Year of Release: 2023
Director: Anna Kendrick
Starring: Anna Kendrick, Daniel Zovatto, Tony Hale, Nicolette Robinson, Pete Holmes, Autumn Best, Kathryn Gallagher, Kelley Jakle, Matt Visser, Jedidiah Goodacre, Dylan Schmid, Karen Holness, Denalda Williams, Jessie Fraser, Matty Finochio, Geoff Gustafson
Genre: Crime, Drama
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 6
Watch it on Netflix
Synopsis and Review
Anna Kendrick's directorial debut premiered at the Toronto Film Festival of 2023, where it was met with solid reviews, and quickly got purchased by Netflix, who waited a full year before releasing it. The film which takes place in the late 1970s focuses its narrative on two central characters: a struggling actress in LA by the name of Sheryl, and a man by the name of Rodney Alcala, who later became well known as the Dating Game Killer. Sheryl as we find out, has been having a hard time in getting her thespian career moving forward. She goes on auditions that lead nowhere, and she's seriously considering moving out of LA. Her agent finally persuades her to go to the Dating Game, as that can help with her recognition. Rodney in the meantime wonders around, having had a colorful academic and professional background, which includes taking film classes from director Roman Polanski himself in New York. He poses as a photographer, capturing sexually suggestive photos of young women and also young men. He attacks and kills a few as we witness. He crosses paths with Sheryl when he goes to the Dating Game, where he ends up being the selected bachelor. The evening almost ends on a tragic note for Sheryl, but she manages to escape unharmed. Rodney in the interim continues his dalliances, engaging with a runaway by the name of Amy.
"Woman of the Hour" is a film that plays well to Anna Kendrick's strengths as an actress. She has cultivated throughout her career a persona that is marked by sensical, strong and intellectually deft characters. Sheryl is no exception, since she navigates a male chauvinistic environments with aplomb and resourcefulness, including feigning the comments from the casting calls, and even the Dating Game's host himself. As a director Anna Kendrick manages to briefly illustrate some of the monstrous episodes of a serial killer's path, failing however to provide a slight insight into that character, which is where the film falters a bit. It's a film that is overly polite, and restrained, one that needs a slight jolt of character depth to make these situations that much livelier and inhabited. The film takes a stronger turn when the paths cross on the Dating Game, with that reconstitution being spot on, though when the characters are on their own paths, their journeys feel rather underdeveloped (though the episode of Rodney and Amy is quite arrowing). The cast is uniformly great, with Daniel Zovatto in particular making a compelling and menacing Rodney, with good support from Anna Kendrick, Tony Hale, and Pete Holmes. The production team is solid, including Zach Kuperstein's cinematography, Dan Romer and Mike Tucillo's score, and Brent Thomas' impeccable production design. It's a solid feature directorial debut for Anna Kendrick.
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