Onto my first week of the latest Movie Challenge. If you remember, I decided to challenge myself to watch films that celebrated women, to coincide with International Women's Day. If you need a refresher on the announcement, you can read all about it in the previous entry. Once you've finished catching up, I'll be behind the cut with the films I watched, all written by women...
1) Prevenge (2016)
For my first film, I chose to watch Prevenge, written and directed by Alice Lowe. I heard such great things about the film but never got around to watching it when it originally came out. Prevenge follows the story of Ruth (Alice Lowe) who we see is about 8 months pregnant when the film begins. Ruth is a unique character, due to the fact that she hears her unborn baby urge her to kill people, to whch she complies with. As the story unfolds, it's been made clear that Ruth believes her partner and the father of her baby, was murdered in an abseiling trip gone wrong. Due to the unfortunate passing of her baby's dad, Ruth suffers a psychotic breakdown in which she carries out all types of murderous acts to fulfill her revenge.
I thoroughly enjoyed Prevenge. Yes, it was quite dark but also had its comedic moments as well. Lowe played Ruth in a way where you could see how and why the character has become so desperate and depressed, leading the audience to empathise with her, despite her questionable actions. I always admire people who can act, direct and write all at once and considering Lowe was actually pregnant at the time, makes it even more of an accomplishment. The plot is a unique concept which you don't get to see much in every day cinema, so it was refreshing to view such a film, especially written by a woman. Women are still stereotyped into being into Romcoms and 'Chick Flicks' when it comes to different types of genres, and so to see such a dark, funny film being presented to audiences by a woman, makes it even more special.
2) Lady Bird (2017)
My next choice was Lady Bird, written and directed by Greta Gerwig. A coming-of-age film, it follows a girl called Christine, who has given herself the nickname of Lady Bird, and her time in senior year at the local catholic school. Lady Bird dreams of getting far away from Sacramento, where the film takes place, and tries to figure how to do so with a family on a very low income. It chronicles the difficult relationship that she has with her judging, and uneasy to please, mother, her first relationship, her friendships, and finally her decision of where to go for College.
Lady Bird was a vast difference to my first choice of film, with the plot and tone of things. This film was a little lighter to watch, though while the film didn't drag, I did find it hard to keep up. Saoirse Ronan did a wonderful job of portraying a frustrated teenager,
whose dreams were unrealistic according to those around her and Gerwig's
dialogue shows how much she remembers from her teenaged years, allowing
the audience to relate with each character. Overall, I did enjoy it and it managed to invoke memories of when I was in high school, but I'm not entirely sure I was satisfied with the ending. The film didn't have a definitive ending, though I guess that reflects real life - real life doesn't just stop once the credits roll. I felt that it could have tied up some things, such as what happened with Lady Bird and her mother? Did Lady Bird ever learn to not feel restless? Though the fact that film left me with those questions, proved that it piqued my interest.
3) American Honey (2016)
For my final film written by women, I chose to watch American Honey, written and directed by Andrea Arnold. American Honey is another coming-of-age story, which follows the main character of Star and her journey of getting out of an abusive, poor home. Soon after leaving home, she stumbles upon the world of traveling magazine sellers, learning their way of life and discovering herself during that moment in time, revelling in the free, party, chaotic world. She soon comes up against obstacles when she clashes with the boss of the group, Krystal (Riley Keough) who does not find anything impressive about Star's gung-ho approach of things. The plot follows the consequences of her actions and her naive way of navigating through life.
I have to admit, I was kind of disappointed with this film. I had heard a lot of rave reviews from when it first came out but I just could not connect to it. The pace was a slow-burn and the characters were more frustrating to watch than sympathetic. The film also didn't seem to go anywhere, it felt like it was just existing. Like Lady Bird, it had a non-ending but instead of having my interest piqued with it, it just made me more confused. I did very much enjoy the acting, especially that of Sasha Lane, who played Star. Considering she had never acted before, Lane put in a stellar job and you would never know from watching it that American Honey is her first film. She came across as effortless and no wooden acting in sight, which was very refreshing to see. I feel like Sasha Lane's performance was the only memorable thing in an otherwise lacklustre film.
It wasn't easy to find films written by women that I would be interested in watching. Most of the films that I came across were co-written with men, and since I wanted to focus solely on women, these films weren't chosen. The fact that there was a small pool of films to choose from, shows how much we need women to be given the chance to write feature films.
Stay tuned for my next part of the challenge: Movies Directed by Women!
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