Tell It Like a Woman is an American–Italian anthology. Premiering at the Taormina Film Fest, Tell It Like a Woman is an anthology of seven short stories directed by women, about women, for everyone, both in front of and behind the camera. Tell It Like a Woman was filmed in different parts of the world. I watched Tell It Like a Woman because it has an Oscar nomination. The film had the potential to be great but wasn’t able to complete the necessary dots to make that happen.
Tell It Like a Woman is a feature film composed of seven short stories whose common denominator is the representation of female protagonists. Each of these very different women faces a particular challenge in their life with extreme determination and courage that makes them stronger and more self-aware. The film was shot in India, Italy, Japan, and the United States. Some of the stories were inspired by true events, while others are narrative fiction. The film covered drug addiction, mental health, child-rearing, homelessness, and partner abuse.
The acting was outstanding in all the stories but I felt Jennifer Hudson, who acted in the first story was brilliant and was the most powerful of the seven. After the third story, the themes seemed to go downhill. The last story was animated and somewhat confusing, as I didn’t think the animation was a good fit. Tell it Like a Woman was hard to track down but finally became available to rent. I’ve provided a short synopsis of Tell it Like a Woman below:
The first: Jennifer Hudson stars as an incarcerated mother with substance abuse and mental health issues.
The second: Marcia Gay Harden plays a doctor who helps a woman (Cara Delevingne) with schizophrenia and who is homeless.
The third: Eva Longoria travels to Italy to bury her sister and finds she’s been assigned as guardian for a niece she didn’t know she had.
The fourth: Anne Watanabe plays an overworked mother whose two young children give her a useful gift.
The fifth: Margherita Buy plays a veterinarian who is put in a position to help an abused woman after treating her dog.
The sixth: Jacqueline Fernandez plays an unhappy plastic surgeon who abandons her obsession with perfection after meeting a trans woman.
The seventh is animated where alien-like creatures, forced to repeat gender stereotypes playing on televisions in surveilled concrete cells, are liberated. Tell it Like a Woman can be rented on Prime Video for $4.99 — Check It Out!
Since I don’t read comic books, I didn’t know what to expect or even that this movie was derived from a comic book series. The pitch was “Valerian is the most beautiful movie we’ll ever see.” It was compared to Avatar and I was convinced that if it was half as good as Avatar, it still would be pretty fantastic as far as outstanding special effects goes. As it turns out, some of this was right but not all. It wasn’t until two thirds through, I found Valerian becoming more than tolerable and even interesting. The acting was good but the story was a little confusing. Then something happened; camera, action, a change of pace — oh boy, I think I like this after all.
I tried really hard to like Suicide Squad because I’m into the whole super hero thing. I have to admit, as much as I like super heroes and meta-humans, Suicide Squad was suicide. Some of the most deplorable meta-humans you can imagine are housed in Belle Reve Prison for their hideous crimes.
CAROL's WORLDS 