The Tale (2018)

I've been meaning to check out The Tale for quite some time as it stars Laura Dern and I've heard great things about it —not sure if on Twitter or Letterboxd— but I kept putting it off because I thought it was a horror movie and I'm rarely in the mood for horrors. Turns out it is a horror film, but not a conventional one.

Written and directed by Jennifer Fox, the film follows Fox (Laura Dern) as she is working on a documentary about rape and abuse. While researching for the documentary, she gets a call from her mother (Ellen Burstyn) who is alarmed after discovering an essay Fox wrote when she was thirteen in which she depicted the relationship between her (Isabelle Nélisse) and her adult riding instructor and running coach Bill (Jason Ritter), and she starts investigating the nature of it. 

First of all, kudos to Jennifer Fox for having the courage to tell her own story —as a victim of abuse myself, I know it's not easy to speak about it, even more so making a film about it. Second, kudos to her for telling this disturbing, heartbreaking and heart-wrenching story with such sensitivity and grace, and keeping it real without the melodrama that's usually attached to the subject. That said, the storytelling isn't always effective as Fox lingers too long on some parts making the story tiresome and some plots feel forced. Overall though, Fox has done a very good job with the script and telling the story from the character's perspective as she struggles on recollecting the events really works.

As for the cast, Laura Dern does a wonderful job as Jennifer Fox, a brave woman who is forced to face the fact that she was repeatedly raped as a child by an adult she trusted and that other adults, her mother included, did nothing to stop it. Isabelle Nélisse, although she is miscast in the role of 13-year-old Fox as she looks nothing like Dern —they share eye and hair colour but their bone structures, both face and body, are completely different—, too is extraordinary and often overshadows Dern. The mental conversations between Dern and Nélisse are perhaps the most compelling bits of the film. The supporting cast isn't that good but the blame is on Fox herself as she barely wrote the supporting characters.

HBO Films

There's something, however, that prevents The Tale from being a great film, it's the direction. Fox's attempt at making the film as realistic as possible is too desperate for the film's own good. And the sex scenes between 13-year-old Fox and her coach —don't worry, body doubles were used in inappropriate scenes like this one— feels forced as it's only there to shock the audience.

Widows (2018)

Huge doesn’t even come close to describe how big of a fan I am of Steve McQueen, the British director not the American actor. It comes without saying that I was very looking forward to Widows, his fourth feature film. Unfortunately, my cinema didn’t show it so I had to wait for the home release to watch it.

The story follows three women who don’t know each other, Veronica Rawlings (Viola Davis), Alice (Elizabeth Debicki), and Amanda (Michelle Rodriguez), and whose only connection is their criminal husbands who got killed by the police during a heist. When Veronica learns that her husband, Harry (Liam Neeson), stole $2 million from Jamal Manning (Brian Tyree Henry), a crime boss and politician, and that Jamal wants her to give him his money back, she enlists the other widows and decides to carry out a $5 million worth heist planned by his late husband.

Widows is completely different from the films McQueen has made so far —Hunger, Shame, and 12 Years a Slave— and you can tell right away from its plot whose purpose is mainly to entertain —he still addresses sexual, political and racial issues, but they are on the background— and it’s entertaining. And engaging and interesting. The problem is that there are too many subplots and not enough time to develop all of them properly —it feels like a collection of stories with a forced connection—, there are many plot holes and coincidences, and the twist, although you don’t see it coming, doesn’t quite have the effect it’s supposed to have.

The characters too were a bit of a disappointment. This is the first time McQueen focuses on female characters and, since Gillian Flynn co-wrote the screenplay with him, I was expecting great characters. Unfortunately, they aren’t that fleshed out —because of this, I found it hard to connect emotionally with them—, and, if it wasn’t for the actresses playing them, they would be overshadowed by the male characters.

The cast, as I was saying, does a wonderful job though and makes you forget the many flaws in the script. Viola Davis is great as usual in the role of a strong woman who is very reminiscent of her character from How to Get Away With Murder, Michelle Rodriguez is feisty as always, Chyntia Erivo is barely in the film and yet manages to make a strong impression, but it's Elizabeth Debicki who steals the show for me as a fragile, vulnerable housewife who is done being mistreated. The actors also do a good job, the strongest performance coming from Daniel Kaluuya as he delivers quite a terrifying performance in the role of a psychotic henchman. 

20th Century Fox

Great performances from the cast aren't the only thing that McQueen delivers with Widows though. The tension he builds is nothing short of spectacular and keeps you on the edge of your seat for most of the film's running time. The cinematography is beautiful and adds a sense of realism to the film and the thrilling score fits the story very well.