More Than A Magazine, A Movement
As with the book her film adapts, Rebecca Hall’s “Passing” chronicles a series of encounters between childhood friends Irene (Tessa Thompson) and Clare (Ruth Negga) who reunite after a chance encounter. Both women are light-skinned Black women. Clare has elected to pass as white, having married a white man who openly states how much he “hates Negros.” Irene can pass, but only does so occasionally, “for convenience,” she explains.
The documentary “My Name is Pauli Murray” does admirable work not only recounting the facts of Murray’s life, but also of reminding viewers how many of Murray’s resistances to the discriminatory status quo occurred years or even decades before the landmark civil rights cases we know from history books.
“Land,” “Mayday” and “The World to Come”:
On the surface, a film about leaving civilization, a feminist dystopia, and a lesbian period drama couldn’t be more different. But, familiar characters emerge from each: strong women who persevere in environments indifferent or even hostile to their desires and needs.
In both Cusp and At the Ready, the rapport filmmakers developed with their teenage subjects comes through starkly in the raw emotion and often difficult questions these youth confront.
The first in a series of reviews from the 2021 Sundance Film Festival focused on films directed by women.
This year, I was lucky to watch three biographical documentaries directed by women—Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It; Ailey; and Playing with Sharks that focus on the lives of cultural icons Rita Moreno, Alvin Ailey and Valerie Taylor, respectively.
Ms. Magazine aligned itself with the Amazonian fighter for peace and justice from its inception, featuring the red-, white- and blue-bedecked heroine on the cover of its first full issue. Five times, to date, Wonder Woman has graced this magazine’s cover, linking her inexorably with women’s empowerment and feminism.
My problem with “Wonder Woman 1984” isn’t so much the plot itself—although it’s pretty muddled—but the way the machinations of the plot rest on gendered characterizations we really shouldn’t have to put up with anymore in 2020.
What better way to decompress from a particularly harrowing year than enjoying some great, feminist films released to streaming in 2020.
Feminist film critic Aviva Dove-Viebahn offers her take on the new holiday film “Happiest Season”:
“Am I unfair in blaming Clea DuVall for her movie’s missed opportunities, for telling an opportunistic story that resembles the ones we’ve been told over and over for decades now?”
“La Leyenda Negra,” available on HBO Max and HBO Latino, is a rare gift, offering glimpses into the contradictory forces at work in the coming of age of Latinx teenagers in contemporary America.