Autostraddle

Tomatometer-approved publication
Rating Title/Year Author
Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar (2021) Heather Hogan It's like spending 90 minutes inside a fever dream a Kristin Wiig '80s sketch character might have if she got high inside some kind of Mars Cheese Castle/Dylan's Candy Bar co-op. And I loved it. EDIT
Posted Mar 5, 2021
Water Lilies (2007) Drew Gregory The greatest strength of Sciamma's film is that Sciamma herself is the point of view - not Marie. EDIT
Posted Feb 26, 2021
I Care a Lot (2020) Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya I Care A Lot is a damning indictment of the corruption that pollutes the courts, healthcare, for-profit elderly care and, most of all, state-sanctioned guardianship, which strips the elderly and disabled folks of their agency. EDIT
Posted Feb 26, 2021
Two of Us (2019) Heather Hogan Meneghetti's debut is always visceral and sometimes shocking. It's familiar and it's rare. It's not a movie I'll probably watch again, but it's also not one I'll soon forget. EDIT
Posted Feb 8, 2021
The World to Come (2020) Drew Gregory The cinematography, the sound design, the direction of the actors - it all culminates in a remarkable cinematic experience. And yet every time Affleck was on-screen, I felt chilled. EDIT
Posted Feb 8, 2021
My Name Is Pauli Murray (2021) Carmen Phillips My Name Is Pauli Murray absolutely shines brightest when it lets Murray take the reigns. EDIT
Posted Feb 2, 2021
Knocking (2021) Drew Gregory The suspense is not born from a hidden truth, but from our concern for Molly's well-being. This is not a fun genre film. This is a sad and visceral foray into one woman's mind. EDIT
Posted Feb 1, 2021
Ma Belle, My Beauty (2021) Drew Gregory While the film is not without its flaws and missteps, it's hard not to be grateful to enter its world of sex and feelings and food and nature. EDIT
Posted Feb 1, 2021
Together Together (2021) Drew Gregory Not only does this movie show what trans actors can do, it shows what Patti Harrison specifically can do - the answer is everything. EDIT
Posted Feb 1, 2021
We're All Going to the World's Fair (2021) Drew Gregory None of the formal inventiveness would work if it wasn't grounded by a real person at its center. This may be her first feature, but [Anna Cobb] brings an immense amount of nuance to each moment. EDIT
Posted Feb 1, 2021
Pariah (2011) Natalie Duggins Pariah was honed over seven years...and the film that results is a stunning achievement. EDIT
Posted Jan 29, 2021
Cracks (2009) Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya It captivates; it traps. [Jordan] Scott's direction heightens the movie's themes of loneliness, power, and abuse. EDIT
Posted Jan 19, 2021
Happiest Season (2020) Heather Hogan Clea DuVall manages a real Christmas miracle in Happiest Season by capturing the distinctly queer and quietly heart-wrenching experience of not being able to share your real self with the people you love most. EDIT
Posted Nov 20, 2020
A New York Christmas Wedding (2020) Carmen Phillips Unfortunately, Christmas love can do many things - but it can't always cover the cracks in storytelling, and A New York Christmas Wedding has some pretty egregious, if not outright offensive, ones. EDIT
Posted Nov 20, 2020
Heavenly Creatures (1994) Drew Gregory This is a film that cares about its subjects' point of views and lets us inside its subjects' point of views. The film begins and ends in blood but there are so many moments where the reality is tempting to forget. EDIT
Posted Nov 10, 2020
Ammonite (2020) Drew Gregory It's well-made and it's thoughtful. But Lee's style is sparse and that kind of sparseness leaves little room for this lack of romantic connection between the actors. EDIT
Posted Nov 10, 2020
Bound (1996) Drew Gregory Bound is one of the great Trojan horses in cinema history. EDIT
Posted Oct 29, 2020
Desert Hearts (1985) Heather Hogan It was the tenderness of Desert Hearts that got me, the hope, and the idea that a woman didn't need to have it all nailed down by the time she hit 30, that a woman could give in to what she wanted and just figure it out as she went along EDIT
Posted Oct 29, 2020
BloodSisters (1995) DaemonumX My absolute favorite part in the film gives me chills- the San Francisco leatherdykes rolled into Washington D.C. clad in leather and joined the march surrounded by the contingent from the National Organization for Women. EDIT
Posted Oct 29, 2020
Set It Off (1996) Carmen Phillips F. Gary Gray does so nearly flawlessly because he understands that first and foremost the story belongs to the Black women upon whose shoulders this entangled mess has always fallen onto in the first place. EDIT
Posted Sep 4, 2020
Summerland (2020) Drew Gregory If you're the kind of gay who is as tired of melancholy endings as you are tragic endings, then trust that you'll be very pleased. EDIT
Posted Aug 27, 2020
Lingua Franca (2019) Drew Gregory This film is haunting, and this film is upsetting, but it's hopeful in a way too. It's hopeful because it says here is this woman and despite the cruelty of the world, she's going to step forward into the next day with her entire self. EDIT
Posted Aug 27, 2020
Sam Jay: 3 in the Morning (2020) Shelli Nicole As much as Sam Jay made me laugh and relate, there were also major moments of cringe that I simply couldn't ignore. EDIT
Posted Aug 20, 2020
Disclosure (2020) Drew Gregory Disclosure is vital whether it's the beginning of your education or a supplement along the way. It's a reminder of what representation can do and what representation can be. It is itself a work of trans cinema. EDIT
Posted Jun 16, 2020
Lyle (2014) Kristin Russo What we get as the audience is a story told exactly as its creator intended, with a powerful complexity that lasts far past the initial hour of viewing. EDIT
Posted May 29, 2020
Almost Adults (2016) Valerie Anne Liston Almost Adults is really fun to watch. And it flips the script on a lot of classic lesbian movie tropes. EDIT
Posted May 5, 2020
The Half of It (2020) Malinda Lo I loved all of it. EDIT
Posted Apr 29, 2020
Saint Frances (2019) Jourdain Searles Saint Frances feels like the beginning of a trend where lesbians of color can be portrayed as matriarchs of an average American family, with mundane and universal marital woes. EDIT
Posted Mar 12, 2020
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020) Carmen Phillips It's angry and incredibly violent and despite its bright color palette - perhaps expectedly dark; it's also cathartic and triumphant. EDIT
Posted Feb 11, 2020
Fortune Feimster: Sweet & Salty (2020) Heather Hogan There is a kindness and an elegance to the way Feimster tells jokes. EDIT
Posted Jan 29, 2020
Bombshell (2019) Heather Hogan It's fun to watch powerful men get destroyed. What's not fun is watching bad people take down worse people for self-serving reasons and get treated as heroes for doing it. EDIT
Posted Dec 30, 2019
Charlie's Angels (2019) Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya Overall, it hits all the right buttons for its genre and for the Charlie's Angels canon in general while still standing on its own and playing to the strengths of its three stars. EDIT
Posted Nov 21, 2019
Spiral (2019) Jourdain Searles To see a story like this was a breath of fresh air. EDIT
Posted Nov 13, 2019
Hustlers (2019) Carmen Phillips Hustlers is arguably the finest performance Jennifer Lopez has ever given, and there is no way for me to be unbiased about that fact. Her performance is as magnetic as it is layered, loving and warm as it is fearsome and dangerous. EDIT
Posted Sep 17, 2019
Men in Black: International (2019) Carmen Phillips Having Molly guide us back into the supernatural buddy-comedy universe really should've worked. To her credit, Tessa Thompson works very hard to make it work. EDIT
Posted Aug 10, 2019
Late Night (2019) Heather Hogan Queer director Nisha Ganatra brings [Mindy] Kaling's funny, biting, meta-critiquing script to life like a bright, slick, dazzling rom-com for women who fantasize more about their careers than they do about Mr. Darcy. EDIT
Posted Jun 5, 2019
Booksmart (2019) Heather Hogan Booksmart is a brilliant teen flick and a savvy female-fronted comedy and an exceptional lesbian film - and it's also just a really smart, really funny movie. It transcends every genre it's a part of. EDIT
Posted May 21, 2019
Wine Country (2019) Heather Hogan Unlike basically every other drunken comedy ever made, this one has experiences of womanhood baked into every layer. EDIT
Posted May 10, 2019
Butter (2011) Carmen Phillips The entire plot for Butter is the kind of wackadoodle delight that one should really experience with fresh eyes and their feet up on a couch with a bowl junk food at their disposal. EDIT
Posted Apr 11, 2019
Wild Nights With Emily (2018) Heather Hogan If someone found a way to use alien tech to scan my brain and create exactly the movie I've been waiting to see my entire life, this would be it. EDIT
Posted Apr 9, 2019
Captain Marvel (2019) Heather Hogan A slow start, but once the movie got going, it left me breathless. EDIT
Posted Mar 8, 2019
Disobedience (2017) Erin Sullivan I was informed by my viewing companion that I started to do the "wrap it up" hand motion before the credits even began to roll. EDIT
Posted Jan 23, 2019
Pimp (2018) Mackenzie MacDade It's clear every actor involved was deeply committed to not just their characters, but to the narrative. EDIT
Posted Dec 28, 2018
Bar Bahar (2016) Drew Gregory During an era where so many of us are desperately looking for comfort, I can think of no cinematic message more fitting for 2018 than this one. EDIT
Posted Dec 26, 2018
Life-Size 2: A Christmas Eve (2018) Heather Hogan You deserve to experience the absolute ecstasy of watching Tyra Banks commit to the bananapants wide-eyed wonder of this role again. EDIT
Posted Dec 19, 2018
Cameron Esposito: Rape Jokes (2018) Heather Hogan It has already changed the comedy game. EDIT
Posted Dec 13, 2018
Dumplin' (2018) Heather Hogan Yes, it's formulaic. But it's fresh, too! EDIT
Posted Dec 13, 2018
The Favourite (2018) Heather Hogan The most stunning thing about The Favourite is how it slices open three queer women and lets their messy humanity bleed all over you. EDIT
Posted Dec 3, 2018
Widows (2018) Carmen Phillips It's knotty and tense to watch as all the pieces fall into place, but nonetheless electrifying. EDIT
Posted Nov 20, 2018
Lez Bomb (2018) Heather Hogan While Lez Bomb certainly doesn't hit all the shots it takes, I think it's a really important (and entertaining) step forward. EDIT
Posted Nov 20, 2018