Silver Screen Queens

This movie went from zero to “might win J.Lo an Oscar” in no time at all. As a woman-directed female-led crime story, we couldn’t wait to see it.

We didn’t really want to watch this, but we absolutely had to be part of the conversation. When people start maligning our much-loved comic book movies and thinking they can do it better, we need to get in there and see for ourselves. Joaquin Phoenix plays this (apparently) grittier, more realistic version of the Joker, directed by The Hangover’s Todd Phillips, trying to reinvent himself as an auteur. Did it deserve the top prize at Venice? We discuss.

In 2018, documentary filmmaker Rachel Lear’s followed four non-traditional female candidates for the congressional primaries. One of those candidates was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and so this film has a ringside seat to the rise of one of the most exciting new progressive voices of our age.

Brad Pitt is getting some later-career Oscar buzz for this performance as a lone astronaut journeying across the solar system to find his missing dad. We love a good sci-fi, and that premise had us intrigued.

This new Netflix sci-fi may be only a middling look at motherhood, but less than 24 hours after this episode was recoded, Mel gave birth.

Starring Hillary Swank, newcomer Clara Rugaard and a robot voiced by Rose Byrne, this film tells the story of a robot raising human children in a secure facility designed to repopulate the ruined Earth.

Shot in 30 days in South Australia, with an able assist from New Zealand’s Weta, we thought it was worth our time. Now we also wonder if it had prophetic powers.