Opening September 16 – 22, 2024 – Margaret Barton-Fumo reports

Written by Margaret Barton-Fumo, originally published September 16, 2024

The Alliance of Women Film Journalists highlights movies made by and about women. With a vigilant eye toward current releases, we maintain an interactive record of films that are pertinent to our interests. Be they female-made or female-centric productions, they are films that represent a wide range of women’s stories and present complex female characters. As such, they are movies that will most likely be reviewed on AWFJ.org and will qualify for consideration for our annual EDA Awards, celebrating exceptional women working in film behind and in front of the camera. Our members are feature writers, columnists and regular contributors to a variety of media outlets and many of us publish regularly on the festival circuit. Our critical voices are widespread and diverse. We invite you to join us in tracking weekly releases of particular interest. And we welcome information about new films that will help us to keep our records updated and our critics alert. Below is a concise list of new releases set for the week of September 16 – 22 that are of particular interest. Titles highlighted in red have links to full reviews:  

Tuesday, September 17

• The Arrival – Gravitas Ventures – USA – Drama directed by Alyssa Rallo Bennett. Six individuals cross paths over the course of one afternoon at a sparsely attended Manhattan bar, each struggling with physical and emotional boundaries being crossed, leading them to question who they are and who they might become. 

• Child Star – Hulu – USA – Documentary co-directed by Demi Lovato and Nicola Marsh. Examine how some of the most well-known former child stars, such as Lovato, deconstruct the highs and lows of growing up in the spotlight and how their ascension to fame, riches, and power affects their futures.

• Nobody’s Home – Freestyle Releasing (VOD) – USA – Dramedy directed by Michelle Bossy. When Theodora’s boyfriend Luca is set to be released from the institution where they are both admitted, she escapes with him and tries to re-traumatize him so he remains under her control. They end up at his childhood home where a knock on the door sends them spiraling into a confusing night of games and manipulation rooted in lies, insecurity, and fear.

Friday, September 20

• All Happy Families – Freestyle Digital Media (Cinemas) – USA – Comedy co-written and directed by Haroula Rose. The Landrys gather to renovate their family home. Graham rekindles a past romance. Sue’s retirement party incident prompts marital doubts. Will, a TV star, arrives. Shocking news emerges, jeopardizing the family’s unity.

• All Shall Be Well – Strand Releasing (Cinemas) – Hong Kong / China – Drama. Angie and Pat have been together for over four decades but after Pat’s unexpected death, Angie finds herself at the mercy of Pat’s family as she struggles to retain her dignity and the home that both had shared for over thirty years.

• Happy Clothes: A Film About Patricia Field – Greenwich Entertainment – USA – Documentary. Enter the colorful world of Patricia Field, the Emmy-winning costume designer behind Sex and the City, Emily in Paris, and The Devil Wears Prada.

• In the Summers – Music Box Films (Cinemas) – USA – Drama written and directed by Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio. On a journey that spans the formative years of their lives, two sisters navigate their loving but volatile father during their yearly summer visits to his home in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

• A Mistake – Quiver Distribution (Cinemas) – New Zealand – Drama co-written and directed by Christine Jeffs. In the midst of a new scheme to publicly report surgeons’ performance, a gifted surgeon’s life is thrown into disarray as her colleagues begin to close ranks, and even her partner who is a nurse at the hospital turns her back on her.

• Omni Loop – (Cinemas, VOD) – USA – Drama starring Mary-Louise Parker. A woman from Miami, Florida decides to solve time travel in order to go back and be the person she always intended to.

• The Substance – Mubi (Cinemas) – UK – Horror film written and directed by Coralie Fargeat. A fading celebrity decides to use a black-market drug, a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself.

• The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry – Quiver Distribution (Cinemas, VOD) – UK – Drama directed by Hettie Macdonald. Harold is an ordinary man who has passed through life, living on the side lines, until he goes to post a letter one day…and just keeps walking.

Film descriptions are adapted from press releases. Titles highlighted in red have links to full reviews. Stay tuned in for next week’s releases! Contact us if we’ve overlooked anything.

Margaret Barton-Fumo: Based in New York, Margaret Barton-Fumo has contributed to Film Comment since 2006. Her monthly online column, “Deep Cuts,” focused on the intersection of film and music. She has interviewed such directors, actors, and musicians as Brian De Palma, James Gray, Harry Dean Stanton, and Paul Williams, and has additionally contributed to Senses of Cinema and Stop Smiling. She is the editor of Paul Verhoeven: Interviews, published by the University Press of Mississippi.