Feminist TV
Tiger Stripes
Written and directed by Amanda Nell Eu
Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, Fadango at Home, Google Play Movies
A coming-of-age horror film in the vein of cult classics like Ginger Snaps and Jennifer’s Body, Tiger Stripes takes the action to a Malaysian girls’ school where best friends Zaffan (Zafreen Zairizal), Farah (Deena Ezral) and Mariam (Piqa) are living relatively carefree lives until 12-year-old Zaffan becomes the first among her classmates to get her period. Already a bit of a rabble-rouser, Zaffan faces harassment and teasing, including from Farah, who dis-plays a jealous mean-girl streak that even sweet, quiet Mariam cannot offset.
But a little blood and acne are the least of Zaffan’s problems: Her body starts changing in more monstrous ways, driven by her rebellious nature and a mysterious presence in the surrounding jungle. And then other girls and some teachers are overtaken by a mysterious delirium, shattering the constraint of the strict school. When a self-aggrandizing guru is called to exorcize the demons affecting the girls, Zaffan has her chance to take a stand. Should she return to the constraints of her childhood or embrace the freedom of her definition of womanhood?
Tiger Stripes was chosen as Malaysia’s entry for the Oscars, and it’s easy to understand why. Deft and well-balanced, with impressive acting by its young cast and a storyline rendered both familiar and uncanny, Amanda Nell Eu’s feature film debut doesn’t shy away from its horror bona fides. Still, even its most disturbing moments are interwoven with depth and empathy.
Girls5eva
Created by Meredith Sardino
Including Girls5eva in this column might be cheating— just a little—since this uproariously funny comedy aired its first two seasons on Peacock from 2020 to 2022. And yet the series is great enough to warrant another nod now for its third (and hopefully not final!) season after a move to Netflix and an almost two-year hiatus. The show follows the tribulations of four members of an erstwhile ’90s girl group who find themselves trying to get the band back together 20 years after their celebrity star fell from the pop music heavens.
Season 3 finds the pragmatic Dawn (Sara Bareilles), diva Wickie (Renée Elise Goldsberry), animal-and-lady- lover Gloria (Paula Pell) and ditzy Summer (Busy Phillips) on tour with the reunited Girls5eva, a motley ad-venture that includes more hilarious pop-song send-ups like “Tap Into Your (Fort) Worth,” “Sweet’N Low Daddy” and “The Medium Time.”
Ever the comedy, often outrageously silly and consistently hilarious, Girls5eva still gets at the heart of what it’s like to be a woman in your 40s trying to recapture the passion of your youth but with the wisdom of experience— cynicism and hope commingling as you learn to forge a new path.
Best Fiction Films
Sisi & I
Directed by Frauke Finsterwalder
Apple TV+, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Fandango at Home, Google Play Movies
Fans of idiosyncratic (a)historical fantasy like Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite or Apple TV’s Dickinson will surely appreciate Sisi & I, a reimagining of the final years of the life of the enigmatic Empress Elisabeth of Austria (affectionately known as Sisi), who was married to Emperor Franz Joseph I until her assassination in 1898. The director intentionally eschews historical accuracy—including a fantastic contemporary soundtrack—in favor of a gripping dark comedy meant to challenge some of the popular mythology around Sisi that’s been chronicled in many other films and shows over the past century.
Beautifully shot and brilliantly acted, the film is told through the eyes of Countess Irma (Sandra Hüller), hired as lady-in-waiting to the mercurial Sisi (Susanne Wolff). Charming and vivacious, but also openly disdainful of her courtly obligations and suffering from obsessions with her age and weight, Sisi is hiding from the world in an all-women commune in Corfu when she first meets Irma, who ultimately travels with her to Algiers, Budapest, and England and back to Vienna, as the fates of both women become inextricably intertwined.
Quiz Lady
Written by Jen D’Angelo, and directed by Jessica Yu
If you’re looking for a buddy comedy that manages to balance charm and smart repartee with an unselfconscious dose of gratifying silliness, look no further than Quiz Lady. Its stars alone are a winning combination: Awkwafina plays Anne, a guarded 30-something who keeps to herself, lives alone with her beloved senior dog, and maintains a lifelong obsession with a television game show; and Sandra Oh plays Jenny, Anne’s free-spirited older sister, whose unwelcome arrival after their mom skips town to escape her gambling debts throws Anne’s world into a tailspin.
Obsessive in her dedication to Can’t Stop the Quiz, Anne sits in front of her TV each night flawlessly answering each question ahead of the show’s televised contestants. Thinking she’s helping her sister out of her shell, Jenny records a video of Anne’s nightly ritual—and it quickly goes viral. Suddenly Anne’s the “quiz lady” and everyone wants a piece of her, from her previously dismissive coworkers to the gangster who kidnaps her dog to gain leverage to recoup her mother’s debts. When an opportunity to compete on the very quiz show that has fascinated Anne since childhood comes calling, Jenny persuades her younger sister that it’s her best chance to save her dog (and change her life).
Amid the one-liners and sisterly shenanigans, Quiz Lady offers some unexpectedly poignant observations about how childhood experiences shape us as adults; throughout it all, Oh and Awkwafina shine in this sweet and joyful comedy about the challenges and rewards of sisterhood.
Scrapper
Written and directed by Charlotte Regan
Apple TV+, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Youtube TV, Youtube, Paramount+, Roku Channel, Sling, Fandango at Home, Google Play Movies, fuboTV
A grand jury prize-winning documentary at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, Going to Mars takes its title from poet Nikki Giovanni’s musings about space travel serving as a metaphor for slavery: the deep blue of a seemingly never-ending ocean and the darkness of space; the haunting experience of heading out into an unforgiving unknown with no way to turn back. But there’s peace and power mixed in with Giovanni’s allegory, and hopefulness for the future that’s reflected evocatively in this documentary on her life and work.
Merging the usual archival footage, interviews, and recordings of Giovanni’s home life and professional appearances with contemplative dreamlike sequences that offer illustrations of her ideas, achievements,s and poetic introspection, Going to Mars exposes how the juxtaposition of everyday life, politics, activism, sm, and art can shape and sustain a profoundly creative life.
The Persian Version
Written and directed by Maryam Keshavarz
Netflix, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Fandango at Home, Google Play Movies,
Winner of a 2023 screenwriting prize and the audience award at Sundance for its writer-director-producer Maryam Keshavarz, The Persian Version takes Keshavarz’s real life as inspiration for a spirited dramedy about mother-daughter relationships, family legacies and the immigrant experience.
Leila (Layla Mohammadi), a young Iranian American filmmaker with eight brothers, an eternally disappointed mother, and a father in need of a heart transplant, finds herself pregnant after a one-night stand with a man shortly after divorcing her wife. This surprising turn of events catapults Leila and her family into a series of meditations on their lives together and, in particular, a secret her mother has long been keeping about why she emigrated from Iran in the 1960s.
Refusing an easy or familiar narrative, The Persian Version plays with time, memory, and agency by delivering a significant portion of its action through the eyes of a young version of Leila’s mother, who wrests control of the story from her filmmaking daughter.
Americanish
Directed by Iman Zawahry
Apple TV+, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Fandango at Home, Google Play Movies
A fun and spirited guilty-pleasure rom-com, Americanism takes the beloved conventions of the genre and reimagines them through a Pakistani American lens. Sisters Maryam (Salena Qureshi) and Sam (Aizzah Fatima) are close, both living at home with their mother. Thirty-year-old Sam is a career-driven publicist, and Maryam is a college senior well on her way to achieving her dream of attending Harvard Medical School. Enter their cousin Ameera (Shenaz Treasury), who arrives from Pakistan for an extended visit with a singular intent: “to find a nice Pakistani American doctor to marry.”
Antics ensue. Ameera finds herself increasingly charmed by Gabriel (played by comedian Godfrey), despite the fact that he, a Black store owner, doesn’t meet any of her specifications for a suitable husband. Sam grapples with her moral compass as she pursues a promotion at work by bolstering the social media presence of a conservative politician. And Maryam meets another premed student who seems like the perfect match. In the end, all three, and the Khan family matriarch, learn that perhaps it’s better when dreams, as the tagline professes, only come “true…ish.”
Sick Girl
Written and directed by Jennifer Cram
Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, Fandango at Home, Google Play Movies
As teenagers, Wren (Nina Dobrev), Cece (Stephanie Koenig), Laurel (Sherry Cola,) and Jill (Hayley Magnus) were inseparable, always painting the town red. Some 15 years later, only Wren still coasts by as a self-serving party girl, frequently getting kicked out of bars and crashing on Cece’s couch. Her friends, while still around, seem to be drifting away. Cece and Jill have children and partners; Laurel is training for a marathon.
Only ever thinking about herself, Wren frets that her friends are leaving her behind in a lie until an escalating argument causes her to blurt out an unthinkable lie: She has cancer. Suddenly Wren’s friends are back at her side, and she seems to have everything she wanted. Except lies have a way of getting out of hand. When Wren meets Leo (Brandon Mychal Smith) at a cancer support group, he quickly becomes suspicious of her antics. The result is a buddy comedy turned on its head—and it doesn’t take the easy way out. Instead, Sick Girl turns a disconcerting premise into a surprisingly funny story about the limits of atonement, the slippery contours of reconciliation, and the power of friendship to weather us through the worst mistakes in our lives.
