Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Alice, Darling (Mary Nighy)
Everything you need to know about Alice’s (Anna Kendrick) state of mind concerning the abuse inflicted by her boyfriend Simon (Charlie Carrick) are the words “it’s not like he hurts me.” We feel Sophie’s (Wunmi Mosaku) wince in our bones—”hurt” doesn’t only become noteworthy when wrought by a physical altercation. Alice is glued to her phone to ensure she doesn’t miss a call or text. She wakes up super early to apply make-up and style her hair to Simon’s preference. Parrots all the soundbites he uses to police her eating habits about the toxicity of sugar. And literally pulls her hair out of her head whenever she has a spare second...
Alice, Darling (Mary Nighy)
Everything you need to know about Alice’s (Anna Kendrick) state of mind concerning the abuse inflicted by her boyfriend Simon (Charlie Carrick) are the words “it’s not like he hurts me.” We feel Sophie’s (Wunmi Mosaku) wince in our bones—”hurt” doesn’t only become noteworthy when wrought by a physical altercation. Alice is glued to her phone to ensure she doesn’t miss a call or text. She wakes up super early to apply make-up and style her hair to Simon’s preference. Parrots all the soundbites he uses to police her eating habits about the toxicity of sugar. And literally pulls her hair out of her head whenever she has a spare second...
- 2/3/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
This review originally ran January 22, 2022, in conjunction with the film’s world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.
“Whoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past,” Machiavelli noted, and while “Framing Agnes” digs into the archives for a look at the lives of transgender people in post-wwii America, director Chase Joynt uses these case histories from the past to prompt fascinating and provocative insights into the way trans people live today.
As with “No Ordinary Man,” the portrait of trans jazz musician Billy Tipton that Joynt co-directed, this is a documentary that’s constantly breaking the fourth wall, with camera angles that show the boom mics and marks on the floor, where black-and-white footage of actors performing interview transcripts will cut to color footage of the performers and the director conferring with each other about syntax and motivation.
Rather than serving to distract or distance, however, Joynt’s...
“Whoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past,” Machiavelli noted, and while “Framing Agnes” digs into the archives for a look at the lives of transgender people in post-wwii America, director Chase Joynt uses these case histories from the past to prompt fascinating and provocative insights into the way trans people live today.
As with “No Ordinary Man,” the portrait of trans jazz musician Billy Tipton that Joynt co-directed, this is a documentary that’s constantly breaking the fourth wall, with camera angles that show the boom mics and marks on the floor, where black-and-white footage of actors performing interview transcripts will cut to color footage of the performers and the director conferring with each other about syntax and motivation.
Rather than serving to distract or distance, however, Joynt’s...
- 12/13/2022
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
In order to best explain the field of ethnomethodology, which studies how social order comes to happen through the actions of individuals, sociologist Harold Garfinkel set up “breaching experiments,” an invitation for researchers to break traditional societal rules and examine how people react to the disruption. For example: experimenters can act like they’re guests in their homes and tip their families for their “service,” or they can reach out to customers in stores and restaurants, “confusing” them for clerks and servers. With these social non-sequiturs, Garfinkel hoped people would see how they often are unconscious keepers of rules and referees of normalcy—therefore, beings with much more power than they imagined.
In 1958, while he was in the midst of defining ethnomethodology at UCLA, Garfinkel met Agnes, a 19-year-old who claimed to be intersex and arrived in hopes they would be eligible for genital surgery in order to live fully as a woman.
In 1958, while he was in the midst of defining ethnomethodology at UCLA, Garfinkel met Agnes, a 19-year-old who claimed to be intersex and arrived in hopes they would be eligible for genital surgery in order to live fully as a woman.
- 12/5/2022
- by Jose Solís
- The Film Stage
“Framing Agnes,” a hybrid narrative and documentary feature film that explores trans lives and history, has sold North American distribution rights to Kino Lorber.
Directed by Chase Joynt, the film closely and accurately depicts the journey of trans people past and present through reenactments of transcripts from a notable 1960s UCLA gender study. Based on a short by Joynt which premiered and nabbed awards at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, the project features a cast of trans performers and academics that includes Jules Gill-Peterson, Angelica Ross, Jen Richards, Zackary Drucker, Max Wolf Valerio, Silas Howard and Stephen Ira.
The film will make its New York premiere at NewFest on June 5, followed by a theatrical release from Kino Lorber in December. Joynt and Morgan M. Page wrote the script, produced by Joynt, Samantha Curley and Shant Joshi. Kino Lorber senior vice president Wendy Lidell negotiated on behalf of the label, with UTA...
Directed by Chase Joynt, the film closely and accurately depicts the journey of trans people past and present through reenactments of transcripts from a notable 1960s UCLA gender study. Based on a short by Joynt which premiered and nabbed awards at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, the project features a cast of trans performers and academics that includes Jules Gill-Peterson, Angelica Ross, Jen Richards, Zackary Drucker, Max Wolf Valerio, Silas Howard and Stephen Ira.
The film will make its New York premiere at NewFest on June 5, followed by a theatrical release from Kino Lorber in December. Joynt and Morgan M. Page wrote the script, produced by Joynt, Samantha Curley and Shant Joshi. Kino Lorber senior vice president Wendy Lidell negotiated on behalf of the label, with UTA...
- 6/3/2022
- by Matt Donnelly
- Variety Film + TV
Framing Agnes, the winner of this year’s Sundance Film Festival‘s Next Audience and Next Innovator awards, does just what the title suggests and more. The groundbreaking film invited the Sundance audience to engage in history through the case files of trans woman Agnes, a participant in researcher Harold Garfinkel’s UCLA gender health research in the […]
The post Video Exclusive: ‘Framing Agnes’ Director Chase Joynt & Jules Gill-Peterson On Unlocking Trans History appeared first on uInterview.
The post Video Exclusive: ‘Framing Agnes’ Director Chase Joynt & Jules Gill-Peterson On Unlocking Trans History appeared first on uInterview.
- 2/11/2022
- by Rose Carter
- Uinterview
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” but when it comes to experimental archival documentaries, just because something worked once doesn’t mean it will work again. In the burgeoning canon of queer and trans documentaries, filmmakers face a unique challenge: How do you tell a story that has either been deliberately erased, or filtered through a lens that views you as abnormal at best, abhorrent at worst? It’s a dilemma that has been handled elegantly in recent documentaries like “Disclosure,” “The Lady and the Dale,” and “No Ordinary Man.” Unfortunately, “Framing Agnes”
Unsurprisingly, “Framing Agnes” has most in common with “No Ordinary Man,” which found meaning in conversations with trans actors as they attempt to re-animate the life of trans jazz musician Billy Tipton. Directed by Chase Joynt with Aisling Yin-Chee, Joynt steps out solo for his latest project, the similarly constructed “Framing Agnes.” In his second feature,...
Unsurprisingly, “Framing Agnes” has most in common with “No Ordinary Man,” which found meaning in conversations with trans actors as they attempt to re-animate the life of trans jazz musician Billy Tipton. Directed by Chase Joynt with Aisling Yin-Chee, Joynt steps out solo for his latest project, the similarly constructed “Framing Agnes.” In his second feature,...
- 1/28/2022
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.