woman

03 Sep

Link Tank: Wonder Woman Director Patty Jenkins Thinks Streaming Movies Look Fake

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Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins has some choice words to describe movies that go straight to streaming. “Patty Jenkins is still very unhappy about how the release of Wonder Woman 1984 played out. Her second Wonder Woman movie came out in theaters and HBO Max simultaneously as part of Warner Bros.’ pandemic release deal with the streaming platform, and it failed to get as much attention as the first flick. We previously reported that the director had referred to the hybrid rollout as ‘heartbreaking’ and ‘the best choice of a bunch of very bad choices’ at CinemaCon.” Read more at…

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19 May

The Woman in the Window: Why ‘Grip Lit’ has Found its Natural Home on TV

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In The Woman in the Window, Amy Adams plays an agoraphobic woman who thinks she’s witnessed the murder of her female neighbor. But when the police investigate, the neighbor is alive and well. She’s also a completely different woman… Based on the best selling novel by A. J. Finn, which garnered positive reviews on its 2018 release, Joe Wright’s screen adaptation has not proven as much of a hit with critics.  Various complaints have been leveled against the movie, which owes more than a small debt to Alfred Hitchcock – not an easy comparison to weather – including that the…

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18 May

Why The Woman in the Window Fails to Channel Alfred Hitchcock

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This article contains The Woman in the Window spoilers. Joe Wright’s The Woman in the Window is not shy about its Hitchcockian influence. It’s there in both subtle and overt ways from the very first scene. During one of the film’s opening shots, the camera pans around Amy Adams’ ridiculously spacious New York City brownstone and passes a television screen that is inexplicably playing the ending to Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954) in slow-motion, with Jimmy Stewart wrestling against the grip of an out-of-frame Raymond Burr. With a very similar premise to Rear Window—a slightly deranged New Yorker pries into…

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14 May

The Woman in the Window Ending Explained

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This article contains The Woman in the Window spoilers. Twisty-turny thriller The Woman in the Window has arrived on Netflix with some distinct Hitchcockian vibes. It’s based on the bestselling novel by A. J. Finn and directed by Joe Wright (Atonement, Anna Karenina, Darkest Hour), with Amy Adams as the titular woman.  This is classic high-concept crime drama in the style of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train while the premise is reminiscent of Rear Window. Adams plays Anna Fox, an agoraphobic woman who believes she has witnessed one of her neighbors being murdered in her own home,…

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14 May

The Woman in the Window

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An agoraphobic child psychologist befriends a neighbor across the street from her New York City brownstone, only to see her own life turned upside down when the woman disappears and she suspects foul play. Rated: RRelease Date: May 14, 2021

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14 May

The Woman in the Window Review: Netflix’s Hitchcock-lite Is a Couple Years Too Late

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With the level of talent on display in front of and behind the camera of this high-concept thriller based on the best selling ‘grip-lit’ novel by A. J. Finn, it’s no wonder there was huge buzz when the film version of The Woman in the Window was first announced. But after an initial postponement for rewrites and reshoots, and a second due to COVID, The Woman in the Window arrives with slightly less fanfare than anticipated. The timing hasn’t helped the film, but that’s not the only problem with this twisty crime story that totally loses the plot by the…

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26 Apr

Oscars 2021: Chloé Zhao Becomes First Asian-American Woman to Win Best Director

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Chloé Zhao made history tonight by becoming the first woman of color to win a Best Director Oscar, as well as only the second female filmmaker to take that prize. Recognized for her work writing and directing Nomadland, a meditative drama about an older woman named Fern (Frances McDormand) who travels the American West in a van she also lives in, Zhao made history when she took the stage. And, fittingly, Zhao used her acceptance speech to talk about a shared goodness she’s seen from people in all walks of life and in all corners of the earth. “Even though…

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16 Apr

Promising Young Woman and the Limits of Female Rage

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This article contains Promising Young Woman spoilers. Cinema is full of stories of righteously angry women who have suffered at the hands of wicked men. Invariably, these stories also see those women reclaim power over their own narratives by brutally punishing the men responsible. In Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, The Bride stands triumphant, holding a katana over the mangled bodies of those who have tried to do her harm. Jennifer Cheek makes the boys of Jennifer’s Body pay for their misogynist behavior with their own blood, literally feasting on their souls. Revenge socialite Jen reinvents herself as a gory action…

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29 Mar

Wonder Woman 1984 Star Connie Nielsen Defends Patty Jenkins’ Vision

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After premiering on HBO Max and in limited theaters last December for a month-long run, Wonder Woman 1984 arrives this week on DVD and Blu-ray (both standard and 4K). The highly-anticipated sequel to 2017’s groundbreaking Wonder Woman–once again directed by Patty Jenkins and starring Gal Gadot and Chris Pine–turned out to be a surprisingly polarizing release, especially given the good will built up by the mostly outstanding and widely praised first movie. Those on the pro side enjoyed the new movie’s message of compassion and hope, especially in a year ravaged by the pandemic, and also found a lot to…

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19 Mar

Does Zack Snyder’s Justice League Set Up Wonder Woman 3?

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This article contains Zack Snyder’s Justice League spoilers. She’s the only League member left in an uncertain place. During a triumphant montage in Zack Snyder’s Justice League epilogue—a sequence which likely would’ve closed out the film before 2020’s reshoots added extra scenes—nearly all the heroes appear at peace. Superman finally gets the iconic shirt-rip; Batman stands on the Bat-tank from The Dark Knight Returns, looking into the night; and Cyborg grieves his father. But Wonder Woman? Gal Gadot’s beloved superhero is in an ambiguous place in her signoff. When last we see Wonder Woman, Diana Prince stands once again before…

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12 Mar

Zack Snyder’s Justice League: Why Wonder Woman and the Amazons Have a New Theme

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Tom Holkenborg wants to take an entirely different spin on the music we associate with Diana Prince, aka Wonder Woman. To be sure, the famous electric cello theme composed by Hans Zimmer, whom Holkenborg collaborated with on the score to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), still appears in Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Yet this time around, the Dutch composer, who is also known as Junkie XL, was looking to bring out a different side of Wonder Woman’s personality, not to mention Zack Snyder’s decidedly more ancient interpretation of the Amazons. “It does use that [Zimmer] riff,” Holkenborg says…

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24 Feb

Link Tank: Woman In Motion Highlights Star Trek’s Influence on NASA

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Woman In Motion, now available on Apple+, is a tribute to Nichelle Nichols and Star Trek‘s enormous influence on NASA. “During a roughly four-month period in early 1977, Nichelle Nichols worked to recruit astronauts for NASA’s then-new Space Shuttle program. Her goal was simple and self-fashioned: Get as many women and non-whites to apply as possible.” Read more at Inverse. Attack the Block, starring John Boyega and Jodie Whittaker, will turn ten later this year. Check out some fun facts about this critically acclaimed sci-fi comedy. “When Attack the Block arrived in theaters in 2011, it recouped just half of…

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18 Feb

Nancy Drew Season 2 Episode 5 Review: The Drowned Woman

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This NANCY DREW review contains spoilers. Nancy Drew Season 2, Episode 5 Like many shows, Nancy Drew’s season was cut short last year, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic that shut down production and forced the series to conclude its inaugural run five episodes before it originally meant to do so. But unlike most shows that have since returned, this is one of the few where the break has felt almost entirely natural. Whether by accident of timing, a lot of thoughtful planning, a little bit of luck, or some combination of all three, Nancy Drew has rolled into its second…

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16 Jan

Promising Young Woman: Director Emerald Fennell Breaks Down the Ending

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Contains spoilers for Promising Young Woman “Where does the pleasure stop and the truth begin?” poses Emerald Fennell, director of Promising Young Woman, a highly distinctive rape-revenge thriller starring Carey Mulligan which feels like a total subversion of the subgenre. Fennell’s debut is an incredibly contemporary, candy-colored fable about a former medical student, Cassie, who has dropped out of University and instead pursues a secret second life as an avenging angel, feigning extreme drunkenness until inevitably a ‘good guy’ picks her up and takes back to his home.  It’s very dark subject matter painted in bright, engaging strokes, and an…

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15 Jan

Promising Young Woman: the Significance of Clothing

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Promising Young Woman is a rape revenge movie but it has a distinctly different look and feel to its iconic predecessors – movies like I Spit on Your Grave and Last House on the Left. Partly this is because the assault isn’t actually shown. But it’s also because of the aesthetic of the movie and in particular the costumes. Debut director Emerald Fennell creates a world of color and music and humor for her characters – primarily our avenging angel, Cassie, played by Carey Mulligan, to talk about rape culture from a very female perspective. During the day Cassie works…

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07 Jan

Why Wonder Woman’s Real Origin Story Lies in First Wave Feminism

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This holiday season, one of the few bright spots for families unable to go to theaters—and even those who did—was Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman 1984. An ambitious and vibrantly colored celebration of heroism in all its forms, including those that don’t end in fistfights, it’s a superhero movie that’s won as many fans as detractors. But while basking in the new spectacle is well and good, it’s also worth considering how it came to be. For even in this HBO Max tentpole, one can still see how the feminist movement of the early 20th century is grafted into the very…

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05 Jan

Zack Snyder’s Vicious Wonder Woman Photo Reflects Warner’s Early Internal War

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While the bellwether day-and-date HBO Max release of Wonder Woman 1984 left audiences divided, there can be no question that the sequel’s storyline reinforced writer/director Patty Jenkins’s vision for Gal Gadot’s version of the DC Comics heroine, reflecting ideals of compassion and mercy with pathological nuance. However, shockingly vicious imagery from an early concept photo displayed by the character’s first directorial steward, Zack Snyder, presents a stark contrast to her current ethos of unbridled optimism. The photo (see the article’s main image,) was prominently showcased by Snyder in the background of a virtual interview with ComicBook Debate, in which the…

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30 Dec

Pieces of a Woman

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Martha (Vanessa Kirby) and Sean (Shia LaBeouf) are a Boston couple on the verge of parenthood whose lives change irrevocably when a home birth ends in unimaginable tragedy. Thus begins a yearlong odyssey for Martha, who must navigate her grief while working through fractious relationships with her husband and her domineering mother (Ellen Burstyn), along with the publicly vilified midwife (Molly Parker), whom she must face in court. Rated: Not RatedRelease Date: Dec 30, 2020

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30 Dec

Wonder Woman’s Power of Flight: DCEU Versus DC Comics

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This Wonder Woman 1984 article contains spoilers. Wonder Woman 1984 sees Diana take to the skies in a way that is reminiscent of other superhero characters we’ve seen on screen before, but that we had yet to see from Wonder Woman in the DCEU. This led many viewers, including this writer, to wonder about the history of Wonder Woman’s ability to fly. Invisible Jets aside, let’s break down Wonder Woman’s history of flight in the comics and where DCEU Diana’s ability fits in… Can Wonder Woman Fly in the Comics? Well, friends, as with all long-running canon, that is a…

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29 Dec

How Wonder Woman 1984’s Practical Effects Set it Apart

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Going back to Themyscira is one of the most anticipated aspects of Wonder Woman 1984. For many fans, the Amazons were the highlight of the original film and an all-Amazon movie can’t come soon enough. The physical prowess and the pure joy of seeing so many women not only in combat, but engaging in fight choreography that’s developed around their physical attributes/gifts/features, is a rare and wonderful thing. The resulting actions sequences were unlike anything on screen before: highly stylized yet clearly effective.  Heading into WW84, director Patty Jenkins and her team (which now includes Gal Gadot as a producer)…

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