The Films of 2024: Woman Of The Hour (dir by Anna Kendrick)

Posted on January 23, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This morning’s Oscar nominations were dominated by Netflix’s Emilia Perez, which picked up a total of 13 nominations. Though it has yet to win an Oscar for Best Picture, Netflix has definitely picked up its game over the past few years. Every year, there’s a major contender that’s produced and released by Netflix. The Irishman, Marriage Story, Power of the Dog, Maestro, they were all films that were heavily pushed by Netflix. This year, Netflix actually had many potential contenders but, in the end, it put its full weight behind Emilia Perez and it paid off this morning. Whether it will pay off on Oscar night had yet to be seen.

Unfortunately, that means there a few Netflix films that got pushed to the side. As many mentioned this morning, Angelina Jolie’s performance in Netflix’s Maria was ignored, despite having been viewed as an Oscar lock just a few months ago. The Piano Lesson also failed to pick up a nomination for Danielle Deadwyler. Myself, I wish that Netflix would have just spent a bit more time pushing a film called Woman Of The Hour.

Woman of the Hour is the directorial debut of Anna Kendrick and it’s about as far from the light-hearted world of Pitch Perfect as one can get. Based on a true story, the 70s-set film features Kendrick as Sheryl Bradshaw, an aspiring actress who goes on The Dating Game and asks questions to three contestants, not knowing that Bachelor #3 is actually a serial killer named Rodney Alcala (Daniel Zovatto).

The film jumps back and forth in time, mixing Sheryl’s appearance on the tacky game show with the horrific crimes of Rodney Alcala. On the show, Sheryl grows frustrated with the stupid, pre-written questions that she’s been handed and instead, she starts asking her own questions. The three “bachelors” are taken by surprise but only Alcala is able to keep up with Sheryl. Separated from Sheryl and just hearing her questions, Alcala manages to sound like an intelligent and interesting human being. (As with most serial killers, Alcala is a master manipulator and knows what to say to put people at ease.) It’s only after Sheryl selects him and they have a face-to-face meeting that Sheryl comes to realize that Alcala is not the man he presented himself as being.

The film’s style might seem disjointed to some. Woman of the Hour is full of flashbacks and flashforwards. The empty glitz of the Dating Game and Sheryl’s refusal to play dumb for the approval of the show’s producers is contrasted with the brutality of Alcala’s crimes. It’s a technique that builds a sense of dread and inevitability. Sheryl may not know who Bachelor #3 is but we do and it’s hard not to worry when it becomes obvious that he’s the bachelor she’s going to pick. Even more importantly, the film contrasts the show’s casual misogyny with Alcala’s own hatred of women. Kendrick uses the film to comment on the everyday fears women navigate, from the casual sexism of the show’s producers to the outright danger of a predator like Rodney Alcala. There’s a poignant scene where Sheryl encounters a casting director’s crass comments about her body, undoubtedly reflecting the real-life experiences Kendrick herself has faced. (“I’m sure they look fine,” one smarmy producer says after Sheryl explains that she doesn’t do nude scenes.) This is a thriller but it’s also a critique wrapped in suspense.

Woman of the Hour is a compelling watch, not just for its thrilling narrative but for its heart-wrenching look at the vulnerability of women in a predatory world. Kendrick proves herself as a director with a voice, one that’s both fresh and deeply personal. Woman of the Hour is a film worth 94 minutes of your time.

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, S2,Ep2 Review By Case Wright

Posted on April 10, 2019 by casewright

sabrina

Hello friends. Last time we spoke, it was really hard. I wondered if my second favorite show after Santa Clarita Diet went Lost Season 2 on me. The season opener was bad…really bad. It was scary for me to watch the second episode. I was actually worried that the show was a season 1 fluke or maybe I misread or willfully blinded myself to a meh show. Well, I’m happy to write that this episode was a solid …. Not Bad. Its flaws were LEGION (and we’ll go over those), but the story had a theme, character growth, and despair. Honestly, through in some Adele and Ben and Jerry’s and you got the makings of a lonely night in as you watch yourself age and love sulks away from you, broken, and never to return.

The episode is all about unrequited love and who We should be, but who We really are. It’s fun, if you’re in the mood for it. It was written by new writer Mj Kaufman and Christina Ham (Orphan Black) and these writers capture the loneliness of all of the most interesting characters.

The Devil talks to Ms Wardwell who we know is Lilith (Adam’s First Wife). He not too gently casts her aside and tells Wardwell/Lilith that Sabrina is to be Satan’s Prophet and Queen, not Her. The heartbreak is palpable, but the Devil’s Costume looks like a step above Party City and it really takes me out of it. Lilith asserts that Sabrina is too goody goody to be the Devil’s main squeeze and they wager on it: have Sabrina steal a stick of gum. Sabrina resists.

I gotta ask why? She seemed all on board the Midnight Train to Gethsemane with Old Scratch, but she just can’t bring herself to steal the forbidden Fruit Stripe. I would’ve been all in for the Freshen Up gum…ya know the one with the goo inside…I liked it….Whatever. Because she refused, Satan starts hurting people around Sabrina by giving them Chickenpox. WHAAAA? Chickenpox?! What kind of anti-vax town is Greendale?! Let it burn to the ground! They’ll give us all measles! To make amends to Satan, she starts to burn the school down as per Satan’s command. Well, why bother?! They’ll all get Whooping Cough soon enough away. Come on, Lucifer…this town is doomed and weird.

There are good subplots the Lilith story, which is a nice evil love story where Ms Wardwell watches her life portrayed as entertainment. The Evil Dean wrote and produces a play of Lilith and Satan falling in sort of love. It might of brought her a smile, but instead it brings tears because Satan has found a new special lady and Lilith’s destined to be eternally alone. We see in Ms Wardwell AKA Lilith how love is supposed to be, but how it withers and dies.

Suzie is now Theo is the focus of the other subplot. She should be accepted as a boy, but it doesn’t quite work out that way. Theo tries to change in the boy’s locker room and is mocked by some, but gawked at by all. The shot is done very well. We close up on the known bullies from the previous episodes, but then the camera pulls back and ALL of the boys are gawking silently, waiting to see female nudity regardless of her gender identity. They simply can’t help it. Where we should be, but who we are. It’s disappointing, realistic, and sad.

Sabrina and Harvey react to a sensual spark and begin making out, but her tie to Satan destroys the encounter and ends their love affair forever. What their love should be and the reality cannot be.

This was a good episode overall. It allowed you to see and not be told Lilith’s story and the struggles that everyone has against loneliness and despair.

Adele

Cleaning Out The DVR, Again #17: Dying To Be Loved (dir by Paul Shapiro)

Posted on July 5, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman

(Lisa is currently in the process of trying to clean out her DVR by watching and reviewing all 40 of the movies that she recorded from the start of March to the end of June. She’s trying to get it all done by July 10th! Will she make it!? Keep visiting the site to find out!)

After I finished up with The Cheerleader Murders, I rewatched Dying To Be Loved, which premiered on the Lifetime network on April 16th. Dying To Be Loved is also known as A Mother’s Suspicion. I’m really not sure which title I prefer. A Mother’s Suspicion is a little more accurate, as the film is about a mother who is very suspicious of her daughter’s new boyfriend. However, Dying To Be Loved has a little bit more of a snap to it, with the juxtaposition of death and love.

If I seem to be spending a bit too much time on the film’s title, that’s because I have a certain word count that I’m trying to meet but there’s really not that much to say about Dying To Be Loved. It’s a typical example of a genre familiar to all regular Lifetime viewers, the You Should Have Listened To Mom genre of film.

In this case, the mom is Jill Yates (Lindsay Hartley). Jill has a good career, a good house, a good boyfriend (played by Lifetime regular Dan Payne), and good hair. That’s really pretty much all you need to be a success in a Lifetime film. However, she also has an 18 year-old daughter, Emily (Paloma Kwiatkowski). Emily is away at college. She’s alone from home for the first time. She’s also bipolar and Jill fears that Emily is not taking her meds. Jill is even more worried when she meets Emily’s new boyfriend, Gary (Jedidiah Goodacre). Gary is rough and tough and has absolutely terrible table manners. Jill tells Emily that she can do better than Gary so, of course, Emily runs off on a cross-country trip with him.

Soon, Gary is murdering gas station attendants and ranting like a madman. Emily, who is not taking her medication (cue dramatic music), is convinced that she loves Gary. In fact, she is so in love with Gary that she apparently agrees to jump off a bridge with him.

Or does she? No bodies are recovered. Even though everyone tells Jill that she needs to move on, Jill is convinced that her daughter is still out there. With the help of a portly P.I. (Jay Bazeau) and an overly friendly small town cop (James Pizzinato), Jill sets out to find her daughter. One of these two men is connected to Gary. Which one? You’ll have to watch the movie to find out!

Anyway, this is pretty much a standard Lifetime film. Watching it, I couldn’t help but wish that it had been directed by someone like Fred Olen Ray. At the very least, Fred would have played up the film’s melodrama and would have been a bit less earnest in his approach. That said, Lindsay Hartley and Paloma Kwiatkowski are totally believable as mother and daughter. Kwiatkowski, in particular, deserves a lot of credit for giving a believable and multi-faceted performance as the unstable and desperately unhappy Emily. I winced a few times as I recognized bits of 16 year-old me in Emily’s actions. This may be a generic Lifetime film but Hartley and Kwiatkowski really put their hearts into their performances and, for that, they deserve a lot of credit!

(For those keeping count, that’s 17 reviews down and 23 more to go!)

What Lisa Watched This Afternoon #121: If There Be Thorns (dir by Nancy Savoca)

Posted on April 12, 2015 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This afternoon, as I wrote my review of Text To Kill, I was also watching another Lifetime original film. If There Be Thorns had been taking up space on my DVR for a week and I finally had time to watch it!

Why Was I Watching It?

If There Be Thorns originally aired last Sunday but I missed it because I was busy celebrating Easter with my family. However, I made sure to set the DVR because If There Be Thorns is the second sequel to one of my favorite Lifetime films of all time, Flowers in the Attic. The first sequel — Petals in the Wind — wasn’t that good. So, I was curious to see whether or not If There Be Thorns would be an improvement.

What Was It About?

Many years have passed since the end of Petals In The Wind. Christopher (Jason Lewis) and Cathy (Rachel Carpani) Dollanganger are now married and going by the name of Sheffield. In many ways, Christopher and Cathy seem to be living the perfect life. They’re in love. They’ve got two sons, Jory (Jedidiah Goodacre) and Bart (Mason Cook). Chris is a doctor. Cathy is a ballet teacher. And nobody is aware that Cathy and Christopher are actually brother and sister and that they spent several of their formative years locked in an attic together.

Strangely enough, however, Cathy and Chris happen to live next door to the remains of their former prison, Foxworth Hall. Bart even breaks into Foxworth Hall and finds the magazine that so intrigued Cathy and Chris when they were teenagers.

Eventually, a mysterious woman moves into Foxworth Hall and starts trying to ingratiate herself with Jory and especially Bart. What Chris and Cathy don’t know is that the woman is none other than their mother, Corrine (Heather Graham). When Corrine’s creepy servant John Amos (MacKenzie Gray) gives Bart the diary of his puritanical grandfather, Bart starts to go insane and even tries to kill his adopted sister, Cindy. Meanwhile, Corrine seeks forgiveness for her past sins, Cathy and Chris continue to obsess over the attic, and John Amos … well, John Amos just wants to kill everyone.

What Worked?

Oh my God, this movie is insane! As opposed to the slow-moving and bland Petals on the Wind, If There Be Thorns was a return to the over-the-top style that made Flowers In The Attic so much fun to watch. This is one of those films that you just watch with your mouth open, wondering just how much more messed up one family can get. Director Nancy Savoca brought a flair for the surreal to the film and Heather Graham did a good job bringing Corrine to eccentric life.

A special mention should be made of actor MacKenzie Gray, who gave a wonderfully menacing performance as the hulking John Amos. It was a great performance, one that was perfectly right for the film’s baroque style.

What Did Not Work?

Who would have thought that, after everything they had been through, Cathy and Chris would grow up to be such boring people? Hopefully, they’ll be more exciting in the fourth film in the series, Seeds of Yesterday.

“Oh my God! Just like me!” Moments

There really weren’t any. I don’t do attics. But that’s okay — it was still an entertainingly weird film!

Lessons Learned

The sins of the past cannot be escaped. (Especially if you insist on living right next door to the place where all those sins happened in the first place…)