I wanted to like this documentary about “the first all-female band who wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to reach number one in the Billboard album charts.” This fact in itself is worthy of celebration. That this feat occurred in 1982 and hasn’t been repeated is appalling and I was hoping that this documentary by Alison Elwood might shine a light on “why The Go-Go’s?”
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Josephine Decker gives us a rich and textured exploration of feminism and patriarchy, wrapped around a fictionalised account of real-life gothic horror writer Shirley Jackson.
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Having just watched Black Bear (2020), which explores gender roles in its arty maelstrom of a story, The Killing of Two Lovers shows how to nail it. Robert Machoian immerses us in the head and heart of husband and dad David as his marriages crumbles.
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I’m not sure what message director Lawrence Michael Levine was ultimately trying to convey in Black Bear but I thoroughly enjoyed the ride.
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This quite astounding docudrama by brothers Bill and Turner Ross seems to coalesce all that is precious and precarious about the US on the brink of the 2016 election that saw Trump come to power and the lives of the powerless crumble.
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Who knew that the comedy 9 to 5 (1980) was based on an actual grassroots organisation that began in the 70s to advocate for fair work conditions for (mainly female) clerical workers?
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Rob Reiner and Nora Ephron were a magic combination for witty dialogue and interesting characters. Combine that with Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher and Bruno Kirby at the height of their game and you have a film that you can’t help but quote.
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I don’t love everything that Jennifer Garner does but I find her films usually very watchable and there is something about the characters she chooses and the way she comes across in her socials that makes me like her. She is funny.
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Responding to this prompt has taught me that I don’t really like film franchises. Some are diverting but run out of puff after a few films – Bourne Identity, Die Hard, Terminator, Alien, Shrek and so on. Some are great but then are flogged to within an inch of their lives – Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Batman, Harry Potter.
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I suspect I’ll have some extended family members who really like this film and it gets a score of 8.8 on IMDb so I may be a lone reed. I first saw this at the cinema with my mum and dad for our annual Boxing Day treat and remember feeling trapped in my seat for an interminable 142 minutes. Two years later I experienced the same with 182 tedious, gnaw-off-my-leg-to-escape minutes of The English Patient (1996).
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