No need to wait for Wonder Woman to see something from a female director. Here are 11 new movies by women that played at the Tribeca Film Festival that should be on your radar.
James Franco and Amber Heard in The Adderall Diaries, Athalia Routier and Galatéa Bellugi in Being 14, Cillian Murphy in Aloft.
A24 / Les Films du Lendemain / Allen Fraser
It's not news that Hollywood has been failing female filmmakers. According to a recent study from the Sundance Institute and Women in Film, only 4.1% of the top-grossing movies from 2002 to 2014 — the superhero sagas, YA adaptations, animated hits, and franchise installments that get the biggest investments in terms of budget and marketing, and that are seen by the widest audiences — were directed by women.
The departure of Michelle MacLaren from Wonder Woman, which would have made her the first female director of a superhero movie, due to "creative differences" was just the latest instance in which a major studio seemed to have trouble turning the reins of a high-profile project over to a woman. MacLaren has since been replaced by Patty Jenkins, who was once slated to direct Thor 2 before leaving due to, yes, "creative differences."
Wonder Woman's still slated to happen, but in the meanwhile, if you want to see work from women, you'd better turn to the indie world, which, while still male-dominated, is a much more welcoming place. At this year's just-concluded Tribeca Film Festival, there were 32 female directors to be found behind the cameras of the 101 features in the lineup. Here are the films of theirs that we saw, proof that women are making movies, and some very good ones, even if the multiplex has yet to figure that out.
The Adderall Diaries
A24
Director: Pamela Romanowsky
Pamela Romanowsky's first feature is based on the best-selling memoir by Stephen Elliott of the same name. James Franco, who hasn't been this good in a while, plays the BDSM enthusiast and addict author, who's paralyzed by writer's block. Instead of finishing the short story collection he owes his publishers, Stephen numbs himself with every drug imaginable and then pays to feel something by hiring sex workers to, on one occasion, attach clothespins to his body and rip them off in one foul swoop. Soon he's forced to take another look at the nightmarish childhood that provided fodder for his earlier book, thanks largely to the loss of his mother and his incredibly harsh father (played by a scary-good Ed Harris).
Though the film gets crowded at times, The Adderall Diaries is a brutally honest depiction of the complicated relationships between parents and their children, and it also challenges the audience to question how much our memories are anchored in truth or tainted by how we choose to seem them. —Jaimie Etkin
Where to see it: A24 acquired the film out of Tribeca. In a deal with DirecTV, the satellite service provider will show the film prior to its theatrical release, a date for which has not yet been announced.
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