Cracks, dir. Jordan Scott
The directorial debut—and, so far, only feature film—of Jordan Scott (daughter of Ridley, incidentally), Cracks stars Eva Green as Miss G, a sophisticated, worldly, risqué teacher at a boarding school for delinquent girls. Her charges hang off her every word, and why wouldn’t they? She’s Eva Green. It’s a brilliant bit of casting, because Green’s playing baaaasically who we all imagine she is in real life. It makes what happens later in the film, after a new student rolls in and mixes things up in the Miss G hero worship crowd, all the more shocking. Think The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, but a thriller, and with more lesbianism.
Is it on Netflix Instant? Yes.
Hysteria, dir. Tanya Wexler
Allow me to tell you why you should watch Tanya Wexler’s 2011 film Hysteria: It’s an historical rom-com centered around the true story of the invention of the vibrator. That’s it. That’s all you need to know. The fact that it stars Hugh Dancy as an adorably oblivious inventor/scientist and Maggie Gyllenhaal as a feminist crusader is a bonus. When people talk smack about rom-com as a genre, I want to take this film (and the collected works of Ernst Lubitsch) and smack them over the head with it. Rom-coms generally do suck nowadays, but they can still be good, and Hysteria is proof.
Is it on Netflix Instant? No.
Blackfish, dir. Gabriela Cowperthwaite
Only watch this BAFTA-nominated documentary if you’re OK with the very thought of going to SeaWorld filling your mouth with bile for the rest of your life. Which you should be OK with, because SeaWorld is a terrible place that does terrible, terrible things. The jumping off point for Blackfish is the death of Dawn Branchaeu, a SeaWorld trainer who was killed in 2010 by Tilikum, an orca who’s been responsible for the deaths of three people since he was babynapped and sold into captivity at a young age. Blackfish does not at all pretend to be an unbiased assessment on the issue of captive killer whales—it very much has its own point of view—but watching it it’s hard to think that SeaWorld could have anything to say to adequately defend themselves, even if they’d agreed to be interviewed (which they did not).
Is it on Netflix Instant: Yes.
Belle, dir. Amma Asante
You can check out my review of Belle here for a fuller explanation of why it’s worth your time, but the tl;dr version is this: First off, it’s just a plain good movie, if you’re the sort who’s not averse to British costume dramas. Second: It stars, is directed by, and is written by black women, which is a far, far too rare thing in the movie biz. The movie’s based on the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), an illegitimate, mixed-race aristocrat who lived in 18th century England. The movie’s full of solid performances (including Harry Potter‘s Tom Felton as, basically, Draco Malfoy in breeches and a wig), but it’s Mbatha-Raw who really brings the movie home.
Is it on Netflix Instant: No.
Wuthering Heights, dir. Andrea Arnold
Andrea Arnold burst onto the scene with 2009’s Fish Tank, and that’s still the film of hers that’s most well-known, partially for Michael Fassbender-shaped reasons. It’s a wonderful film, don’t get me wrong (and available on Netflix!), but I personally prefer Arnold’s 2011 adaptation of Wuthering Heights, starring Skins‘ Kaya Scodelario and non-professional actor James Howson (who’s acted neither before nor since). It would be an excellent double bill with Belle, because while Belle is a very traditional costume drama, Wuthering Heights is very much not. It’s grimy in a way that Brontë and Austen adaptations tend not to be. There are no flowery speeches—there’s not even much dialogue. In a word: visceral. I’ve seen a fair number of costume dramas, and Arnold’s Wuthering Heights is the one that feels the most modern. Teenagers, man. Teenagers.
Is it on Netflix Instant: No.
Titus, dir. Julie Taymor
If you know of a weirder Shakespeare adaptation than Titus, tell me, because I need to see it. (Yes, I’ve seen Scotland, Pa. But not Gnomeo and Juliet. No freaking way.) Titus is an unusual adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s more unusual plays, featuring as it does substantially more gore and cannibalism than Willie’s later, more… er, sedate offerings. An incredibly visually inventive film, it’s no surprise that Titus was directed by Taymor, who won two Tony Awards for The Lion King musical and later directed Frida and the Beatles musical Across the Universe. If that doesn’t draw you in, consider the cast, which includes Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange, and Alan Cumming.
Is it on Netflix Instant: No.
That’s it for my selections! A lot of big-name female directors—Delpy, Ephron, Breillat, Denis, Coppola—aren’t part of this series at all… so far. Drop us a comment letting us know what female-directed movies deserve to be in tomorrow’s reader recommendations section, and that could change.
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Published: Jul 24, 2014 01:19 pm