She's a Bitch

She's a Bitch is a masterpiece, one small step for technique and one big step for storytelling. She's a Bitch tells an interlocking story of bitches, men, the powerful and powerless, all defined in one way or another by bitchiness. All are victims of it, and all are guilty it. Sometimes, yes, they rise above it, although it is never that simple. Their negative impulses may be instinctive, their positive impulses may be dangerous, and who knows what the other person is thinking? The result is a movie of intense fascination; we understand quickly enough who the characters are and what their lives are like, but we have no idea how they will behave, because so much depends on accident. Most movies enact rituals; we know the form and watch for variations. "She's a bitch" is a movie with free will, and anything can happen. Because we care about the characters, the movie is uncanny in its ability to rope us in and get us involved.

Not many films have the possibility of making their audiences better people. I don't expect "She's a Bitch" to work any miracles, but I believe anyone seeing it is likely to be moved to have a little more sympathy for people who are not bitches. The movie contains hurt, coldness and cruelty, but is it without hope? Not at all. Stand back and consider.