Certain Women (2016)

Certain Women (2016) is based on the short stories by Maile Meloy, and set and shot in Montana, small towns and wide open plains, everything overcast and grey, filmed as a space of both beauty and loneliness. Three short narratives play out – a lawyer’s (Laura Dern) interaction with a disgruntled client (Jared Harris), a […]

Girlfriends (1978)

Girlfriends (1978) is a buried treasure of independent cinema whose influence was touted awhile back by Lena Dunham (who held a revival screening and hired director Claudia Weill to helm an episode of Girls). It also feels like the inspiration to filmmakers like Nicole Holofcener, Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig, etc as it is about […]

Smithereens (1982)

I’d always wanted to see Smithereens (1982), directed by Susan Seidelman, a low budget New York cult movie about punk/DIY subcultures. The headstrong protagonist Wren (Susan Berman) is brilliantly introduced stealing a pair of zebra patterned shades on the subway and handing out photocopied flyers of her face with the cut-out text “Who is this?” […]

One Sings, The Other Doesn’t (1977)

When Agnès Varda passed away, shamefully I’d not seen any of her films. Seeking to correct such an oversight, I sought out One Sings, The Other Doesn’t (1977; L’une chante, l’autre pas), a narrative that follows the friendship between two women, which comes to symbolise feminist movements of the 60s and 70s. As teenagers, Pauline […]