Women Talking (2022)

Jack and I liked this powerful ensemble piece about women in a remote religious colony who must decide what to do about their repeated sexual abuse by the men of the colony. Rooney Mara, Jessie Buckley, Claire Foy, Judith Ivey, Sheila McCarthy, Michelle McLeod, Frances McDormand, and the teens Kate Hallett and Liv McNeil are all exceptional in the drama, as well as Ben Whishaw, the only man whose face we see.

Director/screenwriter Sarah Polley adapted the 2018 novel by Miriam Toews, who was raised a Mennonite in Manitoba, Canada. Toews based her book on actual events from 2005-9 at the Manitoba Colony, a remote Mennonite community in Bolivia. I had no idea it was supposed to be contemporary until one scene about halfway through when the women briefly have visitors from the outside world. Soon after the movie begins, these words are on the screen: "What follows is an act of female imagination." I won't be the last to compare it to the jury drama 12 Angry Men.

Hildur Guðnadóttir's urgent score can be streamed on Apple Music and probably elsewhere.

Mara was last blogged for Nightmare Alley, Buckley for The Lost Daughter, Foy for First Man, Whishaw for The Personal History of David Copperfield, Polley for Take This Waltz, and Guðnadóttir for Tár

Two-time Tony winner Ivey has 76 screen credits and McCarthy has 148. McLeod, with eleven, looks a bit familiar to me, too, but I can't say why. This is the screen debut for Hallett and McNeil.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are not silent, averaging 90 and 86%, respectively.

A couple of years ago I joined the Independent Feature Project, specifically so that I could stream their Spirit Awards nominees. This is nominated for Best Feature, Best Director, and Best Screenplay, as well as winning the Robert Altman Award which goes to an ensemble cast, director, and casting director. It has quite a few other nominations and wins already and will no doubt make an appearance at the Oscars on March 12. 

Anyway, we were able to stream it on January 6, before its theatrical release, because of my IFP membership. Track your local art house's listings to see this on a big screen.

Tár (2022)

This movie is hard work, but my friends and I really liked the story about a prickly classical conductor at the top of her game, despite its overlong run time (2:38!) and esoteric dialogue. Our little watch party was grateful for the captions and pause/rewind buttons at home. Cate Blanchett just may win another Oscar for the title role of Lydia Tár, whose marriage and career are jeopardized by her behavior. Nina Hoss plays Tár's wife and co-parent and Noémie Merlant is Tár's assistant, heading up the big cast.

Director/screenwriter Todd Field wrote the part specifically for Blanchett and apparently would not have made it without her. 

Hildur Guðnadóttir's score, featuring the Dresden Philharmonic, which Blanchett literally conducts in at least one sequence, and others, can be streamed on Apple Music. I must also mention the spectacular cinematography by Florian Hoffmeister, gorgeous production design by Marco Bittner Rosser, and wonderful costume design by Bina Daigeler. There's a captivating sequence at the beginning where one of Tár's suits is being custom made.

Blanchett was last blogged for Nightmare Alley, Merlant for Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Guðnadóttir  for Joker, and Daigeler for The Zookeeper's Wife. Hoss starred in Barbara, though I didn't write her name in the exceedingly short post, and was in thirteen episodes of Homeland, plus many, many more projects, mostly in her native Germany.

Field was Oscar-nominated for writing both of his previous movies, which he also directed, Little Children (2006) and In the Bedroom (2001). Hoffmeister's dozens of credits include four episodes of Pachinko, which I loved, and Rosser is new to me.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are averaging a rhapsodic 90%, while its audiences may have needed more breaks than they were able to take, coming in at only 72%. We rented it on November 27 on Apple TV/iTunes while Jack watched football in another room.

Joker (2019)

Hard to watch but masterfully acted by Joaquin Phoenix, the future villain, misunderstood and bullied, descends to madness. It's a good movie. Phoenix's congenitally deformed shoulder is to his advantage in this role, as Joker is skinny and bent.

Supporting cast includes Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy, and many more, with welcome cameos by Marc Maron and Brian Tyree Henry.

Directed by Todd Phillips from a script by Scott Silver. Though it's obviously based on the Batman comic books, Batman isn't in it, but the child, Bruce Wayne, who grows up to be Batman, is. Music by Hildur Guðnadóttir (an Icelandic woman).

Last blogged: Phoenix for You Were Never Really Here, De Niro for Joy, Beetz for Deadpool 2, Conroy for No Pay, Nudity, Maron for Sleepwalk with Me, Henry for Widows, Phillips for The Hangover Part II. Silver was Oscar-nominated for co-writing The Fighter.

There was a rumor that this movie glorified gun violence. It does nothing of the sort, though it is violent. Here's an analysis.

Rated 69% critics and 89% audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. We saw it October 11, 2019.

To my readers: This short version may be the new normal for babetteflix. I have over 20 movies in draft mode and will make an attempt to catch up on the writing without really slowing down on the watching!