TV veteran Mayim Bialik is no stranger to entertainment. The former child star is just as known for portraying the title character on the 90’s sitcom Blossom, as she is neuroscientist Amy Fowler on The Big Bang Theory. With a lifetime in “the biz” the Jeopardy host is charting new territory, writing and directing her first feature film, As They Made Us. Inspired by her own family, the film centers around Abigail (Diana Agron), a divorced mother who just can’t seem to break away from her dysfunctional family....

We’re All Going to the World’s Fair Written and directed by Jane Schoenbrun Writer/director/editor Jane Schoenbrun’s feature debut, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, is a harrowing peek into teenage isolation and the pervasive power of the Internet.  Casey (Anna Cobb) is embarking upon the “World’s Fair Challenge,” an online horror game that triggers mysterious transformations in the player. Creepypasta-style videos featuring real YouTube content creators document graphic physical and psychological transitions, but the viewer is left wondering how much of Casey’s transformation is real and how...

What would you do if you found out that freedom was closer than you thought? Or simply a state of mind. Alice, the brainchild of debut director Krystin Ver Linden, is a revenge thriller set in the Antebellum South on a remote Georgia plantation. The film stars Emmy award winner KeKe Palmer (Akeelah and the Bee, Hustlers) as its eponymous heroine longing for her freedom and rapper-actor Common (The Chi, The Hate U Give) as the disillusioned political activist suffering from arrested development from losing...

    As a child of the 1990’s, must I even tell you how many Saturday nights in suburbia I spent watching episodes of MADtv?  Though only eight when the show premiered, it became one of my favorite programs to watch, and with hyped-up, uber funny impressions of childhood favs like Whitney and Oprah, comedic actress Debra Wilson was naturally one of my favorite ensemble members. An original cast member from the pilot episode, Wilson exited the series after eight seasons in 2003, after getting whiff of...

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were TV pioneers. Ball, a B-movie actress turned comedy legend, and Arnaz, a Cuban-American refugee and musician turned producer extraordinaire–fell in love with each other on a movie set, and against all odds got married and portrayed one of the first mixed race couples on TV at the time, in I Love Lucy. Mind you, this was in the ‘50s. At a time when sexism and racism was far from taboo and proudly showcased on the quilt of American culture, the...

On February 11th, Netflix released their sequel to Tall Girl, Tall Girl 2. The Tall Girl series focuses Jodi, a junior at Ruby Bridges High School, who is so close to being truly happy…if only she weren’t tall. Jodi has been bullied, harassed, and embarrassed by kids in her high school for being 6-foot-1. Though Jodi is constantly worried about her height and often gets rude comments about it, she is also white, blonde, conventionally pretty, and has two loyal friends. But even then, Jodi’s...

In the second frame of Joachim Trier’s new Norwegian film, The Worst Person in the World, which was nominated for Best International Feature and Best Original Screenplay, a table of contents appears on the black screen – “A film in 12 chapters, a prologue and an epilogue.” This dictum sets the tone for the book-like structure that follows – the chapters chart the characters’ lives, relationships, and milestones neatly. We think we know what to expect. We begin in the prologue where we meet our protagonist,...

Right at the beginning of Netflix's new series, Emily the Criminal,, we learn three things: Emily (Aubrey Plaza) has a criminal record, $70,000 of student debt, and a bit of a temper. She’s stuck in the gig economy, delivering food for a catering company in Los Angeles and making endless loan payments that don’t even cover the interest on her debt. She can still get interviews for office jobs, but it’s a catch-22: tell the truth about her record and get thrown out right away,...

Benedetta  Co-written and directed by Paul Verhoeven  Out December 3 Over the course of his career, Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven has transitioned from sneered-at trash master to auteur, with “guilty pleasure” films like RoboCop, Total Recall, Showgirls, and even Starship Troopers garnering him reconsideration by cinephiles as a visionary of subversion. In 2008, he published a theological text, Jesus of Nazareth. So, it seems inevitable that he would eventually make a movie about horny nuns. Inspired by Judith C. Brown’s biography Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun...

With New Year’s Eve approaching, you can be sure of one thing: the equally notorious and lazy January 1st is coming. In case you were looking for movies to binge-watch all day long to get over the craziness (or loneliness—hi Omicron!) of the previous night, we have gathered a list of 2021’s must-watch films about, starring, or created by women.  Titane by Julia Ducournau  Photo by Carole Bethuel, Courtesy of Neon Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2021, Titane is a disturbing move intersecting between family drama,...