A Year With Women: April 2015 in Films

I didn’t watch very many films in April because about halfway through the month my beloved cat Mr. Rochester’s chronic kidney disease flared up and he was hospitalized. He passed away on April 21st, 2015 – three weeks after his 7th birthday. If you watch my YouTube videos, you can get a pretty good picture of how important he was to my life. He was my soulmate and he’ll be greatly missed. So I wasn’t really up to watching movies and critiquing them. I did, however, watch all of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Orange is the New Black, as well as getting all caught up on Jane The Virgin and Outlander. All great shows, all worth your time. That said, the movies I did watch in April were great, and, as always, there is a full list after the cut, as well as a few favorites.

1880s: 0
1890s: 0
1900s: 0
1910s: 0
1920s: 0
1930s: 0
1940s: 0
1950s: 0
1960s: 0
1970s: 0
1980s: 1
1990s: 3
2000s: 4
2010s: 7

L!fe Happens, 2012 (dir. Kat Coiro)

I love movies about female friendship and I love movies about Los Angeles and this was the best of both. It might not be everyone’s taste, but I loved it because the characters felt like women I knew or could know, the cast had wonderful chemistry and the secondary love story (which is always best!) was delightful. I really enjoyed the two films by Kat Coiro I’ve seen this year and hope she makes more films with Kate Bosworth because they are great together.

Bound, 1996 (dir. Lana & Lilly Wachowski)

Definitely one of the best neo-noirs I’ve ever seen. The Wachowski’s really need to go back to making small, character-driven films again because as much as I like their later films (esp. Cloud Atlas), there’s a tightness of storytelling to this film and the first Matrix that is just lacking in their bigger budget films. Jennifer Tilly knocks it out of the park in the role of a lifetime.

An Angel At My Table, 1990 (dir. Jane Campion)

God I love Jane Campion. I wasn’t familiar with the work of Janet Frame prior to watching this film, but Campion makes you care. Even though the film is almost three hours long, it always feels intimate and profound.

The Sisterhood of Night, 2015 (dir. Caryn Waechter)

I didn’t know what to expect going into this film, but what I found was one of the most honest films about being a teenage girl I’ve ever seen. What’s so great is that each of the girls represented are so complex that you see part of yourself in each and every one of them.

Aquamarine, 2006 (dir. Elizabeth Allen)

I watched this when I was really sad about my cat (he was still with us, but very, very sick) and this film was like candy for the soul. It’s also an honest look at being a teenage girl, just wrapped in a confectionary coating. This film is a warm sunny day; if you don’t like it, you don’t deserve it.

So that was April. I’m going to end my hiatus tonight and try to get back to watching a film a day for the rest of the year. As always, you can watch my video reviews on YouTube.