A Constant Visual Feast

February is a short month, and that’s the only reason why this month’s Women In Film Spotlight is dropping now, in March. The only reason. That’s it. Nothing else. Certainly nothing to do with Andy being all behind on his assignments. Not that at all.

A shame I’m so late on this, because February saw the release of some really noteworthy movies directed by women; Braid in particular is a gem, another great “Madeline Brewer goes kinda off her rocker” movie. This time she’s the villain. Sort of. The trick to Braid is that even the characters we’re supposed to accept as “protagonists” are kind of crummy people, so when they wander into Brewer’s crazyweb and get what’s coming to ’em, we end up rooting for Brewer. I wonder if that has as much to do with her casting as with the story itself. Either way, it’s great.

Also wonderful: The Competition, a 2 hour doc about students applying to La Fémis, the most prestigious film school in all Paris; this may be the kind of thing that only I’m excited about, and you, my readers, may read that preceding sentence and think, “fuck that.” So be it. Also also wonderful: The Breaker Upperers, a much easier sell, a screwy (but not quite screwball) New Zealand comedy that emphasizes the “charm” in “quirky charm” that makes the country’s comedy so distinct. 

Read the full piece over at Paste Magazine.