Linda Stirling Unmasked: The Black Whip




AGORA
: Dragged from her chariot by a mob of fanatical vigilante Christian monks, the revered astronomer was stripped naked, skinned to her bones with sharp oyster shells, stoned and burned alive as possibly the first executed witch in history. A kind of purge that was apparently big business back then.


CRITICAL WOMEN HEADLINES

1/27/24

WOMEN FILM CRITICS CIRCLE PAULINE KAEL JURY AWARDS 2023

 
May be art of text
 BEST FEMALE ACTION HERO
Briana Middleton, Sharper
Jennifer Lopez, The Mother
BEST DIRECTRESS: COURAGE IN FILMMAKING
Alice Troughton, The Lesson
Frances O'Connor, Emily
COURAGE IN ACTING
[Taking on unconventional roles that radically redefine the images of women on screen]
Emma Stone - Poor Things
Tia Nomore - Earth Mama
WOMEN'S WORK - BEST ENSEMBLE CAST
How to Blow Up A Pipeline - Ariela Barer, Sasha Lane, Kristine Froseth & Jayme Lawson
The Taste Of Things
THE INVISIBLE WOMAN AWARD
[Supporting performance by a woman whose exceptional impact on the film dramatically, socially or historically, has been ignored]
Roberta Colindrez, Cassandro
Ronke Adekoluejo, Chevalier (constant voice in Chevalier de Saint-Georges' head)
BEST KEPT SECRET - Overlooked Challenging Film Gems
Our (Almost Completely True) Love Story
The Kill Room
WOMEN SAVING THEMSELVES AWARD
Ghosted
Memory
MOMMIE DEAREST WORST SCREEN MOM OF THE YEAR
Julianne Moore, May December
 
HALL OF SHAME
'Unique, provocative and stylishly opinionated'...Fasten your seat belts!
[Individual WFCC Member Picks]
Priscilla is a listless, boring movie with no Elvis Presley music about a Nepo wife whose only claim to fame is being married to Elvis.
May December is just another sick habit of Hollywood exploiting and promoting a horrible, vile, immoral crime ripped from the headlines just to make money with no creative thinking at all involved.
Poor Things - falls into the male gaze with its depiction of an infantilized woman.
Boo To The Oscars: For snubbing the female director and star of the feminist comedy Barbie, while nominating the male supporting actor, Ken.
Shame on Spyglass Films for firing Mexican actress Melissa Barerra from Scream 7, her third Scream sequel, for courageously advocating a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. The star of 'In The Heights' has however defiantly continued her support for Palestine by speaking out - turning up at Sundance this month to join a Pro-Palestinian march at the Festival while promoting her next film there, seemingly ironically titled in her struggle against censorship, 'Your Monster.'
The Drew Barrymore Show - for ignoring their three women writers (Cristina Kinon, Elizabeth Koe, and Chelsea White), and announcing that they wanted to resume filming during the WGA strike.
Magic Mike's Last Dance - I cringed at the thought that a woman can't find her sexuality unless she gets a lap dance. Admittedly, Mr. Tatum does rouse the hormones, but the idea that a woman of putative power, talent, and brains needs a man to make it all happen for her, well, feh.
No Hard Feelings: Crosses the line, several ways, several times. It is the lowest kind of humor and at times even veers racist and homophobic. The producers probably think they were flipping the script by putting a woman in the sexist, douchey lead role, but really they just perpetuated that demeaning trope. They think they're being meta and woke when actually they're just deeply offensive. When the audience laughs, they don't get the irony, they just think it's okay to laugh along with misogyny again.
A Good Person: The modern Oxycontin crisis is represented here by Florence Pugh, as overwhelmingly white, when the war on drugs has consistently vilified drug addicts in cases where the drug of choice was largely used by the black community...The whitewashing and sanitizing of drug addiction here is rampant and insulting. The film does a disservice to individuals and families of any color actually experiencing the effects of drug addiction. Our beautiful, middle-class, white heroine is always painted in a light that makes her seem like an innocent victim, as opposed to all the years we’ve consumed media telling us the opposite about drug addicts of any other color. Even the teenager in the black family is demonized more for the way she deals with her trauma than the lead character.


 

1/17/24

 

KILLER MOVIE REVIEWS ANNOUNCES WOMEN FILM CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNERS 2023
 
 

 


12/16/22

The WOMEN FILM CRITICS CIRCLE PAULINE KAEL JURY AWARDS 2022

 

BEST FEMALE ACTION HERO 
Keke Palmer, Alice
 
 


BEST DIRECTRESS: COURAGE IN FILMMAKING
Olivia Wilde, Don't Worry Darling
 
 Olivia Wilde - Festival du Cinéma Américain de Deauville


COURAGE IN ACTING  
[Taking on unconventional roles that radically redefine the images of women on screen]
Danielle Deadwyler, Till 
Anamaria Vartolomei, Happening

WOMEN'S WORK - BEST ENSEMBLE CAST 
The Woman King
 
 The Woman King” – NBC Palm Springs

THE INVISIBLE WOMAN AWARD
[Supporting performance by a woman whose exceptional impact on the film dramatically, socially or historically, has been ignored]
Charmaine Bingwa, Emancipation
 
 The Good Fight's Charmaine Bingwa on Being Out and Authentic


BEST KEPT SECRET - Overlooked Challenging Film Gems
Amitabh Reza Chowdhury, Rickshaw Girl
Nana Mensah, Queen Of Glory

SSU showcase includes 'Rickshaw Girl'

WOMEN SAVING THEMSELVES AWARD
The Janes

MOMMIE DEAREST WORST SCREEN MOM OF THE YEAR 


Blonde, Julianne Nicholson as Gladys

HALL OF SHAME 
'Unique, provocative and stylishly opinionated'...Fasten your seat belts!
[Individual WFCC Member Picks] 

*The Gotham Awards. For removing the category Best Actress, in the further erasing of women.

*Anatomy Citation. “It doesn't matter how much I do, I'm still not going to get paid as much as that guy, because of my vagina." - Jennifer Lawrence speaks out against the continuing literal shortchanging of actresses - regarding Lawrence paid five million dollars less than Leonardo DiCaprio for Don't Look Up, and less than the male cast Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale and Jeremy Renner for American Hustle.

*Cringe Citation. Harvey Weinstein's shameful audiotape recordings. And being reminded of them/him in 'She Said.'

*Too Much Information Citation: Emma Thompson, for Good Luck To You, Leo Grande.

*Blonde. For depicting only the worst fantasies about Marilyn Monroe, and none of her beauty, grace and intelligence.

*More Blonde. A film that re-exploited Marilyn Monroe and made me feel bad for her. She never had a chance in a man's world, and this film exploited her again through the unnecessary explicit scenes. 

*And More Blonde. An overrated actress romping through the film exposing herself. And why the constant showing of embryos, is it to champion pro-lifers.

*Even More BlondeCompletely inaccurate. The portrayal of the actress is shallow and cliched, and the part of the speaking embryo comes across as a disquieting anti-abortionist statement. My review... 

*She Said. A drama about the NY Times investigation into the sex charges against Harvey Weinstein, 'She Said' comes off more as a self-congratulatory promo for the NY Times, than emphasis on its victims. And intimating a kind of damage control there for its own numerous scandals - the weapons of mass destruction hoax, and most recently calling for the release of Julian Assange -  without an apology for the paper's media participation in orchestrating his incarceration.

*The Cannes Film Festival. For disrespecting credentialed Deadline critic and distinguished WFCC member Valerie Complex, treating her with racist implications as an intruder there. On Being Black At Cannes: How Microaggressions Marred My Festival Experience

* Shame On DOC NYC. For announcing then scrubbing the name off their public list, secretly inviting as guest of honor a cinematographer from the Ukraine Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, Dmytro Kozatsky. Who sports Nazi tattoos, and is fond of creating photographs of swastika carved pizzas. While dragging out from the premises a young woman protesting the event.

12/15/22

The Women Film Critics Circle And WFCC Special Jury Award Winner Acceptance Speeches!

 https://static.digit.in/OTT/v2/images/tr:n-ott_home_crousel/rickshaw-girl-456646.jpg

BEST KEPT SECRET - Overlooked Challenging Film Gems
Director Amitabh Reza Chowdhury for Rickshaw Girl
"When I am making films , I never think about how people will perceive it or the awards that may come. The pleasure of making films is in playing with light and shadow, and creating emotion out of it . But whenever an award comes my way, it gives me inspiration for creating more cinema . Rickshawgirl is not just a film for me, it’s my journey to understand and celebrate the multitude of courageous and resilient Bangladeshi girls who fight for a dignified survival everyday. Thank you Jury board for this appreciation. Thank you, my beautiful Naima ,Novera Rahman, my producers and team for riding with me in the Rickshawgirl journey."
Amitabh Reza Chowdhury
Film director
 
 The Woman King” – NBC Palm Springs
 
BEST ENSEMBLE CAST
Directress Gina Prince-Blythwood for The Woman King

"On behalf of our extraordinary ensemble, thank you for honoring us with THE WOMEN FILM CRITICS CIRCLE PAULINE KAEL JURY AWARD 2022 for BEST ENSEMBLE CAST. This is a group of artists who all share the desire to be great, and that fostered an incredible set dynamic. Their passion to honor these real-life warriors, and their love and respect for each other fueled their inspiring work. They showed up for each other and it was profound to witness."
GPB
 
 The Janes': Courage and creativity on the abortion front – People's World
 
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Directresses Tina Lessin, Emma Pildes For The Janes
"We give thanks to the Women Film Critics Circle for recognizing “The Janes” with this honor. As women and as filmmakers, the story of Jane reinforced for us the power of decency, sisterhood and resistance. We hope that the film inspires audiences to join the fight to restore equitable access to safe abortion care for tens of millions who have had this fundamental right taken away." –Tia Lessin & Emma Pildes