52 Films By Women: Miss Juneteenth (2020)

Sundance Institute

By Andrea Thompson

A mother in a small Southern town who pushes her daughter to compete in the same beauty pageant she won? This is the kind of scenario that just seems tailor-made for one stereotype after another, from the kind of demeaning, stereotypical has-been so desperate for her glory days she decides to sculpt her rebellious teenage daughter into the same mold she once filled so well, despite her daughter's clear objections.

But writer-director Channing Godfrey Peoples would rather laugh at such tawdry plans – in her feature debut no less – and give us a touching love story between a mother and daughter which also doubles as a kind of coming-of-age for both. The fact that we're introduced to mother Turquoise Jones (Nicole Beharie) first is indicative of Peoples's determination to give her characters their due, rather than devolving into more pernicious stereotypes. Even if their behavior sometimes conforms to them, People's clear-eyed compassion makes all the difference.

There are no "baby mamas" or "welfare queens" here. #MissJuneteenth gives Black Moms the Beautiful, authentic, nuanced story they deserve.#Sundance2020 #sundance #womeninfilm #womenfilmmakers #momsinfilm https://t.co/ao62Xc0BpA

— Aisha Allen 🔜 #Sundance2020 (@Aishaimb) February 1, 2020

That empathy is primarily what makes it so hard to blame Turquoise for being nostalgic. Who wouldn't, given her past glory and pride as the winner of the Miss Juneteenth pageant, especially when her current job at a local restaurant, which she runs in everything but name (well, and title and salary) routinely involves cleaning toilets? Not that she has much time to feel sorry for herself, given that she's a single mother to the 15-year-old Kai (Alexis Chikaeze), who is beginning to envision a path for herself that's quite different from the one her mother has set for her?

Thankfully, Turquoise and Kai's differences never obscure the very real bond they have, which isn't only the movie's heart, but its backbone. Turquoise is never in denial about her daughter's reluctance to be a beauty queen, but while her nostalgia is always a factor, it's never her primary motivation, which is always a better life for Kai. For Turquoise, the pageant is the best way to provide that in a small town where resources and opportunities are scarce enough, but especially so for black women. From the name of the pageant, which is itself an ode to the day slavery was abolished, to the other characters, the majority of whom are also black, race isn't just a topic to be explored, but a force that shapes their lives and decisions.

Gender is also given equal weight. The Juneteenth pageant embodies prestige and history, but there's an actual tangible benefit to being a beauty queen. As in a full scholarship to any black university of the winner's choice...provided they follow the rules, since the organizers make it clear that the winner will represent not just history, but the ideal woman. As such, the contestants are expected to adhere to a strict, very gendered code of conduct in how they dress and conduct themselves, with very real consequences if they violate them. Turquoise knows this firsthand, given her pregnancy resulted in her disqualification from taking the traditional walk, crowning the next reigning queen, and her scholarship. Small wonder Kai finds such expectations restricting, dreaming instead of joining the school's dance squad, which the more conservative Turquoise frowns upon.

Sundance Institute

Think that division is going to translate into one of the film's most touching moments? Well, you're right, but it also brings words like irresistible, empowering, and inspiring to mind. Kai doesn't just discover a middle ground between her mother's interests and her own, she gives her own spin on both her pageant performance of Maya Angelou's “Phenomenal Woman” and her femininity, with a look that involves her natural hair. It's nicely complementary to Turquoise's cemented status as a non-traditional community leader, through her work at the bar, where's she very much respected, and her bond with many of the other town's residents, not to mention her two love interests. The emphasis, however, is always on Turquoise's own longing to create something of her own, which she manages to in her own non-traditional fashion.

In essence, “Miss Juneteenth” is an ode to black mothers in all their imperfect glory, with Turquoise often acting as a leader and mother to her community, even her own mother, a judgmental, alcoholic minister she's estranged from. Turquoise sacrifices for her child while being constantly reminded of the many ways she's seen as a failure, even making a party out of developments such as the lights being shut off. Survival and hope shine through above all.

52 Films By Women: Advantageous (2015)

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By Andrea Thompson

Determination didn’t seem like the right word to describe how far one mother was willing to go to provide a future for her daughter in the 2015 film “Advantageous.” What Gwen (Jacqueline Kim), the mother in question, was trying to accomplish was no less than fighting her way through an entire system built around the commodification of her body and her life. Hence my search for a word which would somehow adequately describe Gwen’s resolve to quietly triumph over the odds. Would any do her justice? Not a new discovery exactly, but rather, a rediscovery of sorts.

Dictionary.com defines perseverance as “steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.” However, there is another, theological element to the word, which is defined as, “continuance in a state of grace to the end, leading to eternal salvation.” It’s a deceptively simplistic concept that might also be the ultimate dream, the source of every fairy tale: if we meet life’s difficulties with dignity, we will get a happy ending.

If only, if only. If only life didn’t give us so much to overcome, or at least a guarantee of some sort of reward for endurance. What truly makes Gwen’s struggles so damn heartbreaking isn’t only that salvation remains elusive, it’s the dystopian world she’s fighting is so damn familiar. At first, she and her 13-year-old daughter Jules (Samantha Kim) seem to be among the haves in a world where the have-nots are steadily growing more plentiful. And the most impoverished among them seem to be women.

It’s not exactly unfamiliar, but “Advantageous” reveals the brutality of this world in an understated, sensitive fashion, all within the budget the film was clearly on. The credit goes not only to director Jennifer Phang, but lead Jacqueline Kim, who also co-wrote the screenplay in addition to giving an incredible performance as a woman who comes to the realization that her hard-fought affluence is built upon an even shakier house of cards than she believed. After Gwen loses her job, everything threatens to come tumbling down.

True, Gwen had a cushy gig selling cosmetic procedures for the Center For Advanced Health And Living, but she was also working below rate on a contractual basis. Her firing is also the direct result of a backlash which emphasizes women returning to the home, as well as valuing their youth and beauty above all else. Gwen is only middle-aged, but the Center already views her as too old to appeal to the highly coveted younger demographic. The labor market has also mostly gone pure tech, and the only viable employment Gwen can find is as an egg donor, since women are rapidly becoming infertile. To make matters worse, Gwen is also on the verge of ensuring Jules a place in an elite world which is closing itself off to newcomers at an even more accelerated rate. A world that requires money for entry.

As Gwen’s desperation grows and she exhausts all her alternatives, she reluctantly decides to take the option the Center was manipulating her into all along, and undergo their radical new procedure, that of transferring a person’s consciousness into a new body. In Gwen’s case, it’s a younger, more racially ambiguous one, which will allow her to do her new job more effectively and boost the Center’s sales even more as Gwen 2.0. But like anything that seems too good to be true, it definitely is, and Gwen discovers it is not her consciousness itself which will be transferred, but rather a copy of it. This twin, essentially, will then awaken in her new body with all her memories and believe she is Gwen, since she’ll know nothing else. But she’s have an entirely separate awareness. Her particular, original consciousness will cease to exist, a murder in the name of progress.

Horrific? Very much so, but Phang and Kim are aware it isn’t accidental that a woman of color is sacrificed so a company can make its bottom line. Such systems often require a certain amount of complicity, more often than not by white women. That complicity isn’t addressed as personified by Jennifer Ehle’s role as Isa Cryer, who has unspecified, high-ranking position at the Center For Advanced Health And Living. The conversations between Isa and Gwen are a reflection of the vast gulf between them, with Isa, the far more privileged white woman, casually referencing Gwen’s obstacles, including her more advanced years, as if the two weren’t about the same age.

Sundance Institute

Even their very real commonality is weaponized against Gwen. When Isa tells her, “There is nothing fiercer than a mother’s love,” it’s nothing approaching an attempt to connect. It’s an excuse, a way to convince herself that what she’s doing to Gwen isn’t murder, but an obstacle to be overcome, where her motherly instincts will surely enable her to pull herself up by her bootstraps. Just what happens to a bond as fiercely loving as the one between Gwen and Jules, who is unaware her mother is committing suicide to ensure her future?

The answer is one of the creepier aspects of “Advantageous.” Jules initially believes Gwen has simply awakened in a new body, but their past closeness is what makes Jules realize this latest model is an entirely different person. Freya Adams does fantastic work as Gwen 2.0, who advocates the very process that has caused her so much mental and physical anguish, and destroyed the love she felt for her daughter. Something has been lost, the film makes that clear. Perhaps because of Jules’s kindness, or because they have no one else, the two tentatively begin to form a new and complicated bond of their own, one which may be strengthened by the old one.

What remains would be easy to dismiss as fatalism, resignation, or conversely, slapped with the manditorily uplifting optimistic designation of resilience. But there’s nothing uplifting about where Gwen 2.0 ends up. Rather, it’s reminiscent of a very female strain of the aforementioned perseverance, one which mostly struggles in silence, finding grace and salvation in any small victories to be found. If it could be called noble, it’s also extremely unrewarding. While Gwen 2.0 may end with her formerly estranged family sitting around her in a beautiful park, it’s clear something undefinable and essential has been lost. She and Jules have just found grace where they can, even if salvation is out of reach.

52 Films By Women: Mansfield Park (1999)

IMDB

By Andrea Thompson

I don’t want to meet the woman who doesn’t love Jane Austen. Many may adore her for the wrong reasons, but she deserves the accolades. With the film adaptation of “Mansfield Park” back on Netflix, it gave me an opportunity to delve into what is for me her most fascinating work, just as a miniseries based on her unfinished novel “Sandition” airs on PBS, and a new “Emma” movie hits theaters next month.

That I find “Mansfield Park” fascinating doesn’t make it my favorite Austen novel by any means. Of all her published works, it isn’t just the only one that could be drastically changed in a modern adaptation, it needs to be. The heroine Fanny Price, with all her passivity, timidity, and priggishness, would not suit today’s audiences, even if she’s depicted with great complexity, even a certain amount of irony. She’s also pretty much always right, which makes her potential to annoy even greater.

With all that, I can’t be unhappy with the changes the 1999 film “Mansfield Park” made to its source material. The words luminous presence gets thrown around a lot, but it’s still the best way to describe Frances O’Connor’s portrayal of the adult Fanny Price, who is sent by her impoverished family to live with her wealthier relations at their titular estate as a child. Patricia Rozema, who directed and wrote the film, isn’t trying to be faithful to the novel, but she does make a bold choice with Fanny’s love interest Edmund (Johnny Lee Miller), who’s also her cousin. Different times is another phrase that gets thrown a lot, but still...eew. Rozema keeps their familial status unchanged, and Miller plays Edmund with such compassion that you’ll get over the ick factor pretty quick.

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Their relationship is also a lot less creepy, with Edmund and Fanny being the same age and interacting as equals, rather than the timid, six-years-younger Fanny depending on him as a protector from her more inconsiderate relatives. Rozema also places even more emphasis on the female characters by eliminating Fanny’s brother William, another close, loving relationship of hers who was also a major plot device. Instead, it’s Fanny’s sister Susan (Sophia Myles) with whom she shares a close bond, despite being separated from her for years. Fanny’s letters to Susan and her writing ambitions are also the impetus for much of Fanny’s direct-to-camera narration.

Fanny’s interactions with Mary Crawford (Embeth Davidtz), her rival for Edmund’s affections, also have strong lesbian undertones, which would be anachronistic at best or exploitative at worst in the hands of a filmmaker less capable than Rozema, who instead imbues them with a vitality and naturalism that’s a kind of counter to the hetero dream world of the 1995 “Pride and Prejudice” miniseries. Taken on its surface, Mary and her brother, the swoonworthy Henry Crawford (Alessandro Nivola), would be the seductive, worldly Londoners who corrupt the morality of the sedate English countryside, but both Austen and Rozema know hypocrisy has no borders or boundaries.

Ethics were in short supply long before the Crawfords arrived anyway, given that the Bertram fortune is built upon slavery and colonialism from their estates in Antigua. If Austen subtly (to modern eyes) alludes to it, Rozema ensures that the slaves who fueled much of the world’s economy are very much present, even if they are kept as off-screen as they most likely were during this time period, forcibly removed from those who profited from their forced labor and wanted no reminders of it. In Fanny, Rozema even draws a kind of parallel between them, and how disposable and vulnerable she is. People think nothing of sending Fanny away, either from her birth family or her adopted one, or marrying her off at will to a wealthy, untrustworthy suitor, although thankfully she doesn’t fully equate their experiences.

IMDB

Not that the other women have it much better, even those with wealth and status. Lindsay Duncan plays a double role as Fanny’s mother, the haggard Mrs. Price and Mansfield matriarch Lady Bertram. The former chose the wrong man, one who never made a fortune and turned out to be a cad, stranding her in poverty and degradation. The latter has a comfortable home and life, but is also a drug addict who mostly spends her days in a languid, laudanum-induced daze. Fanny’s cousin Maria Bertram (Victoria Hamilton) chooses wealth over love, only to discover she’s trapped herself in a gilded cage. 

It’s Mary Crawford, though, who remains one of Austen’s most enjoyable, complicated characters. Like her brother Henry, she’s seductive, flirtatious, and charismatic, and disdains conventional morality and religion in her role as obvious foil to the righteous Fanny. Mary is also capable of great kindness, often standing up for Fanny when she’s mistreated, and showing herself to be capable of change. The film mostly follows Austen’s lead, even when she is the only one to suspect Edmund is in love with Fanny, even if it’s ultimately harsher on her. In another time, Mary might have been an astute businesswoman, but as it is, she is condemned for her cold calculation and amorality after a scandal threatens the reputation of the Bertram family. But her cold analysis is also the catalyst for the family’s realization that they have reaped what they have sown.

The changes Rozema made won’t suit everyone, especially not Austen purists. But Rozema doesn’t just love Jane Austen, she also respects her, and that appreciation is what allows her to make such drastic changes while staying true to Austen’s voice, with all the wit and satire she was known for. To quote the film itself, “It could have turned out differently, I suppose. But it didn’t.”

Film Girl Film's Top 15 Movies Directed by Women In 2019

By Andrea Thompson

2019 was a great year for women in film, with a variety of filmmakers bringing complex stories of women’s experiences to the screen. Below are theoness Film Girl Film has chosen as the standouts, with honorable mentions included.

15. Honey Boy

Amazon Studios

This is a film that screams vanity project. Shia LaBeouf not only penned the story of the turbulent childhood and young adulthood of Otis (played by Noah Jupe at 12 and Lucas Hedges at 22) a child star and obvious proxy, he also stars as Otis's alcoholic father James, whose good (ish) intentions are mostly stifled by his inability to cope with past traumas. But LaBeouf's eschews any kind of cheap thrills or bad behavior justification to bring us a deeply human story of a toxic father-son bond. Certainly LaBeouf's tormented patriarch, a sex offender who is verbally, emotionally, and physically abusive toward his son, has no right to our sympathy, yet he gets it anyway, mostly because LaBeouf doesn't excuse or even fully explain his behavior. He's mostly interested in exploring the history that made James and Otis the men they are, and depicting the tenderness that existed between them despite everything.

14. Jezebel

IMDB

Numa Perrier's deeply autobiographical film brings a black female gaze to sex work as it follows 19-year-old Tiffany (Tiffany Tenille), as she starts working as an internet fetish cam model. In Perrier's deeply complex portrayal, this world can be simultaneously empowering and exploitative, with Tiffany's older sister Sabrina, played by Perrier herself, serving as a mentor and voice of wisdom throughout. As much a coming-of-age story as an exploration of how each sister defines and exploits their sexuality, “Jezebel” disdains both melodrama and judgment for a thoughtful exploration of how those with few resources find a means to achieve power, financial stability, and their human connection.

13. Hustlers

STX Films

“Hustlers” is one of those films that could've just been a puritanical cautionary tale about the dangers of girls gone wild. Good thing writer-director Lorene Scafaria saves her anger for the patriarchy rather than the strippers who come up with a plan to turn the tables on their Wall Street clients after the recession hits. Even smarter, Scafaria anchors her story in the friendship between Ramona (Jennifer Lopez in a career-best performance), the originator of the scheme, and Destiny (Constance Wu). Before 2008, they and their co-workers are able to earn more than a good living, but after the financial crisis, their profession becomes less than viable. So they decide to drug wealthy Wall Street men and get them to spend ridiculous amounts of money, which they would then keep for themselves. By giving women who are normally sexualized furniture center stage, Scafaria allows us to share their delight in scamming the scammers, then their fear as their world inevitably unravels, resulting in an insightful, female-centric crime story that mostly unfolds sans judgement.

12. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Sony Pictures

Given that 2018 saw the release of the critically and commercially successful documentary “Won't You Be My Neighbor?,” did 2019 really need another film about Fred Rogers? Hold that thought, because “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” makes an enthusiastic case for yes. It's probably no coincidence that the posters for both films also mention kindness, since Fred Rogers not only advocated it, he seemed to embody it, and not only to the children who were the target audience of his wildly successful show “Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.” Even if Tom Hanks doesn't have much of a resemblance to Mr. Rogers, he nevertheless seems to channel him and the values he tirelessly championed to an uncanny degree, enough to make journalist Lloyd Vogel's (Matthew Rhys) journey from cynic to believer feel fresh rather than tired. Director Marielle Heller also brings the same clear-eyed compassion that made “The Diary of a Teenage Girl” and “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” so heartfelt to this story of a budding friendship between two very different men.

11. Rafiki

IMDB

Star-crossed lovers were a thing long before film was, but Kenyan teenagers Kena and Ziki face more obstacles than most. Their fathers are not only running against each other in a local election, but they live in a deeply conservative society that expects them to be good wives and any LGBTQ relationships are legally punishable by jail or worse. As the love between Kena and Ziki grows, so too does the danger, leading to devastating consequences. Yet the joy the two find in each other, embodied in the gorgeous pink hues director Wanuri Kahiu bathes both in, outshines the trauma. Banned in Kenya for “clear intent to promote lesbianism in Kenya contrary to the law,” “Rafiki” nevertheless became the first Kenyan film to screen at Cannes, quickly finding acclaim while drawing attention to Kenya's anti-LGBT laws without catering to Western sensibilities.

10. Varda By Agnès

IMDB

If the documentary “Varda By Agnès” is difficult to define, it's because the late great filmmaker Agnès Varda herself defies anything resembling easy categorization. Like her other films, the premise of “Varda By Agnès” is deceptively simple, yet soon reveals layers of complexity which unfold throughout, as Varda looks back on her life and career while articulating her style of filmmaking. However, the doc is far more than a retrospective, and far less predictable, at one moment reminiscent of a casual chat with an old friend, the next an imaginative journey wherein a great artist instructs devoted cinephiles and neophytes alike on how she not only viewed, but interpreted the world. It's a fitting end to a decades-long career and life, both of which 90-year-old Varda defined on her own terms to the end.

9. The Farewell

IMDB

A movie with a character who happens to be a terminally ill grandmother is a tough sell for a comedy. But the matriarch who receives a fatal cancer diagnosis isn't just a side character in “The Farewell,” she's the central plot point. After struggling New Yorker Billi's (Awkwafina) beloved Nai Nai (Shuzhen Zhao) is diagnosed, her family opt to keep her illness a secret and decide to throw a fake wedding to provide an excuse for them all to gather in China and celebrate Nai Nai one last time. And it's...pretty funny, with not just the expected dark humor, but a wide spectrum of hilarity abounding alongside the touching moments of grief. Based in part on writer-director Lulu Wang's own experiences, “The Farewell” is apt to make you laugh and cry not just in equal measure, but simultaneously.

8. Little Woods

Tribeca Film Festival

You can never have too much of Tessa Thompson, and “Little Woods” allows her to fully immerse herself into a role and world where a single wrong step could tear through a life with the force of a tornado. And she downright mesmerizes as Ollie, who finds herself in tight circumstances with a mere eight days left on her probation and the hope of a new life. Or rather, her somewhat estranged sister Deb (Lily James) does after their mother dies, and Deb and her son find themselves on the verge of homelessness and destitution. To help her family, Ollie decides to reenter the world of prescription drug smuggling, a dangerous but profitable business in their bleak rural North Dakota town. Remarkably, this is director Nia DaCosta's feature debut, and the fact that she gives us a brilliantly realized modern Western with a feminist twist, where a drug run to Canada also doubles as an attempt to receive a safe and low-cost abortion, is hopefully indicative of much more to come. Thankfully, there are already hopeful signs of just that.

7. Queen & Slim

Universal Pictures

“Queen & Slim” kicks off with its title characters on a date that is only remarkable for its lack of spark, but things get heated in the worst way after a police offer pulls them over for a minor issue, and things escalate, with Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith) getting shot and Slim (Daniel Kaluuya) shooting the officer in self defense. The two then go on the run together, with their bond and their relationship blossoming as they drive south through a lush vision of Black Americana. That they both come off as deeply human while remaining symbolic of the tragic human cost of racism seems due in large part to the near symbiotic creative melding of director Melina Matsoukas, who also directed Beyonce's “Lemonade,” and writer Lena Waithe, the creator of the series “The Chi” and who also wrote the acclaimed “Master of None” episode “Thanksgiving.” Their story is tragic, but it is also full of beauty and humor as Queen and Slim dare to hope for something better, even as they know the odds against such a thing are overwhelmingly stacked against them.

6. Fast Color

Lionsgate Publicity

It's said that not all heroes wear capes, and certainly none of the women with superhuman abilities do in “Fast Color.” This criminally underseen gem has many of the beats, but almost none of the familiar tropes of typical superhero fare. Gugu Mbatha-Raw plays a woman named Ruth, a fugitive on the run from authorities attempting to harness her abilities, and most critically, from herself, since those abilities have become a destructive force she's unable to control. In this bleak dystopian future which is rapidly running low on resources, the key to Ruth's future may just lie in the home she fled years ago, where her estranged mother (Lorraine Toussaint) and daughter (Saniyya Sidney) embody a past she tried to escape, and a more hopeful future they may be able to bring to fruition.

5. The Souvenir

A24

Joanna Hogg's semi-autographical film “The Souvenir” is like a deceptively calm pond which conceals a raging torrent just beneath the surface. Honor Swinton Byrne, the woman responsible for the storm that's eventually unleashed, may still be constantly referred to as Tilda Swinton's daughter, but this film suggests that won't be the case for long. Her performance as Julie, a young film student in the 80s whose dreams are nearly derailed by her involvement with an older man who is also a heroin addict, is the kind of on-screen arrival that the term breakout role was made for. With part two arriving next year, it's hard to imagine how Hogg or Byrne will match the kind of urgency they brought to this film, but this creative pairing – which feels like a match made in cinematic heaven – could feasibly pull it off.

4. One Child Nation

One Child Nation

Director Nanfu Wang grew up in a time when China's infamous one-child policy was at its height, with every facet of society extolling the virtues of having a smaller family...and the consequences of disobedience. After Wang had a son, she decided to investigate the policy she'd never given much thought to and its impact. When she uncovered was a complex and horrific hidden history of forced abortions, child abandonment, and infants who were literally torn from their arms of their families and given to American couples for adoption, who were tragically unaware that they were abetting kidnapping. Wang fearlessly confronts her own complicity and that of her family and community as she delves into the past, and how China is attempting to erase it from its future.

3. Little Women

Sony Pictures

Greta Gerwig didn't just write and direct Louisa May Alcott's beloved 1868 novel, she brought it to life, with each of the four March sisters getting their due. Yes, even Amy. One of the most brilliant decisions Gerwig makes is to bring the book to the big screen in a nonlinear fashion, juxtaposing scenes from the sisters' idyllic childhood with their darker adulthood. While the Civil War rages, depriving them of their father, the March family becomes a matriarchal worldutopia, wherein Meg (Emma Watson), Jo (Saoirse Ronan), Beth (Eliza Scanlen), and Amy (Florence Pugh) are free to explore their hopes and ambitions, guided by their beloved Marmee (Laura Dern), and befriended by their wealthy neighbor Laurie (Timothée Chalamet). As each sister struggles to find her way, Gerwig takes care to ensure that their lives not only feel familiar, but relevant as each wrestles with how to balance their dreams with the narrow expectations imposed on them.

2. Atlantics

IMDB

Mati Diop made history in more ways than one with her feature debut “Atlantics.” She was the first black woman to have a film in the main competition at Cannes, where “Atlantics” won the Grand Prix. The film more than lives up to the hype, with a touching love story that is also part supernatural fable and devastating indictment of modern exploitation and rampant poverty. Ada (Mama Bineta Sane) lives in a Senegalese suburb, and is promised to a wealthy man. But she is in love with Souleiman (Traore), a construction worker on a futuristic tower which is due to open soon. Souleiman and his co-workers haven't been paid for their labor in months, so they decide to take their chances and depart by sea in search of something better. As Ada waits for news of him as she prepares to marry, she gradually learns that the spirits of Souleiman and the other young men are possessing the bodies of the living and demanding justice. As Ada slowly comes to accept the truth and take control of her own life and body (she's forced to take a virginity test), Diop infuses her story with a beauty that never belies its sense of urgency for compassion in a world that can often seem short on it.

1.Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Neon

If Céline Sciamma had just wrote and directed a romance between two women who find the kind of love that leaves the screen burning from their mutual passion, “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” would still have been one of the best films of the year. But Sciamma does so much more, making the case for an entire history that has mostly been unacknowledged by the art world. Not just of the female artists who managed to create in spite of the obstacles, but the lives of women in general, who are often not considered worthwhile subjects. (Times have sure changed, huh?) “Portrait” may take place in 18th century France, but its insights into the dynamics between artist and muse, how art is created, and how those who are silenced manage to find a voice, feels very much needed in our present moment.

Honorable mentions: Late Night, Homecoming: A Film By Beyonce, The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open, Booksmart, Hala

2019 Film Girl Film Festival Winners Announced

The votes have been counted, and the winners of the Audience Awards for the 2019 Film Festival have been announced!

The winner for Best Film is “The Garden Left Behind.” Directed by Flavio Alves, the film follows Tina, an undocumented Mexican trans woman struggling to make a life for herself and her grandmother in New York City. More details can be found on the movie’s site here.

This year also saw the first tie, with “Grandpa’s Getaways” and “Sisters March” sharing the Audience Award for Best Short.

“Grandpa’s Getaways” tells a story of love and memory. Will has always been the hero of his own stories in spite of the fact that no one believes him. How much of it is true? And how much does it really matter? You can find more information about the film here.

“Sisters March” is a reflection on the journey between Chicago and DC, connecting voices of hope, empowerment and intersectionality during The Women's March, the largest protest in the history of the United States, as women and girls organize and rally after the inauguration of the 45th president. Focusing on intersectionality, mothers and daughters from every strata of the country reflect on the work that is to come for the women's movement and how we can mobilize for change. More details can be found here.

Thanks to everyone who voted, and to festival sponsor MKE Production Rental for providing the prize!

52 Films By Women: The Holiday (2006)

IMDB

By Andrea Thompson

Movies about Christmas and the holiday season in general tend to be a tough sell. It's a time of year that's predicated on giving, family togetherness, and cheer, and as one of my favorite pop culture characters once said...

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Most of us don't seem to want to acknowledge just how emotionally fraught the holidays can be for some. If you're estranged from your family, suffered a loss, are more of an introvert who's not fully comfortable with the continuous show of cheer the season demands, or honestly, even just single, Christmas and New Year's can be a constant, painful reminder of how well-adjusted and happy everyone else seems to be.

But the 2006 romantic comedy “The Holiday” not only gets it, it makes it the central premise. Or rather premises, since “The Holiday” gives you two rom-coms for the price of one while mostly doing justice to both. Reviewers didn't seem to agree, the main criticisms being that it was predictable and treacly. There's some truth to that, since there's never really much question of just where its central relationships are going or how they'll end. Then again, predictability is a component of many a film, and “The Holiday” isn't only an enjoyable one about the mess we can make of our love lives, it's a movie about movies as well as a tribute to the entire rom-com genre, fueled by the love writer-director Nancy Meyers clearly has for both. It's too sincere to be subversive though, and I mean that as a compliment.

Meyers was well on her way to establishing herself as a rom-com force to be reckoned with, having made “What Women Want” in 2000, and “Something's Gotta Give” in 2003, and “The Holiday” had another side effect. It solidified what has now become Meyers's trademark, that of plots which occur in chic spaces with impossibly immaculate kitchens. Much like the reviews, such criticisms of her work, one which rarely seems to stick to the men who make similar films, seems to miss the point of “The Holiday,” which actually makes not just the personal and professional differences between protagonists Iris (Kate Winslet) and Amanda (Cameron Diaz) part of the plot, but their economic ones as well.

Both women find themselves lovelorn and lonely for the holidays in perfectly symmetrical ways. Amanda is a workaholic whose relationship has just combusted, but instead of being the receiving end of a commitment-phobic guy, she is the one who is unable to get emotionally invested in any of the men she dates. She is also somewhat stunted, unable to even shed a tear after her boyfriend departs, despite her efforts. In contrast, Iris is still in love with her co-worker and ex Jasper (Rufus Sewell), despite the fact that they parted ways three years ago. Amanda may not be able to cry, but when Iris learns Jasper is engaged, she not only goes home and sobs uncontrollably, she even starts inhaling the gas in her stove, much to her shock. “Low point!” she exclaims.

The two women decide they need a change of scene, and agree online to swap houses for two weeks. Even if Iris is kind of solidly middle class with a quaint cottage in the English countryside, she's still flying to LA in a plane where she occupies a middle seat, while Amanda is ensconced in her own private area where she's free to not only stack up some books, but lie down. While Iris revels in the California sun and the luxury of her spacious, technologically advanced new digs, Amanda is quickly bored by the quiet remove of the cottage and books a flight out for the next day. Until, at least, this walks through her door...

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Sure, Jude Law had his issues...but I'm superficial. Oh yeah, he plays Graham, and he's there because he's Iris's brother looking to sleep off some alcoholic overindulgence. Whatever. While these two ridiculously attractive people waste little time physically connecting that very night, their connection of course has a time limit, since Amanda is leaving in two weeks. Iris has the much more interesting story, and not just because it takes a bit more time to develop. She not only has Jack Black as Miles, who utilizes the full force of his charm as a more unconventional romantic lead who has a tendency to pick the worst possible person for him, she gets to befriend screen legend Eli Wallach, whose character Arthur is a similarly renowned screenwriter who claims to have added “kid” to the iconic “Casablanca” line “Here's looking at you, kid.” Through him, Meyers comments on the state of a film industry still partially resisting the throes of monopolization Disney now embodies, and her love of classic films, which often featured indomitable female characters that all but vanished once Hollywood's Golden Era ended.

Iris also has a far darker connection with her ex Jasper, who exhibits the kind of gaslighting toxicity that is chillingly familiar. The fact that they work together at the same paper makes it complicated for Iris to extricate herself from him, but Jasper effortlessly oozes charms as the kind of so-called nice guy who is popular in the office. He's also a talented writer who is skilled at keeping Iris emotionally hooked while ensuring it's all about him, complimenting her professional skills and asking her to go over his pages. Because he respects her opinion of course. While we might be inclined to roll our eyes at the beginning of the movie, where Iris says she knows Jasper will never love her back but can't help loving him anyway, their subsequent interactions soon reveal everything about why she feels like she needs to literally flee the country in order to escape their dynamic.

Cameron Diaz might not get nearly as much to work with, but she gets to stretch her comedic muscles a bit when she stumbles her way to the cottage in heels, and her profession of cutting movie trailers is used to more playfully toy with rom-com tropes. Throughout, Amanda gets mocking commentary from...herself, as various trailers about her life play in her head at odd moments. Thankfully, her repression is also not summed up as a simple case of Overworked Woman In Need Of A Man Syndrome, but family dynamics. Amanda's family seemed to be close-knit and loving, right up until she found out her parents were getting divorced when she was 15. Afterwards, she found herself unable to cry. Amanda is using work to avoid love, and when she discovers that Graham is actually a widowed father to two girls, his reasons behind keeping his dating and family life separate sounds like he's using fatherhood much the same way.

Sure, we all know where this is going, but goddamn is it fun, even if you're not a cinephile. How many of us have used movies and pop culture to better understand our own lives? It'd be difficult to find someone who hasn't. So when Eli Wallach tells Iris she's a leading lady who's acting like a best friend, she replies, “I've been going to a therapist for three years, and she's never explained anything to me that well.” Iris doesn't just connect with a love interest in Miles, she forms a new friendship with Arthur, and his movie recommendations, all of which featuring complex female leads, probably play a role in Iris finally cutting Jasper out of her life. Her joy at the realization of her power and that she now has her whole life ahead of her is a genuine, well, joy to watch.

The happy ending, where both couples celebrate the new year in Iris's cottage with Graham's daughters, is rather jarring at first, since nearly everyone but Iris and Amanda have met each other in spite of the impact they've had on each other's lives. Their story may not have inspired much love at the time, but “The Holiday” only seems to have become more popular since as a beloved holiday staple.

52 Films By Women: Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

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By Andrea Thompson

Watching the passionate 18th century French romance “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” is an experience, and not just because it's such a beautifully told love story. Since it also happens to be a love story between two women, it's going to be about far more than the lovers themselves, and sure enough, “Portrait” is both an indicator of how far we've come, and how far we have yet to go. However, the film not only seems aware of this, it's pretty damn intent on charting its own course, and to hell with the male gaze and all the expectations thereof, with none of their love scenes even shown on-screen.

Even juicier is the fact that writer-director Céline Sciamma previously dated Adèle Haenel, one half of the couple her film breathtakingly portrays. Sciamma certainly shrouds the noblewoman she plays, Héloïse, in mystery, revealing various faceless portraits of her far before she reveals the woman herself, even shrouding her in a cape before she joyously bursts onto the screen on a sumptuous scene set on the cliffs overlooking the sea on her isolated estate.

Observing her is Marianne (Noémie Merlant), who has been hired to paint Héloïse's portrait for her upcoming marriage to a Milan nobleman, which will occur once the painting is finished. Héloïse is opposed to the nuptials, so she has refused to sit for it, and she's unaware that the young woman she believes has been hired as a walking companion has actually been tasked with closely observing her so she can finish the portrait, which will allow the marriage Héloïse dreads to take place.

It's a sad fact that films with protagonists other than white men will inevitably be compared to each other. Case in point: how many of us compared “Captain Marvel” to “Wonder Woman” when it came out, even though “Wonder Woman” was released two years prior? I know I certainly couldn't resist, despite my best efforts. So I hope I'll be forgiven for “The Handmaiden” being at the forefront of my mind during the first half of “Portrait of a Lady on Fire.” Both kick off a love story between two women based on deception, although “Portrait” is more heartbreaking. Héloïse believes Marianne's glances are due to passion alone, but Marianne is part of the forces slowly closing in, and she must hide her true profession, and all the evidence of it, such as the work itself, and the clothes and hands spattered with paint.

Héloïse in essence begins as a silenced woman, a traditionally passive muse whose future has been decided, although the artist portraying her has a more direct role in that future than usual. This silencing, this forced passivity that is a direct result of the patriarchal world all the women on-screen cope with in various ways, is what “Portrait” really delves into, and the wrenching vulnerability, as well as the power, of seeing while being seen. After Marianne reveals her true purpose, she is startled and unsettled when she realizes her seemingly unaware subject has been closely observing her too.

Héloïse quickly becomes an active partner in Marianne's creation, especially when Héloïse's mother (Valeria Golino) departs for a few days. Not only Héloïse and Marianne, but Sophie (Luàna Bajrami), the maid they also befriend, are free to create their own matriarchal world...and help Sophie get an abortion. All three women bond, but it's also clear who's falling for whom. Héloïse not only encourages Marianne not to look away from Sophie's procedure, she is the one who decides that it's a worthwhile subject to paint. For Sciamma, women's art and their lives aren't just worthwhile subjects that have been neglected, they're part of a history that's still barely acknowledged today, as hashtags such as #shoutyourabortion prove.

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Marianne is the one who has the ultimate luxury, that of a choice. It shapes her life and how she responds to the world. Sciamma emphasizes her independence from the start, as she jumps off the boat bringing her to the estate to rescue some of her equipment and carries it in herself rather than depending on the men conveying. She is also the one who takes the male role in the much-discussed story of Orpheus and Eurydice when the three women ponder why Orpheus looked back at his wife Eurydice at the last minute, dooming the lovers to part ways as Eurydice is dragged back into the underworld. Marianne suggests that perhaps Orpheus chose the memory of her rather than Eurydice herself. “He doesn't make the lover's choice, but the poet's,” Marianne says. “Perhaps she was the one who said, 'Turn around.'”

That might indeed have been the case, but actively choosing to part ways is not an option for either lover in this case, who never even discuss the possibility of a future together. When the inevitable parting does indeed come, and Marianne sees a vision of Héloïse in her wedding dress telling her to turn around, it feels like a coping mechanism, an illusion of choice in a situation where there isn't one. Men may only have cameo roles in “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” but this is nevertheless their world, and there's no place for a love like the one Marianne and Héloïse passionately share. Even Héloïse's mother, who knows the pain her daughter is feeling, is nevertheless willing to give her daughter to a stranger, simply because she can't imagine any other path for her.

However, their bond lives on, and Héloïse goes on to play an active role not only in Marianne's art, but in the art others create, even if in some cases it's only visible to those who know how to look. When Marianne sees her for the last time, it's also when Héloïse is at a concert, where she passionately reacts to music she heard for the first time when Marianne played it for her. Both may be alone, but they will remain connected for the rest of their lives.

52 Films By Women: Guinevere (1999)

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By Andrea Thompson

The story “Guinevere” tells has been done to death, hasn't it? I mean, don't we all know how it goes? An innocent young ingenue forms a relationship with a much older man, and she becomes his muse while also being mentored by him, which allows her to blossom creatively as well.

Yet to watch “Guinevere” is to see far more. It's partly due to writer and director Audrey Wells, who was still in the beginning of her career when she made her directorial debut with this film in 1999. But the main one is probably lead Sarah Polley, who is remarkable as 21-year-old Harper Sloane, who meets the much older bohemian photographer Connie (Stephen Rea) at her sister's wedding.

Actually, Connie notices Harper far before he approaches her, snapping a photo of the awkward young woman as she's doing her best to appear anything but. She's a daughter of privilege who is bound for Harvard, per the expectations of her family, who are part of a long tradition of legal sharks. Privilege may be wasted on the privileged, but once Harper follows Connie into his world, which is populated by a vast array of artists, the conservative atmosphere of her family life becomes more stifling than ever.

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Connie also constantly asks Harper for her opinion, firmly believes she has the potential to be a great artist, and insists on sleeping on the floor of his darkroom when she spends the night in his loft. So when Harper tries to insist Connie is too old for her, her friend Patty (Carrie Preston) knows better, and so do we. The affair they quickly start is a given, as are the difficulties inherent in it. Harper attempts to retreat back to her family, but since Connie is the only entry point for a more free-spirited environment she doesn't have the confidence or connections to explore on her own, she quickly returns to him when he shows up asking for her forgiveness. That he also manages to throw her a killer 21st birthday party is the kicker.

By then, both we and Harper are aware she is one in a long line of young women Connie has dated, all of whom he refers to as Guinevere. But he also genuinely tries to help them, insisting that they work, which to him means studying, learning, and creating, whether it happens to be through photography, writing, painting, or some other artistic endeavor. Connie desperately wants to be honest, but his deceptions are unavoidable due to the fact that he's just as desperate to believe he's not the same as, say, another older man who gives him a smirking thumbs up while he's sitting with a much younger blonde. It's even worse than other reactions the two of them tend to inspire, which can be summed up as variations of an eye-roll.

But it's Harper's mother Deborah (Jean Smart) who best sums up the dynamic between Connie and Harper while revealing herself to to be a society bitch in the best way. And goddamn, Jean Smart makes the most out of this small role. She had been unaware that her daughter was living with Connie, and once she finds out, she has no problem letting her feelings be known to them both. Not only does she ask Connie outright what he has against women his own age, she refuses to let him bullshit his way out of the answer. She also knows that his preference for the barely legal is due to far more than just their bodies, even if that's the easy answer.

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“I know exactly what she has that I haven't got,” Deborah says to Connie as she smokes her cigarette so stylishly it should be impossible. “Awe. That's it, isn't it? I mean, no real woman – no woman of experience, would ever stand in front of you with awe in her eyes...and say, 'Wow, look at that man. Look at that bohemian wedding photographer with holes in his jeans. Gosh, isn't he something?' No. It takes a naive girl for that. It takes Harper for that.” So effective is Smart's delivery that her character had the honor of being called not just a nasty woman, but a “terribly nasty” one by an LA Times critic, even as he acknowledged how right she was.

Harper's feelings are more complicated four years after she and Connie part ways, by which time she has become a successful photographer and he is dying from complications related to alcoholism. “He was the worst man I ever met,” she recalls. “Or maybe the best. I'm still not sure. If you're supposed to learn from your mistakes, then he was the best mistake I ever made. He was my most spectacular, and cherished fuckup.” Their relationship hurts her as much as it helps her, and her reaction is an example of one of the many ways women must forgive for the sake of their sanity. So often, this is how young women are initiated into fields which are dominated by men, who are often just as intent on satisfying their own desires as they are in assisting the vulnerable young women who happen to stumble across their path.

However, “Guinevere” acknowledges another truth, on how ultimately unsatisfying it often is for the other side of the equation – the men who do the exploiting. Connie may repeatedly get a pass to behave this way over and over again, but it leaves him unhappy and ultimately less successful. As he nears his end, he certainly gets more support than he deserves, from not just Harper, but the other women from his past who return, which include the likes of Gina Gershon and Sandra Oh, and of course, his latest bright young thing, April (Grace Una).

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Even as Harper informs the dying Connie just how much it took for her to get to a point where she could return to his side, something which wouldn't have been possible for her two or even one years ago, she is willing to give Connie a vision of his own personal heaven. In her imagination, as Connie goes down an astonishingly bright hallway, he is treated to the presence of the various women from his past, who all making individual appearances as he glides onward. At the end, a 19-year-old with a camera awaits. As she takes his picture, the flash goes off with the brightest, purest light he's ever seen. And that will be all, because in the end, what more could a man like Connie want?