ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

Female Film Critics 24/375

Author: Nell Minow

Interviews 

Debra McClutchy and Anne Alvergue on THE MARTHA MITCHELL EFFECT – Nell Minow interviews

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On Netflix, a new documentary from directors Debra McClutchy and Anne Alvergue is called The Martha Mitchell Effect, named for a psychiatric term inspired by Martha Mitchell’s story. It means someone whose comments are dismissed as mental illness but turned out to have been telling the truth. In an interview, the directors talked about doing research at the Nixon Library, what Martha liked about talking to the press, and why they see her as a hero.

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Interviews 

Dana Canedy on Faith, Love and A JOURNAL FOR JORDAN – Nell Minow interviews

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The title of the book and movie is A Journal for Jordan, but it is really two journals. First Sgt. Charles Monroe King was deployed in Iraq when his son, Jordan, was born, and so his fiancée, Dana Canedy, gave him a journal to give him a connection to the son he would see just once before he was killed in action. When she received the journal with his effects, Canedy, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, shared her own story, with selections from King’s journal, framing each chapter as a letter to their son.

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Commentaries 

Note to Hollywood: Fight Scenes Are Not Foreplay – Nell Minow comments

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I was disappointed to see the same obsolete trope in two Hollywood films this month. In The Protégé and in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings we see a man and a woman in an all-out mixed martial arts fight. At least comparatively speaking, in these two very intense, full-on fight scenes, the women are the good guys and the men are extremely dangerous killers. And in both scenes, the fights are concluded not with one combatant defeating the other but with the couple having sex.

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Interviews 

Michelle J. Li on Costuming SHIVA BABY – Nell Minow interviews

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Michelle J. Li designed the costumes for Shiva Baby, written and directed by Emma Seligman. It is set at a post-funeral gathering. The main character is Danielle, who arrives with her parents and runs into her ex-girlfriend and her “sugar daddy,” the man she has been sleeping with for gifts and money. He did not tell her he was married and the father of a baby. There are a lot of evasions, revelations, and confrontations, played more for farce than melodrama. In an interview, Li talked about the challenges of keeping distinctive looks for characters who are almost all wearing black and where she found the “expensive” bracelet that is the subject of much discussion in the film.

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Interviews 

The Assembled Ensemble on A WEEK AWAY – Nell Minow interviews

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“A Week Away is a sweet, unpretentious musical about a Christian summer camp for teens, told with heart and verve. Bailee Madison, who plays Avery, the daughter of the camp director, co-produced as well. Kevin Quinn plays Will, who is only at the camp because the alternative was going to juvie, Kat Conner plays the bookish Presley and Jahbril Cook plays George, the sweet, shy camper with a crush on her.

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Interviews 

Lara Gabrielle on Marion Davies and MANK – Nell Minow interviews

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Marion Davies, movie star and long-time love of the wealthy media powerhouse William Randolph Hearst, is a featured character played by Amanda Seyfried in Mank, the story of Herman Mankiewicz as he wrote the original screenplay for Citizen Kane. Davies is better remembered as the inspiration for the untalented Susan Alexander character Kane tried to make into an opera star in Citizen Kane than for her own appealing appearances in film. Film historian Lara Gabrielle, author of a forthcoming book about Davies, discusses the real-life actress.

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Interviews 

Dana Nachman on DEAR SANTA – Nell Minow interviews

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Dana Nachman’s documentaries make me cry because they are all about kindness. Batkid Begins: The Wish Heard Around the World was the story of the entire city of San Francisco coming together to give a child with cancer a chance to be Batman. Pick of the Litter follows puppies through their training to be guide dogs for people who are visually impaired. Her latest film, Dear Santa, is the story of the USPS workers and volunteers who read the letters children write to Santa and help make their Christmas wishes come true. In an interview, Nachman talked about why this film was “the most tricky” of her films and the three elements she wants to have in all of her movies.

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Interviews 

Rick Rowley talks KINGDOM OF SILENCE and Revealing Hidden Truths – Nell Minow Interviews

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Kingdom of Silence is a new documentary about the relationship of the United States and Saudi Arabia. It is a powerful film with two unforgettably shattering scenes. In one, we see the transcript of the cold-blooded murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the killers sounding like Mafia hit men. Director Rick Rowley talks about telling this complicated and murky politically entrenched story and what his top priority would be for whomever wins the Presidential election on November 3.

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Commentaries 

The New MULAN’s Critical Chi – Nell Minow comments

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Nothing is simple and straightforward and uncontroversial in 2020, not even a live-action remake of a popular Disney animated film. Whether intended to or not, the new Mulan has achieved one of the essential goals of any work of art in provoking thoughtful conversations that transcend but are illuminated by the story we see on whatever screen we see it on.

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Interviews 

Eliza Hittman on NEVER, RARELY, SOMETIMES, ALWAYS – Nell Minow interviews

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Writer/director Eliza Hittman did a lot of research for her film about a teenager who has to go to another state for an abortion, Never Rarely Sometimes Always. The authenticity of the story is deeply felt throughout the film. In an interview, Hittman talked about taking the literal journey she would later show her characters on, why stories about teenagers are so compelling, and what her “dream world” would be for access to reproductive health care.

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