Another approach to ‘a young woman in search of her identity’ / Team work gives a very nice ‘feel’ to the movie
Cast: Constance Wu, Josh Fadem, Jenée LaMarque
Director: Jenée LaMarque
Writers: Jenée LaMarque, Lauren Parks
Music by Julian Wass
Cinematography by Kristin Fieldhouse
Film Editing by Steph Zenee Perez
An adult woman re-live her abuse childhood / Disturbing story put together in the way memories of past events come back to mind, pieces by pieces
Cast: Laura Dern, Isabelle Nélisse, Jason Ritter, Elizabeth Debicki, Ellen Burstyn, Common, John Heard
Director: Jennifer Fox
Writer: Jennifer Fox
Editor: Anne Fabini, Alex Hall, Gary Levy
Director of Photography: Ivan Strasburg, Denis Lenoir
A woman who has been gang-raped when she was young comes to term with her past when she hears what really happened from the one who was her boyfriend at the time. A hard film to watch!
Just like in her preceding movie, music is used to help defining the personage and carrying the emotional content.
Cast: Kim Dickens, Gabriel Mann, Aria Alpert Adjani
Director: Allison Anders
Writers: Allison Anders, Kurt Voss
Music by Sonic Youth
Cinematography by Terry Stacey
Film Editing by Chris Figler
Excellent original music, great personages
Cast: Illeana Douglas, John Turturro, Eric Stoltz, Matt Dillon, Patsy Kensit
Written and Directed by Allison Anders
Music by Larry Klein
Cinematography by Jean-Yves Escoffier
Film Editing by James Y. Kwei, Harvey Rosenstock, Thelma Schoonmaker
Surprising, great personages
Cast: Brooke Adams, Ione Skye, Fairuza Balk
Director: Allison Anders
Writers: Richard Peck (novel), Allison Anders (screenplay)
Music by J. Mascis
Cinematography by Dean Lent
Film Editing by Tracy Granger
Sex and relationships in the eyes of a teenage girl and a woman in her late 40’s.
Stages 3 women in a finely-tuned coming-of-age and out-of-the-closet story, with balanced personages, multi-faceted sexual identities, and an healthy racial distribution.
“You may look at Miranda, and think immediately, ‘Oh, okay, I know who that woman is’. You would be wrong. The same for Cyd. ‘Oh, okay. Bored teenager sunbathing in a bikini. I know who that is’. Again, you would be wrong.” writes Sheila O’Malley.
Cast: Rebecca Spence, Jessie Pinnick, Malic White, James Vincent Meredith, Tyler Ross, Matthew Quattrocki
Director: Stephen Cone
Writer: Stephen Cone
Editor: Christopher Gotschall
Director of Photography: Zoe White
Original Music Composer: Heather McIntosh
strong script and direction
A movie essentially focused on male characters, in which women play a subdued role.
An uncommon and powerful representation of how a father experiences the loss of his children somewhat compensates the gender unbalance of the movie.
Interestingly, the music is not intended to fit a particular scene but does include several ones, creating an overarching level of expression that transcends that of the scene itself. In some of the critical passages, the personages talk but the dialogue is not heard, being replaced by the music that links the scene to the previous one.
Cast: Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, Kyle Chandler, Lucas Hedges, Gretchen Mol, C.J. Wilson
Director: Kenneth Lonergan
Writer: Kenneth Lonergan
Cinematographer: Jody Lee Lipes
Editor: Jennifer Lame
Composer: Lesley Barber
Excellent acting, fantastic camera, great dynamics in dialogues and music…
Cast: Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Jennifer Lawrence, Louis C.K., Jack Huston, Michael Pena, Elisabeth Röhm
Director: David O. Russell
Screenplay by Eric Singer
Music by Danny Elfman
Cinematography by Linus Sandgren
Film Editing by Alan Baumgarten, Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers
A world of dysfunctional families in which men are assholes and woman have to fight to survive / A critical non-judgmental view on American society and those left behind by the American Dream
See also “The Florida Project” by Sean Baker
Cast: Naomi Watts, Matt Dillon, Norman Reedus, Tess Harper, Antoni Corone
Director by Laurie Collyer
Screenplay by Laurie Collyer
Music by J. Mascis
Cinematography by Igor Martinovic
Film Editing by Curtiss Clayton
Set during the Cold War in the nascent post-war world of feminism and youth activism / Another facet of the influence of a strong fatherly figure on a young girl (see also The Man Who Cried (2000))
Cast: Elle Fanning, Alice Englert, Alessandro Nivola, Annette Bening, Timothy Spall
Written and directed by Sally Potter
Cinematography by Robbie Ryan
Film Editing by Anders Refn