La femme de l'heure

This film spoke to me for a couple of reasons. I was a college student during the time depicted in this film, and I remember very well how naïve many young women were about how manipulative, conniving, and dangerous some men could be. I'm fortunate that nothing happened to me, because I certainly took some risks in situations where I should have known better. And then when something like a sexual crime did happen to a young woman, law enforcement didn't always take it seriously. They often thought the girl was asking for it because, for example, she was wearing a short skirt and walking alone at night.

The pacing of this film is deliberate and intense, and it switches back and forth between time frames and victims. I found it a little annoying at first, but it all made sense at the end. I thought Anna Kendrick and Daniel Zovatto played their roles extremely well. Zovatto came across as creepy AF. A few points are fictionalized, of course, and I'm not sure how much. I did some reading about Rodney Alcala, and the way he was apprehended is essentially accurate. If you can deal with the slow pace of this film, it's well worth the watch.

This film is a highly dramatized, poorly paced retelling of true events. While I did enjoy how the movie handled sexism and violence towards women, and while there were several really effective sequences, the overall product just falls kind of flat.

The movie bounces around between Alcala with various victims, Sheryl on the dating show, and Sheryl in her personal life. The movie can't seem to decide if it wants to focus on Sheryl, the dating show filming, or Alcala. Although it's a neat factoid that Alcala was on a dating show, that really doesn't work for the crux of an entire film unless you're going to have people's lungs exploding and heads spinning a la Late Night with the Devil.

Not a bad movie but wouldn't necessarily recommend it either.

I thought the acting and directing were excellent. Really impressed with Anna Kendrick. The movie was very good. I wish it was a little longer and had a few more twists. A few scenes were really amazing including the part where they show the dating game and the part afterwards. Saw the movies today at the TIFF and seemed as though that everyone really enjoyed it despite the serious subject matter. It would have been so great of there was no strike and the actors could have taken part today. One of the producers was there and read a note from Anna which was well received. I would recommend seeing this film.

Aspiring actress Sheryl Bradshaw struggles to land her big break, to get her face seen, she agrees to go on a dating show, where she meets Rodney Alcala, unaware that she's interacting with a serial killer.

It's a good film, definitely well made and well acted, it's almost shocking to discover that the film is based on actual, real life events. A little research will detail just how monstrous Alcala was, he clearly committed multiple murders, and got away with it for years.

It's well paced and even though it jumps around the timeline a little, it's easy to follow. It's done in a way to show just how dangerous Alcala was, and how much danger Sheryl, our central character is in.

I'm a big fan of Anna Kendrick, and she did such a good job as Sheryl, she's great, Daniel Zovatto perhaps steals it, he's excellent as Alcala.

One scene that did confuse me a little, were they implying that Alcala was flirting with a guy, and trying to lure him to his death? It felt a little bizarre.

7/10.

I've always liked Anna Kendrick, I consider her a good actress, but until now she had played roles mainly in comedies or dramatic films, so I was surprised to see her not only as the protagonist, but also as the director of a dark thriller based on a true story and I was also surprised to see that as a director, Anna did a good job.

The film flows very well, the tension is constant and the cast does a great job, from Kendrick to Daniel Zovatto, absolutely perfect in the role of the crazy Rodney Alcala.

Zovatto fits perfectly into the role of this psychopath and the moments in which he tries to charm women before killing them, really give you the shivers, also thanks, as mentioned, to the solid and no-frills direction of Kendrick.

In conclusion, a very interesting film that I recommend, among the few truly good films released this year on Netflix.