The Tale (directed by Jennifer Fox)
At age 13, documentarian Jennifer Fox was the victim of coordinated sexual abuse at the hands of two adults she trusted and thought she loved. This is the story she retells–again and again, with varying levels of sickening detail dependant upon the moment-to-moment lucidity of her long-repressed memories–in HBO’s The Tale. Laura Dern plays adult Fox on screen, while Elizabeth Debicki and Jason Ritter play her doting abusers with all the predatory nonchalance of a pair of wildcats on the prowl. It’s young actress Isabelle Nélisse, though, who is the key to unlocking this unique story in all its unbearable truth. As a young Jennifer, she’s confident in her place within an adult relationship, except when she’s crippled by nauseating anxiety. She’s sure this is simply her first great love story, but her older self keeps getting in the way by remembering otherwise. The Tale thrives in these uncomfortable, contentious spaces between denial and acceptance, knowing and understanding, truth and self-preserving lie. In the end, Fox’s knack for nonfiction helps her create a deeply upsetting, undeniably important film.
Angels Wear White (directed by Vivian Qu)
A giant statue of Marilyn Monroe, mid-dress-clutch in The Seven Year Itch, is installed in a small Chinese beach town at the beginning of Angels Wear White. She’s one of the titular angels, and serves as a totem of reluctant womanhood throughout the film, even as she’s postered-over and neglected. Meanwhile, four girls at various stages of adolescence endure their own unasked-for transitions to womanhood, which they face down with alternating anxiety and naive excitement. Two of the girls–both twelve years old–quickly become victims of sexual violence which threatens to tear apart their families and community. The other two girls, both older yet by no means equipped for something so adult, are involved as witnesses. Qu’s sophomore film is at once intriguingly broad–it explores classism, institutional corruption, and sexual exploitation with open, serious eyes–and affectingly personal. Each girl fights her own ambivalence toward an unfair world, and some fare better than others.
Set It Up (directed by Claire Scanlon)
Otherwise known as the Netflix original that launched a thousand think-pieces, Set It Up is a thoroughly fun and modern rom-com that’s getting widespread credit for reviving a flagging genre. Its best asset is a fascinating cast featuring everyone from Lucy Liu to Taye Diggs to Pete Davidson to Zoey Deutch. Deutch and Glen Powell pay a pair of overworked assistants who scheme to hook up their intimidating bosses (Liu and Diggs) in hopes of landing themselves a moment’s peace. It’s a far-fetched concept, but the characters’ irreverent self-awareness makes it work, and a virtual Mad Libs of comedy-dense scenarios–MLB kiss cam! Food delivery hijinks! Bikini-wax-related sneakiness!–keeps things fresh even as it hits each of the familiar romantic comedy beats. Film buffs won’t find anything particularly deep or artsy here, but fans of the genre will recognize Set It Up as the kind of enjoyable, sweet entertainment that’ll survive endless rewatching.
Revenge (directed by Coralie Fargeat)
Rape-revenge movies are controversial for a reason. The exploitation they revel in is often stomach-turning, and the revenge (often realized by a bloody girl in itty-bitty clothes or a loose cannon man who’s angry on her behalf) hard to discern from male fantasy. So a genre-busting rape-revenge film directed by a woman? That’s something to see. Make no mistake, Revenge still has all the blood, guts, and titillation to be expected, but it inverts some of the grosser and more tired tropes of the subgenre in an exhilarating way. Most notably, heroine Jen (Matilda Lutz) is a badass for the ages, a young woman whose sexy confidence is never mistaken (at least on the audience’s part) for “asking for it,” and who survives based on her own sheer willpower and MacGyver-style skill. Lots of rape-revenge films feel unending and over-the-top, but Revenge is a lean survival saga with bravery in its heart.
The Strange Ones (directed by Lauren Wolkstein and Christopher Radcliff)
An unsettling, enigmatic slow-burn, The Strange Ones holds the same quietly mesmerizing dread as indies like Martha Marcy May Marlene or Upstream Color. Two brothers (Alex Pettyfer and James Freedson-Jackson) take a cross-country trip, but their motives, relationship, and even destination are obscured to us. As they stop at diners and motels, telling differing and clearly false stories to the strangers they meet, their every move is shadowed by ominous heaviness. The lush wilderness that surrounds the two lends the film an otherworldly vibe, and Freedson-Jackson’s performance as an eerie, tuned-out kid makes the whole thing feel perched to topple over into science fiction. The film constantly plays with our expectations of pacing, taking a long time to get where it’s going, then lingering there even as we wish it wouldn’t. Like some of the best stuff out there, it’s less of an enjoyable popcorn flick and more of an experiment in the ever-expanding limits of the medium.
Related Topics: Ava DuVernay, chloe zhao, Female Filmmakers, Lynn Shelton, lynne ramsay
