I Am Woman (2020) - Movie Review

Well, beyond anything else about I have to say about this movie, I certainly learned something from it: The singer of one of the most famous female empowerment anthems was an Aussie. And just from that framing, the film immediately got my attention, with Tilda Cobham-Hervey’s Helen arriving in New York, suitcase in one hand and her daughter’s hand in the other, ready to make her mark on the musical landscape. Something about her alongside journalist Lilian Roxon (Dumplin’s Danielle Macdonald, another woman I only just learned was from my neck of the woods), two women Against The World and carving their own places in music history, is quite gratifying in a hometown-pride kind of way.

Dumplin' (2018) - Movie Review

Beauty pageants. Of all the many, many symbols of human vanity, no institution can lay claim to more bruised and inflated egos than the American beauty pageant circuit. Even without getting into the horrors when the pageants are for children (lest we remember that Honey Boo Boo is on the conscience of our species), the whole enterprise is just… weird. Not to mention disheartening, as this kind of superficial road show almost seems designed to make women feel bad about themselves. I mean, sure, most of us would probably prefer someone who looks like they subsist on more than just crackers and tap water, but even with that in mind, seeing women get praised for their surface-level details? Not exactly the best thing for the old self-confidence.