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Tully

Charlize Theron stars as a new mother overwhelmed by baby care who bonds with her night nanny (Mackenzie Davis). Written by Diablo Cody. (male director)

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Angels Wear White [pictured]

Vivian Qu writes and directs this drama about how a teenaged girl (Vicky Chen) and a tween (Meijun Zhou) react when one of them suffers a sexual assault.

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Rbg

Julie Cohen and Betsy West direct this documentary biography of pioneering judicial activist and Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

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Everything Else

Natalia Almada writes and directs this drama about a woman (Adriana Barraza) who reawakens herself to life in her 60s.

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The Desert Bride

Cecilia Atán and Valeria Pivato direct and cowrite this adventure drama about a woman (Paulina García) whose life is upended when her job is threatened.

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Altered Perception

Kate Rees Davies directs...

At last year’s Venice Film Festival, just one film from a female filmmaker — Vivian Qu’s “Angels Wear White” — was counted amongst the starry competition titles, and while Qu’s film didn’t win the big prize, it walked away with its own timely distinction: it’s a #MeToo film made before #MeToo swept Hollywood. Just weeks after Venice wrapped, disgraced producer Harvey Weintsein was accused of multiple acts of sexual assault and harassment, setting loose a new era in the industry.

Qu’s film proved to be a prescient piece of #MeToo cinema during its premiere, and its power has only increased during the subsequent months between its Venice debut and its domestic release.

Half-noir, half-human drama, the film follows young hotel clerk Mia (Vicky Chen), who witnesses a horrific sexual assault perpetrated against a pair of young schoolgirls by a middle-aged man during a night shift. Terrified of losing her job,...

Let’s think about the title to Vivian Qu’s sophomore effort Angels Wear White because the meaning goes far beyond the words themselves. On the surface it’s simply describing religious iconography and the idea that angels wear flowing white linens with halos on heads and harps in hands. But we’ve taken this concept and brought it into real life too. “White” has become synonymous with purity, trust, and expertise. We see a white lab coat on a doctor and automatically provide him/her a reverence built on nothing but an article of clothing. We don’t know them. We merely assume they have our best interests in mind. That white sheen doesn’t mean they’re incorruptible, though. Anyone can be bought or sold despite appearances. Everyone has a price.

Perhaps the cost is paid with money or maybe silence. For the young women at the center...

Although hailed by many as the only feature by a female (and Chinese) director to compete in the main competition at this year's Venice Film Festival, to minimize producer-writer-director Vivian Qu's Angels Wear White to its surrounding accomplishments would be to undersell what is achieved through the incisive blows that materialize from its skeletal framework. On a hot day in a seaside town running on tourism, two girls in pristine school uniforms—Xiaowen (Zhou Meijun) and Xinxin (Zhang Xinyue)—are sexually assaulted in a hotel. The perpetrator is the town's district commissioner, who they, their parents, and the lawyers and local police officers know. But to issue an arrest warrant for a man in power requires far more evidence than these claims, and this evidence belongs to the assault's only witness: Mia (Wen Qi), an underage migrant worker without a proper ID, whose coming forward could jeopardize her only source of income.

Dear Danny and Kelley,The Rider sounds lovely, and I’m happy to hear Chloé Zhao has built on the melancholy promise of her first film, Songs My Brother Taught Me. Artists with a gift for empathy create anticipation for new works. Artists whose single stylistic tool is shock, on the other hand, cause only dread. So it goes with mother!, Darren Aronofsky’s latest suite of seizures and my noisiest, least rewarding experience at Tiff so far. Genius is like fire in that it is born from what it burns, says Malraux, so this allegory on the malefic artistic process opens with the subtlety and maidenly restraint expected from the maker of Requiem for a Dream: a full frontal glimpse of an incinerated woman, her blistering skin suggesting a melting gold effigy. The drama proper belongs to another wax dummy, an unnamed young wife played by Jennifer Lawrence...