Worth: $17.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Jennifer Hudson, Cara Delevingne, Marcia Gay Harden, Eva Longoria, Anne Watanabe, Margherita Buy
Intro:
... a celebration of women’s stories, not a heavy-handed lesson in feminism.
The first two shorts in this anthology are gritty, with somewhat threadbare narratives. Yet the performances are incredible – Jennifer Hudson amazes as a prison inmate with a drug habit in Pepcy & Kim, while Cara Delevingne impresses as a homeless woman in Elbows Deep. Both of these shorts are based on real life events.
But the openers don’t set the tone for this compilation of seven separate stories. All directed by women, and all with female protagonists, there’s an international flavour to the shorts and if there’s a common denominator, it’s the stellar acting.
Eva Longoria gives a measured performance in Lagonegro, which takes its title from the Southern Italian village it’s set in. Longoria is Ana, an Italian woman who’s beenf living in the US since she was a teenager, returning to Italy to bury her estranged sister. Not long after arriving, Ana faces a situation that she could never have anticipated. It’s a cinematic and atmospheric short – and one of the best here.
Another Italian-set tale, Unspoken, sees a veterinarian (Margherita Buy) on a late night shift when she encounters a desperate situation that centres not on an animal, but a woman. Of all the shorts, this is the one with the most intrigue and drama. Like the first two, Unspoken is also based on real life events.
In between the Italian tales is an excursion to Japan for A Week In My Life. Anne Watanabe is heart-warming as a sole parent with two young children, a busy job in an eatery, and the need to vacuum every day. Amusing and insightful, it’s about finding joy amidst the hard work of living.
The penultimate tale is set in Mumbai, where we meet an angry plastic surgeon (Jacqueline Fernandez) who is confronted by something deep within when she encounters a trans woman in this stylised and sexualised story. It’s a little strange but quite uplifting. The finale, Aria – a cliched animated short about gender roles – closes the anthology on its weakest note.
Taken as a whole, there’s something life-affirming and deeply enjoyable about this anthology that tells women’s stories from a place of honesty and compassion.
Made by We Do It Together, a non-profit that’s focussed on empowering women and creating gender equality in film and the media, any messages here are given with a light touch. It’s a celebration of women’s stories, not a heavy-handed lesson in feminism.
