) of living a double life, and drags fellow teacher Dave (Gael García Bernal) into her schemes to find out the truth. The film is not good. I think it’s trying for some kind of heightened, stylized tone a la Brian De Palma’s 80s film, but it doesn’t work at all, and the obtrusive score absolutely does the bland visuals no favors. The script by Andrew Sodorski feels so completely outdated and never really established stakes or develops its characters at all, or maybe has gotten butchered in the 12+ years it took for this project to manifest on the screen, either way it’s a misfire. The film also somehow manages to waste Rachel Sennott, which is just the biggest of cinematic crimes. All I know for sure is I will likely not be watching whatever it is Cave does next. If you’re curious, though, you can stream the film now on Prime.
I saw Louise Courvoisier’s feature film debut Holy Cow out of Cannes last year and thought it was a lovely pastoral coming-of-age film with a strong lead performance from newcomer Théo Abadie. Shot on location in Jura, Eastern France, the film centers on eighteen-year-old Totone (Abadie), whose carefree days are disrupted by the sudden death of his father. Now responsible for raising his younger sister Claire (Luna Garret), Totone must not only figure out how to get a job — he must keep one as well. Soon, he finds himself enthralled by the process of traditional cheese-making, as well as catching the eye of a pretty girl (Maiwene Barthelemy), and becomes determined to enter a competition whose prize money will help him keep his father’s dairy farm. Overall, the film is a sweet and gorgeous looking love letter to Courvoisier’s rural home region. The film opens this week at Film Forum in New York City.
On April 1st renowned Bay Area filmmaker, programmer, and archivist Jenni Olson will be joined by Jon Kiefer at the Roxie in San Francisco for a conversation after the screening of two of her short films The Royal Road and 575 Castro St. as part of Framline’s 40 Years of Queer celebration. Released in 2015 and shot on 16mm, The Royal Road is an essay film that follows the titular road up the California coast as it reveal stories of Junípero Serra and the Spanish colonization of California, the Mexican American War, Olson’s own pursuit of unavailable women and butch identity, and even Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Filmed on the set of Gus Van Sant’s Milk, her 2008 short film 575 Castro St. contrasts the film’s recreation of Milk’s Castro Camera Store, which also served as his campaign headquarters, with an audio excerpt from a recording Milk made in that very camera shop on November 18, 1977, a few weeks before the landmark election made him one of the first openly gay election officials in the United States, which was labeled “In-Case,” and was meant to be played in the event that he was assassinated. Both films blend history with Olson’s unique cinematic vision, allowing viewers to cross through time as they contemplate the past, present, and future of San Francisco. You can get tickets for this special screening here.
There’s not much to say about Kelly Marcel’s bizarro buddy comedy Venom: The Last Dance that will make you watch the film if you haven’t already seen the previous two films, but I just want to share that I love how Marcel and co-writer-producer-star Tom Hardy ended the franchise and I will miss it dearly. You can stream the film now on Netflix.
I just really love Elaine May’s black romantic comedy A New Leaf. It’s goofy and bleak and perfect. If you don’t already know the plot, it stars Walter Matthau as Henry Graham, a rich playboy whose family has run out of funds, so he does the only thing a useless scion can do: find a wealthy bride and then plot her demise. But when he marries shy botanist Henrietta Lowell (May), he gets more than he bargained for. You can stream the film on PlutoTV, and if you are interested in learning more about May and her career, I recommend checking out Carrie Courogen’s biography Miss May Does Not Exist and Elizabeth Alsop’s critical survey of her films Contemporary Film Directors: Elaine May.
A few weeks ago the TCM Classic Film Festival announced that they will be sponsoring a hand and footprint ceremony for Michelle Pfeiffer at the TCL Chinese Theatre during the festival this year, so it felt right to suggest an off the beaten path film from her filmography. I had actually tried to interview writer-director Amy Heckerling for my book, but we weren’t ever able to align schedules unfortunately. However, during the many months that it seemed like it might happen, I was able to catch up with the few films of hers that I had never seen, including the 2007 rom-com I Could Never Be Your Woman, starring Pfeiffer as a divorced single mother named Rosie who is a writer and producer for a television sitcom called You Go Girl, Paul Rudd as Adam, an actor with whom she becomes romantically involved, and an extremely young Saoirse Ronan as her spunky daughter Izzie. The film works best when its sharp bite is aimed at the double standard within the film industry in particular (and the dumbing down of sitcoms and wave of "reality" TV has aged particularly well), but falters when it aims its much deserved anger at female pop stars rather than the system that built them and the media landscape that both exploited and abused them. That said, the cast here is so good, from the leads to the supporting players, cementing Heckerling as one of the great modern director of actors. You can stream the film now on Tubi.
This week’s pick from the Palestine Film Index is Suha Araj’s hilarious and sweet short film The Cup Reader, which debuted at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival. The film centers on Warde, a middle aged match making mystic who lives with her sister Jaleleh, who is in love with. . .George Clooney. Over the course of the twelve-minute short we meet several of Warde’s clients, from young local girls to Americans living in Palestine to superstitious old women, who seek Warde’s guidance as she reads their tea leaves and helps them make matrimonial decisions. This is a joyous film that pokes gentle fun at both traditions and modernity with a light, affable touch. I hope someday Araj makes a feature film because I love her style! You can watch the film here on Vimeo.
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Thank you for saving me some time re: Holland! Will 10/10 skipping, what a mess