It’s no secret that people love true crime and jump at the chance to see documentaries, listen to a podcast or watch movies that are based on true stories. If that is you, then, oh, do I have a movie for you.
Netflix recently released a movie on Oct. 18 called “Woman of the Hour.” The film is based on a true story that focuses on the women who were tormented and murdered by Rodney Alcala, a heinous serial killer in the 1970s played by Daniel Zovatto in the film.
The film primarily follows Cheryl Bradshaw, a 28-year-old woman who met Alcala on a popular TV show called “The Dating Game” in 1978. Bradshaw is played by Anna Kendrick who is not just the film’s star but also the director. Seeing as this is her directorial debut, I’d have to say she did an excellent job.
Kendrick delivered the intelligent, quirky and lovable performance you would expect from her, but that ends up being just a small part of what makes her project so exceptional. This movie was thrilling, entertaining and more importantly, really grasped the problems women face in our society even today. What Kendrick has created here is an incredibly important film on the nature of the male gaze and the cultural conditions of being a woman. It’s unnerving and terrifying, and it was beautifully done.
In this film, we see men watching women and grooming them to be what they want. We watch men take advantage of the kindness of women, men failing to believe female victims who talk about their experiences with violence and we see what violent men can do using all those tools to hurt and even kill.
As a first-time director, Kendrick should not be able to be this effective in building a story like this, but she did it. I would say this film was not just about Alcala’s killing spree and the horrendous violent acts he committed, but it is a true social commentary on the treatment of women in the entertainment industry. We see this through the lens of Kendrick’s character, Bradshaw, and her real experiences in the acting industry paralleled by the disturbing and terrifying world of Alcala. He lured women to their deaths with flattery and charm. As a photographer, he makes promises of making these women models, but instead, he makes them his victims of abuse and violence.
The setting that Kendrick created of ‘70s America with beautiful sets and landscapes just spellbinds viewers, using excellent cinematography to make it really feel like you are in the movie. The combination of this setting with Zovatto’s chilling performance and the horrific events that take place are enough to give you goosebumps, and it had me on the edge of my seat the entire time.
If you weren’t convinced enough that this is an excellent film and aren’t in love with Kendrick by now, you will be when I tell you that Kendrick donated all the profits she made from the film.
“Anna Kendrick revealed during an interview on the “Crime Junkie AF” podcast that she made no money from directing “Woman of the Hour” because she donated her pay to RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) and the National Center for Victims of Violent Crime,” according to Zack Sharf, a writer for Variety.
Kendrick is a truly remarkable woman who made this film to empathize with other truly remarkable women who have suffered and survived the assault, and it is effective how the women portrayed in this film were not seen as weak or feeble but as strong and vulnerable to the abuse around them.
