The First Lady, Ep. 1 - 'That White House'

by Eric Blume

Showtime's limited series The First Lady kicked off its premiere episode last week. It's a bit of a mixed bag out of the gate. The episode consists of several 10-minute-ish scenes covering each of our protagonists:  Michelle Obama (Viola Davis); Betty Ford (Michelle Pfeiffer); and Eleanor Roosevelt (Gillian Anderson).  A ticker on the bottom of the screen whisks us backward and forward between these women whose stories are about forty years apart from each other. 

There's not a great deal of grace in this back-and-forth execution, feeding us small glimpses of each lady in semi-satisfying increments that don't seem to have a meaningful connection between them outside of generic "I'm my own person" theme.  It's probably easiest to tackle these three stories independently, because episode one doesn't give us much of a linking thread or powerful throughline yet, and because there are pleasures to be had within the confines of this awkward setup...

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Three cheers to Pixar employees for their forceful righteous letter to Disney

by Nathaniel R

Thank you to the always informative Cartoon Brew for sharing this letter from Pixar employees. The original  source was the subscription newsletter Popular Information. The letter addresses Disney's disgusting support of anti-gay legislators in Florida (which we discussed a couple of days ago) and the company's lame attempts at pretending they haven't given that support without actually removing it. The letter was written by 'LGBTQ+ employees and their allies' at Pixar. It's forceful and necessary. Of notable interest is the admission that Pixar films have tried for greater diversity in their storytelling years before the current wave of movies but has always been shut down by their parent company. We're sharing it in full because it's 100% worth reading...

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Sundance: 'The Janes' Brings Context to Modern Women’s Struggles

by Eurocheese

"The Janes" are a popular topic at the Sundance Film Festival this year, and given the way women’s rights are under attack in the US today, their story remains relevant. Earlier in the festival, the fictional Call Jane highlighted one woman’s story when she became involved with this group. In The Janes, documentarians Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes show the real women who lived this history, detailing the backstory of this group and showing us what a future with restricted women’s rights might look like...

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Sundance: 'Call Jane' is worth answering

By Ben Miller

Handsomely filmed and admirably performed, Oscar-nominated Carol screenwriter Phyllis Nagy makes her feature film directorial debut with Call Jane. Elizabeth Banks stars as Joy, a traditional suburban Chicago housewife in the 1960s. Joy has a loving but busy lawyer husband Will (Chris Messina) and a 14-year-old daughter Charlotte (Grace Edwards). Joy is newly pregnant, and keeps having dizzy spells and passes out in her kitchen. Her doctor diagnoses a congenital heart blockage that threatens her life, unless the pregnancy is terminated - the only treatment...

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Sundance: 'Mars One' is a Brazilian gem!

by Cláudio Alves

Looking over the city she calls home, Tércia lingers and, in turn, the camera lingers on her. It's a beautiful, if humble, image, her silhouette against a celestial painting. The twilight sun makes watercolors out of the skyline, yellow bleeding into blue, gray buildings falling into the cold penumbra. The contemplative frame can contain many meanings, and director Gabriel Martins doesn't force the audience's hand. We're free to surmise what we want from the picture. Speaking from a personal place, I couldn't help but feel a melancholic kinship. Maybe it's projection, but I recognized myself in Tércia, looking at a seemingly peaceful world I thought I knew until it proved me wrong...

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