News

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol – Picture: Paramount Pictures

The holiday season is in full-swing and if you fancy settling down onto Netflix for a new movie to watch – you should probably be prioritising these excellent nine movies that will all be departing as we head into the New Year.

For a full list of what’s leaving Netflix throughout January 2024, check our guide of removals for the month which is the most comprehensive on the net!

Captain Phillips (2013)

Leaving Netflix: January 1st

Paul Greengrass’s superb biopic about the true story of the 2009 hijacking of the Maersk Alabama continues to stir much controversy. The controversy stems from the scrutiny of Richard Phillips, portrayed by Tom Hanks, and his decisions that led to the event. Regardless of these opinions, one cannot deny that this is a fantastically made movie.

As with most Sony Pictures movies on Netflix, you’ll a premium tier...

Exclusive: Equity and A Call to Spy writer, producer, and star Sarah Megan Thomas has signed on to direct Audrey’s Children, a biographical drama about healthcare hero Dr. Audrey Evans.

Julia Fisher Farbman, whose interview profile of Dr. Evans amassed 17M views, wrote the script. Casting for Dr. Evans will begin soon, we’re told. Production will begin in Philadelphia in October. Fisher Farbman and Thomas will produce.

Evans revolutionized treatment for Neuroblastoma, a deadly form of pediatric nerve cancer, and co-founded Ronald McDonald House Charities, an organization that provides housing and support to millions of families around the world.

In 1970, when 90% of children with Neuroblastoma die, the top U.S. children’s hospital recruits Dr. Evans – a brilliant, yet unconventional British oncologist who sports floral dresses instead of medical garb, sneaks lab animals into hospital rooms, and even talks to her patients about heaven. When Dr. Evans discovers...

Spyscape, a New York City museum experience dedicated to the art of espionage, announced plans today for a film and TV festival named Spyflix.

The event will take place starting April 18 with international availability through virtual screenings. Submissions will be accepted now through Feb. 28, with the overarching theme being “secrets.” Anything revolving around the topic, from espionage and hacking to true crime and investigative documentaries, is eligible to be included in the festival.

“Secrets are powerful and ancient narrative devices that tap deep into our psyche,” said Spyflix rep Francis Jagoin a statement. “They power some of the most successful franchises … and they’re core to the most engaging stories across news and current affairs, history and politics. Spyflix will help storytellers bring the power of secrets into sharper focus, stimulating greater discovery, and critical discourse around the genre.”

Awards will be presented in the categories of features, shorts and...

A Call to Spy movie review is here. The 2019 American historical drama film written and produced by Sarah Megan Thomas and directed by Lydia Dean Pilcher is inspired by the true stories of three women who worked as spies in Churchill's Secret Army. A Call to Spy stars Sarah Megan Thomas, Radhika Apte and Stana Katic. A Call to Spy was released in the United States on October 2, 2020, in theaters and on video on demand.

A Call to Spy will be streaming on Prime Video from December 11, 2020.

A Call to Spy review

Virginia Hall (Sarah Megan Thomas) an American with a wooden leg, Vera Atkins (Stana Katic) a refugee settled in England and Noor Inayat Khan (Radhika Apte) an Indian-Russian princess and an expert wireless operator. Meet these ordinary women of star, writer and producer Sarah Megan Thomas in Lydia Dean Pilcher helmed A Call to Spy – a song of...

Exploring the cultural sexism meted out to women during the second world war, this drama based on real people avoids cliche

‘Make sure they’re pretty,” a bespectacled Special Operations Executive wonk tells Vera Atkins, the Romanian born “spymistress” (played by Stana Katic) charged with building a network of French-speaking female undercover operatives in the early days of the second world war. Written by Sarah Megan Thomas and directed by Lydia Dean Pilcher, this is a righteously conceived drama designed to highlight the smothering sexism that greeted women’s contributions to the war effort, in particular anything that smacked of ambition above lowly clerical grades.

A Call to Spy zeroes in on two of Atkins’ real-life recruits, and takes its time spelling out their individual stories. Virginia Hall (played by writer Thomas) is an American embassy worker with a prosthetic foot seething at being denied a career as a diplomat,...

A Call to Spy Review — A Call to Spy (2019) Film Review, a movie directed by Lydia Dean Pilcher and starring Sarah Megan Thomas, Stana Katic, Radhika Apte, Linus Roache, Rossif Sutherland, Samuel Roukin, Andrew Richardson, Laila Robins, and Marc Rissmann. I found A [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: A Call To Spy (2019): Sarah Megan Thomas’s Passion Project is Crudely Put Together...

Writer and actress Sarah Megan Thomas had always been interested in World War II and spies. She had been wanting to tell a female spy story and heard about Winston Churchill’s female spies.

Diving in, Thomas found herself in a rabbit hole reading up on the secret British World War II organization, The Special Operations Executive (Soe), Thomas found herself writing about the unheard female heroes who gathered intel and created espionage in France.

In “A Call to Spy,” now streaming on demand, Thomas plays Virginia Hall, starring alongside Stana Katic who plays Vera Atkins and Radhika Apte (Noor Inayat Khan) as the trio of spies working to fight evil.

Thomas and production designer Kim Jennings talked about writing the script, telling an empowering female story, the importance of hiring females and creating World War II in modern-day Philadelphia.

It’s not very often we get to see stories about women during the war.

Neon’s Possessor Uncut brought the sci-fi thrills this weekend to select theaters around the country as the specialty box office continues to find signs of life during the pandemic. Written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg, the pic starring Andrea Riseborough and Christopher Abbott played on 320 screens in its debut and earned an estimated $227,500, with Saturday netting the most coin with $110,000. The film delivered a per-screen average of $711.

Also opening this weekend was the IFC Films World War II dramatic thriller A Call To Spy directed by Lydia Dean Pilcher and written by Sarah Megan Thomas. The film hit 75 theaters this weekend earning an estimated $40,000, with a per-theater-average of $533. The pic was also released on digital and cracked the top 5 on the iTunes chart this weekend. IFC Films is set to add additional theaters in the upcoming weeks.

Bleecker Street’s Save Yourselves! also made its debut this weekend in 388 theaters,...

Chicago – When a prominent and influential producer made the transition into solo directing, she sought stories that matched her intuitive and natural passions. Lydia Dean Pilcher chose “A Call to Spy,” a World War II-era drama that focuses on three women who defied their obstacles and became early war heroes.

Ms. Pilcher is an activist for the environment, as well as diversity issues and women’s equality through her work as a producer and filmmaker. The script for “A Call to Spy” was written by the eventual lead actress in the film, Sarah Megan Thomas. Ms. Pilcher was drawn to it because of the themes of the women’s contributions to Britain’s World War II efforts, and their courage despite the skepticism of a system run by men.

’A Call to Spy,’ directed by Lydia Dean Pilcher (inset)

Photo credit: IFC Films

The film is based on real events...

What does a spy look like? The most famous image we're familiar with is that of James Bond, and for most of film history, 90% of the spies we saw onscreen were male. In reality, espionage agencies prefer to recruit people the enemy won't suspect. - yet curiously, it wasn't until the advent of World War Two that Britain considered training women for the job, a move attributed to Winston Churchill. Written by star Sarah Megan Thomas and directed by Lydia Dean Pilcher, this film is based on the real stories of some of the women among those first recruits.

Thomas plays Virginia Hall, an American who tried in vain for many years to get a job as a diplomat, frequently facing discrimination because of her wooden leg. Stana Katic is Vera Atkins, a Romanian Jew who wants the chance to fight back against the enemies of her people and secure.

Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Scott Thompson on Wbgr-fm on October 1st, 2020, reviewing the new films On the Rocks” (In select theaters October 2nd and on AppleTV+ starting October 23rd.) and “A Call to Spy” (In theaters & Video-On-Demand).

Rating: 4.0/5.0

On the Rocks Sofia Coppola writes and directs this simple tale of a late-thirty-something writer named Laura (Rashida Jones) who is also a stay at home Mom. Her hard-charging husband Dean (Marlon Wayans) is spending more time at the office, and Laura begins to suspect he’s having an affair with a co-worker. Her doting but similarly hard-charging father Felix (Bill Murray) is going to help her find out if the affair is true. This is a relationship and character comedy, with Laura and her Dad finding out more about their approaches to life than anything having to do with the marriage. 4/5 stars.

Rating:...

As Nazi forces pushed ever closer to England in the summer of 1941, Prime Minister Winston Churchill had a wild idea: a new spy agency, the Special Operations Executive (known as the Soe), to gather intel, and spark sabotage, in and around France. That scheme might sound obvious on paper, but the Soe went decidedly outside the box when it came to not only its methodology, but also the people tasked with carrying it out: They included more than three dozen women. Lydia Dean Pilcher’s “A Call to Spy” follows three of those women, and while the shape of

Pilcher, best known for her producing work (including an Oscar nod for the documentary “Cutie and the Boxer”), appears intent on carving a niche in directing overlooked historical tales about fierce, real-life women. Later this year, her directorial debut “Radium Girls,” about a group of ’20s-era factory workers who advocated for safer conditions,...

“A Call to Spy” braids the stories of three decorated WWII spies to reveal — and to revel in — their pivotal roles in British spy craft and history. The title may fall flat but the movie, a sturdy directorial debut for producer Lydia Dean Pilcher, gets to the heart of the matter. Even as they faced various forms of discrimination, Vera Atkins, Virginia Hall and Noor Inayat Khan responded boldly to the tug of duty. They served Britain, and

A scene of torture begins the film. The year is 1941, and Germany has invaded France. The person being interrogated is a woman. Soaked, gasping, she will not crumble. Turns out, she doesn’t have to. The woman is Hall (Sarah Megan Thomas), and to our relief, she’s undergoing the final test in her training. Three months earlier, the Special Operations Executive branch of the British government began recruiting “lady spies.” Winston Churchill...

As September comes to a close and October brings in autumnal vibes, the country (and the world for that matter) is focusing on two things: the forthcoming November election and the end of the world. Luckily, in this early edition of this week’s specialty preview, we have something that is relevant to both!

After making its world premiere at Sundance, Julie Taymor’s The Glorias is ready to disrupt the system. Ld Entertainment and Roadside Attractions will debut the civic-minded and socially aware film on Amazon Prime Video starting today — and it couldn’t be a more perfect time.

Ahead of the November election, The Glorias is based on feminist icon Gloria Steinem’s book Life on the Road. Co-written by Taymor and Sarah Ruhl the nontraditional biopic paints a portrait of one of the inspirational figures of modern history. Steinem became a prominent figure that defined era and a generation.

"We need you as our first female field agent." IFC Films has released an official trailer for A Call to Spy, an indie spy drama from producer-turned-filmmaker Lydia Dean Pilcher. This is her second feature after directing Radium Girls, which is also about badass women from the past. In the beginning of WWII, with Britain becoming desperate, Churchill orders his new spy agency – the Special Operations Executive (aka Soe) – to recruit and train women as spies. Their mission: conduct sabotage and build a resistance, to help collect information about Nazis in France. Soe's "spymistress," Vera Atkins – who was the inspiration for Bond's Moneypenny – recruits two unusual candidates to be spies: Virginia Hall, an ambitious American with a wooden leg, and Noor Inayat Khan, a Muslim pacifist. Together, these women help to undermine the Nazi regime, leaving an unmistakable legacy in their wake. Starring Sarah Megan Thomas, Stana Katic, Radhika Apte,...

Women rule the upcoming IFC Films release “A Call to Spy,” a World War II espionage thriller from Oscar-nominated director Lydia Dean Pilcher. Not only is the narrative centered on Winston Churchill’s female recruits thrust into a bold mission, but the production team is also dominated by women throughout. IndieWire shares the exclusive trailer for the film, which hits theaters and VOD on October 2, below.

Here’s the synopsis: “In the beginning of WWII, with Britain becoming desperate, Churchill orders his new spy agency — Soe — to recruit and train women as spies. Their daunting mission: conduct sabotage and build a resistance. Soe’s ‘spymistress’ Vera Atkins (Stana Katic of ‘Castle’), recruits two unusual candidates: Virginia Hall (Sarah Megan Thomas of ‘Equity’), an ambitious American with a wooden leg, and Noor Inayat Khan (Radhika Apte of ‘Sacred Games’), a Muslim pacifist. Together, these women help to undermine the Nazi regime in France,...

Exclusive: UK indie film distributor Signature Entertainment and Australian releaser Rialto Distribution have acquired UK and Australian rights respectively to war drama A Call To Spy.

The pic is directed by Lydia Dean Pilcher, who was Oscar nominated in 2014 for documentary Cutie & The Boxer and is also a two-time Emmy winner. It tells the true story of two female spies – recruited under Churchill’s orders – who were sent undercover to undermine the Nazi regime in France during WWII. It stars Sarah Megan Thomas, Stana Katic, and Radhika Apte.

The film premiered at Edinburgh International Film Festival last year. IFC Films is releasing in North America.

Signature is lining up the UK bow for October, with Rialto to follow soon after. The deals were negotiated by Signature’s Director of Acquisitions and Development Elizabeth Williams, Rialto’s CEO Kelly Rogers and A Call to Spy’s writer, producer and actress Sarah...

Exclusive: IFC Films has acquired North American rights to A Call to Spy, the feature directorial debut of Oscar nominated documentary producer Lydia Dean Pilcher about the unsung female heroes of WWII. IFC plans a fall release, Deadline has learned.

Produced, written by and starring Sarah Megan Thomas (Equity), who plays real-life American spy Virginia Hall, pic takes place at the onset of WWII when Winston Churchill ordered a new spy agency, the Special Operations Executive, to recruit and trains female spies. Their daunting mission: conduct sabotage and build a resistance. Soe’s “spymistress,” Vera Atkins (Stana Katic), recruits two unusual candidates: Hall, an ambitious American with a wooden leg, and Noor Inayat Khan (Radhika Atpe), a Muslim pacifist. Together, these women help to undermine the Nazi regime in France, leaving an unmistakable legacy in their wake. Atkins, later became the inspiration for Ian Fleming’s Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond franchise.

WFF19 attracted a total of 12,339 attendees across our programming including 6,450 film-screening attendees and 2,180 special event attendees. On the Industry side, the Content Summit welcomed 2,655 attendees, 116 talent program attendees and 938 delegates.

The Whistler Film Festival’s Audience Award sponsored by Fisherman’s Friend went to the North American premiere of LIBERTÉ: A Call To Spy, an exciting true story about female spies during WWII. The film is an American title shot partly in Budapest and was produced, written by and stars Sarah Megan Thomas and was directed by Lydia Dean Pilcher. The Wff Audience Award runner-up was The Cuban directed by Sergio Navarretta, which had its world premiere at the festival. The Wff Audience Award for Most Popular Canadian Film went to Antigone, Canada’s official submission in this year’s international film Oscars category. Directed by Sophie Deraspe, the film won four of the five Borsos Competition Awards including Best Canadian Feature.

Here’s the latest episode of the The Filmmakers Podcast, part of the ever-growing podcast roster here on Nerdly. If you haven’t heard the show yet, you can check out previous episodes on the official podcast site, whilst we’ll be featuring each and every new episode as it premieres.

For those unfamiliar, with the series, The Filmmakers Podcast is a podcast about how to make films from micro budget indie films to bigger budget studio films and everything in-between. Our hosts Giles Alderson, Dan Richardson, Andrew Rodger and Cristian James talk how to get films made, how to actually make them and how to try not to f… it up in their very humble opinion. Guests will come on and chat about their film making experiences from directors, writers, producers, screenwriters, actors, cinematographers and distributors. They also shoot the breeze about their new films, The Dare, World of Darkness,...

Buyers reveal the films to receive an enthusiastic response.

International delegates have given a positive response to Film London’s new-look London Screenings, which took place at Picturehouse Central in London’s West End from June 24-27.

Some of the films that received a particularly enthusiastic response by distributors included François Girard’s The Song Of Names, starring Tim Roth and Clive Owen and sold by HanWay Films; Hong Khaou’s Karlovy Vary premiere Monsoon, handled by Protagonist and described by one distributor in London as “absolutely charming”, and Elfar Adalsteins’ tragicomic road movie End Of Sentence, about a newly...

Exclusive: Indian actress Radhika Apte has joined UTA’s talent roster. Apte was recently cast as one of the leads in the Lydia Dean Pilcher-directed untitled female-driven Ww II spy drama along with Stana Katic and Sarah Megan Thomas.

Additionally, Apte just wrapped filming Michael Winterbottom’s feature The Wedding Guest, opposite Dev Patel. At last year’s Tribeca Film Festival, she picked up the best actress award for her role in Anurag Kashyap’s Madly.

On the TV front, Apte, who continues to be repped by Curtis Brown Group in the UK, is set to co-star in two Netflix projects; an original series, Sacred Games, opposite Bollywood stars Saif Ali Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui as well as the miniseries, Ghoul, produced by Blumhouse and Phantom Films.

AnnaSophia Robb is set to co-star opposite Charlie Plummer (All the Money in the World) and Taylor Russell (Lost in Space) in the Thor Freudenthal-directed film adaptation of Words On Bathroom Walls, based on Julia Walton’s debut novel. Plummer plays Adam, a high schooler living with paranoid schizophrenia and battling wild hallucinations. Luckily, an experimental drug trial promises to help hide his illness from his peers and most importantly from Maya, the girl of his dreams. Robb will play Rebecca, one of the main characters in Adam’s hallucinations who acts as a conduit for the feelings that he cannot express. Nick Naveda wrote the screenplay which Ld Entertainment financing and Mickey Liddell and Pete Shilaimon are producing. Robb, whose upcoming projects include the supernatural drama, Down A Dark Hall for Lionsgate, Freakshow, produced by Drew Barrymore’s Flower Films, and the PBS Civil War mini-series Mercy Street,...

Radhika Apte is taking the plunge in Hollywood to star in an untitled spy World War II drama. The actress will star as a spy alongside Castle alum Stana Katic and Equity star Sarah Megan Thomas. The film will be based on the lives of real-life spies who were in the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's secret army. The untitled film stars Stana Katic’s character Vera Atkins who is a British Intelligence officer. The film revolves around Vera Atkins and two other women Virginia Hall played by Sarah Megan Thomas and Noor Inayat Khan played Radhika Apte who is sent to France as spies. Radhika Apte’s character Noor Inayat Khan is a pacifist of Indian descent who happens to be the first female wireless operator.

The post Radhika Apte to star alongside Castle star Stana Katic in new spy WWII movie appeared first on Bollywood Hungama.

Castle alum Stana Katic, Sarah Megan Thomas (Equity), and Radhika Apte (Padman) are set to star in an untitled female-driven Ww II spy drama set to begin principal photography this spring. Linus Roache (Batman Begins) and Rossif Sutherland (River) also have been cast in the project, based on the real-life spies in Winston Churchill’s “secret army”, from Thomas and Lydia Dean Pilcher (Queen of Katwe).

The film centers on British intelligence officer Vera Atkins, played by Katic, and two of the women she sends to France as spies, Virginia Hall (Thomas) and Noor Inayat Khan (Apte). Atkins is a crafty recruiter with a secret of her own. Hall is a daring American with a wooden leg who was the first female field agent and ultimately the spy the Nazi’s dubbed “the most dangerous of all,” and Khan is a pacifist of Indian descent who was the first female wireless operator.

The story of Vera Atkins is headed to the screen.

The spy recruiter is at the heart of a new female-driven World War II spy thriller, The Hollywood Reporter has learned exclusively. Sarah Megan Thomas — who created, produced and starred in the story of last year's Wall Street thriller Equity — wrote the project's script and will produce the real-life drama with Lydia Dean Pilcher, who will direct. Casting is currently underway, and principal photography is set to begin in the spring.

Based on true events, the as-yet untitled pic tells the story of Atkins, known for recruiting, training...

The Anna Gunn-starring film “Equity” is getting the TV treatment at ABC. Deadline reports that the female-led Wall Street thriller is being adapted for the network, which handed out a script commitment plus penalty.

The drama, written by “The Strain” producer Regina Corrado, is set in the world of cutthroat investment banking and centers on Naomi Bishop, a Wall Street banker, played by Gunn in the film, who is navigating a world where big money and high-power reign, and women have yet to break the glass ceiling. It is unknown if any of the film’s actresses will be part of the series.

The adaptation hails from Corrado and Pascal Pictures’ Amy Pascal, with Sony TV’s TriStar Television as the studio. Corrado and Pascal will executive produce with Rachel O’Connor and the movie’s producers Alysia Reiner and Sarah Megan Thomas.

Read More: ‘Equity’: Why It...

We’ve never seen this before, multiple female characters open about ambition, power, and money. But representation alone does not make for a gripping tale. I’m “biast” (pro): desperate for stories about women

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

To say that Wall Street shenanigans are well storied onscreen is both an understatement and a misdirection. Sure, there have been lots of movies (and documentaries) set in the world of high finance… and as with nearly ever other human endeavor that gets depicted in film, most of them are about men. Even in movies about Big Money based on real-life events in which women played significant roles, women’s contributions tend to get glossed over or eliminated entirely; see The Big Short. We may think we’ve got a good grip on how Wall Street operates based on the movies we’ve seen,...

Equity is a film about Wall Street but not the usual kind. For one thing, it is about women working on Wall Street. The film is also not about the economic meltdown or other famous scandal, but instead is just about an investment banker, Naomi Bishop (Anna Gunn), who has risen to the top, playing the investment game with the big boys, in what is predominately a man’s business world. The title refers more to the kind of equity one means when you say “pay equity.”

This is a remarkable film for what it is not – the usual financial drama with men in the lead roles. Not only is the main character a woman but all the major characters are women. In this financial drama, all the really central roles filled by women, and men are in the supporting and romantic interest parts, the movie roles to which women are too often consigned.

Michael Barker, John Krasinski, Margo Martindale, Sharlto Copley, Thomas Bernard Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

At the Sony Pictures Classics première at Cinepolis Chelsea for John Krasinski's The Hollars, written by People, Places Things director Jim Strouse, Krasinski and his stars, Margo Martindale and Sharlto Copley, talked ice cream and pretzels, Alexander Payne, Rod Steiger, a Le Cirque lunch for John Wells's August: Osage County, tightrope and tire swings.

Sharlto Copley: "I had a really personal bond with the two actresses playing my daughters." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Richard Jenkins with Anna Kendrick, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Josh Groban, Mary Kay Place, Randall Park, Charlie Day, Isabela Costine and Didi Costine round out the cast for John Krasinski's directorial follow-up to Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, based on David Foster Wallace stories.

Emily Blunt, producer Allyson Seeger, Ron Claiborne, Devika Bhise (Matt Brown's The Man Who Knew Infinity), Sarah Megan Thomas,...

Chicago – The key moment in “Equity” is early in the film. The main character was asked at a seminar why she got into high level finance. She paused for a second, and said “money.” The gals can be just as greedy as the guys, and their stakes in that greed can be just as exploitable.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

But this isn’t about greed as much as the madness of financial pursuit. It is portrayed as an addictive high, hard to let go of no matter how much has been added to the bank account. And there are always rivals, and at that level they’ll stop at nothing to get advantage. This is a human story created by women, and not so much a cautionary tale but a lesson in the status quo. The pacing of this story is deliberate, to a fault, yet the humanity is true. There is no evolution in competition,...

Equity Sony Pictures Classics/Broad Street Pictures Reviewed by: Harvey Karten, Shockya Grade: B Director: Meera Menon Written by: Amy Fox, story by Sarah Megan Thomas, Alysia Reiner, Amy Fox Cast: Anna Gunn, James Purefoy, Sarah Megan Thomas, Alysia Reiner Screened at: Sony, NYC, 6/29/16 Opens: July 29, 2016 When a woman congratulates a business associate on the latter’s pregnancy, she may be stabbing her in the back (to avoid hurting the fetus, presumably). This is the case when Samantha (Alysia Reiner) wants nobody in her firm to know her condition, since people on the fast track could transfer quickly to the mommy track if the boss finds out—which is exactly [ Read More ]

The post Equity Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Here’s the thing: The idea of a “strong female character” is not a moral determination. Katniss Everdeen, protagonist of the “Hunger Games” saga, may be a strong female character, but that’s not because she’s a hero — it’s not because she’s possessed with an infallible sense of virtue and a Christ-like selflessness that defies any reasonable human standard. By the same token, slathering Scarlett Johansson in spandex and having her fight alongside Iron Man doesn’t make Black Widow a strong female character either, no matter how many asses she kicks.

The strength of a role has nothing to do with decency, and everything to do with depth.

What makes “Equity” such a vital feminist film, even when its other qualities are often few and far between, is how defiantly it internalizes that idea. At a time when someone can be a mother and a professional (or,...

When I tried to think of an equivalent to Meera Menon's excellent new Wall Street drama Equity off the top of my head, the task proved incredibly difficult. What other film focusing on the hardball world of investment banking centers on a woman protagonist, after all? It was only after a Google search that I managed to find a single example: Mike Nichols' Working Girl, the breezy 1988 Melanie Griffith starring vehicle that is widely considered one of the best -- yes -- romantic comedies of the 1980s. For all of Working Girl's relative sophistication, it's nowhere near an ideal comparison. Indeed, I feel pretty confident in stating that Equity is the only film of its kind: a hardball financial drama that revolves its plot around an unabashedly ambitious woman who has risen to the top of the investment banking world. The protagonist here is Naomi Bishop (supremely...

When producers Alysia Reiner and Sarah Megan Thomas cooked up the idea to make the first female-driven Wall Street movie, their mandate for the feature was clear: It would be written by female screenwriter, directed by a female director and lead by a very strong female cast. The duo put years of work into researching the feature, shoring up investors and making sure that what would become “Equity” retained their original vision from top to bottom.

The film follows hard-driving investment banker Naomi Bishop (Anna Gunn) as she embarks on the biggest deal of her career – shepherding a rising Silicon Valley company that smacks of Facebook and Snapchat to its initial public offering – a task she’s made her speciality during a mostly successful career. Burnt by a previous deal that went awry and newly passed over for a major promotion, Naomi is dedicated to doing her job flawlessly. But...

To help sift through the increasing number of new releases (independent or otherwise), the Weekly Film Guide is here! Below you’ll find basic plot, personnel and cinema information for all of this week’s fresh offerings.

For July, we’ve also put together a list for the entire month. We’ve included this week’s list below, complete with information on screening locations for films in limited release.

See More: Here Are All the Upcoming Movies in Theaters for July 2016

Here are the films opening theatrically in the U.S. the week of Friday, July 29. All synopses provided by distributor unless listed otherwise.

Wide

Bad Moms

Director: John Lucas and Scott Moore

Cast: Christina Applegate, Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn, Emjay Anthony, Jay Jablonski, Kesha Rose Sebert

Synopsis: A woman with a seemingly perfect life – a great marriage, overachieving kids, beautiful home, stunning looks and still holding down a career.

"Dudes only" — that might as well be the motto when it comes to big-screen finance dramas such as The Wolf of Wall Street and The Big Short. In Equity, an explosive corporate thriller, a dynamite Anna Gunn fights back. As investment banker Naomi Bishop, the Breaking Bad Emmy winner comes out blazing, and it's not just the dickheads at the top she's gunning for. Even her hedge-funder boyfriend, Michael Connor (James Purefoy, oozing seductive sleaze), will exploit her for selfish reasons. She can't trust the women in her life either: Her protégé,...

It’s a place we seldom see women represented: Wall Street. Breaking Bad’s Anna Gunn stars as a successful investment banker threatened by financial corruption in Equity. Sarah Megan Thomas and Alysia Reiner, co-stars and producers of the movie, talk to the Guardian’s Nigel M Smith about the ever-evolving roles of working women, and the director, Meena Menon, sheds light on the film’s setting

Continue reading...

Naomi Bishop (Anna Gunn) likes money and isn’t ashamed to admit it. In the latest trailer for the Meera Menon-directed thriller, Naomi may “rub people the wrong way,” but she gets things done.

As a senior investment banker her world of high-power big money is competitive and fierce, but she thrives in being a part of it. When Naomi is on the cusp of brokering a new deal, she finds herself entangled in a web of politics and deception. Soon an old friend from her past, who now happens to be a prosecutor (Alysia Reiner), is on her heels digging up dirt and her junior, Erin (Sarah Megan Thomas), is tempted to backstab Naomi for her own survival. This brutal world now has Bishop reexamining her own ambitions and making her wonder if there is anyone she can trust.

Read More: Sundance: Wall Street Movie ‘Equity’ Starring Anna Gunn...

Pegged for release at the tail-end of July, Sony Pictures has premiered a brooding new trailer for Equity, the financial drama headed up by former Breaking Bad star Anna Gunn.

Cut from the same cloth as Adam McKay’s Oscar-winning The Big Short, the rather excellent Margin Call and 99 Homes, Equity is set against the ruthless world of high-stakes banking, where Gunn’s head honcho Naomi Bishop navigates a world of double-crossing and corruption.

For a subgenre that has traditionally revolved around male characters thrust into a shady web of politics and deceit, at the very least, Equity looks set to offer up a breath of fresh air for financial dramas, and after nabbing multiple awards for her glowering turn as Walter White’s significant other, Anna Gunn certainly makes for a compelling and cutthroat Wall Street banker. Meera Menon directs the thriller, and here’s an overview of what...

Set in the high-powered world of New York City finance, Equity is a showcase for Breaking Bad star Anna Gunn to prove she unequivocally has what it takes to headline a movie.

Naomi Bishop (Gunn) works for one of the world’s largest banks, and she has a successful track record investing in start-up companies that sell for big bucks when they go public. Her last deal didn’t go so well, but she brushes herself off and she and her VP/assistant Erin (Sarah Megan Thomas) move on to dealing with Cachet, a promising privacy company despite its douchey tech bro founder. Meanwhile, Naomi’s old friend Sam (Orange is the New Black’s Alysia Reiner), now working at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, begins investigating a shady figure (Craig Bierko) who has ties to Michael Conners (James Purefoy), a broker at Naomi’s bank who Naomi’s sleeping with.

While the vast majority of movies centered around Wall Street view it from a male perspective, this year at Sundance we got a drama that looks at the often-neglected female side. Meera Menon’s Equity follows Breaking Bad‘s Anna Gunn as she navigated greed and sexism in the stock trade. Produced, written, and directed by women, the first trailer has now arrived ahead of a summer release by Sony Pictures Classics.

We said in our review (a portion of which is quoted in the trailer), “Equity is more nuanced, if not as ferociously confidant as that 1987 Oliver Stone film, here focusing on the nitty gritty of a market launch of a social media-style security company. In a post-Snowden leaks and Sony hacks world, the set-up seems entirely plausible, but the thrust of the plot isn’t really what derives the drama.”

Check out the trailer below for the film also starring James Purefoy,...

"I'm so glad that it's finally acceptable for women to talk about success." Sony Classics has unveiled the trailer for an indie drama titled Equity, which first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this year. It's a film written and directed by women, produced by women, starring mostly women, about women kicking ass in high level investment banking jobs. Anna Gunn plays an investment banker navigating a tricky deal in hopes of impressing her boss. The cast includes James Purefoy, Sarah Megan Thomas, Alysia Reiner and Craig Bierko. I saw this at Sundance and sadly, it's not very good, at all. The story is weak and it's all about backstabbing, plus Anna Gunn's performance isn't that impressive. I wish it was better. Give it a look. Here's the first official trailer for Meera Menon's Equity, direct from Spc's YouTube: When Senior investment banker Naomi Bishop (Anna Gunn) is...

There were many great films about strong women at this year’s Sundance – Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Women and Antonio Campos’ Christine to name two of the festival’s best features in their own right. Meera Menon’s Equity, a female-driven (written, directed, produced) corporate thriller set in the cut-throat workplace of Manhattan high finance, is a solid addition to this camp, although with nothing of the style or verve of either of those pictures.

The film sets itself up as a women-centric Wall Street, as Anna Gunn’s Naomi Bishop emulates Gordon Gekko’s speech to a crowd of female grad students in one of the film’s opening scenes that she works because “she likes money.” Coming from a poor background, money pays for her brother’s education, or jewelry for herself, but she is a banker also about winning the game – although who she’s playing is a matter of contention.

Equity producer-stars Alysia Reiner (Orange is the New Black) and Sarah Megan Thomas could hardly contain themselves as they walked into the DeadlineNow Sundance studio—their film had just been acquired by Sony Pictures Classics. It’s an exciting outcome for any Sundance film, but particularly for one driven predominantly by women in the midst of an ongoing cultural conversation about diversity in Hollywood. The Us Dramatic Competition film stars Anna Gunn as Naomi, a…...

This accomplished finance drama feels fresh for its gender-switch dynamics – but did all the men need to be quite so dim?

Equity is likely one of the more realistic financial sector films out there because I had no idea what the hell anybody was talking about. Well, that’s not exactly true. Director Meera Menon and her three leads, Anna Gunn, Sarah Megan Thomas and Alysia Reiner, extract the drama from Amy Fox’s screenplay while still leaving the jargon intact. I don’t know squat about IPOs (if I did, I’d be on my yacht) but I do know a juicy morality play when I see it, and Equity takes us inside modern Wall Street in a unique and gripping manner.

You may have noticed that all the names listed so far are women. That this is a “female look” at Wall Street is more than a marketing gimmick.

This accomplished finance drama feels fresh for its gender-switch dynamics – but did all the men need to be quite so dim?

Equity is likely one of the more realistic financial sector films out there because I had no idea what the hell anybody was talking about. Well, that’s not exactly true. Director Meera Menon and her three leads, Anna Gunn, Sarah Megan Thomas and Alysia Reiner, extract the drama from Amy Fox’s screenplay while still leaving the jargon intact. I don’t know squat about IPOs (if I did, I’d be on my yacht) but I do know a juicy morality play when I see it, and Equity takes us inside modern Wall Street in a unique and gripping manner.

You may have noticed that all the names listed so far are women. That this is a “female look” at Wall Street is more than a marketing gimmick.

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired worldwide rights to "Equity," the first female-driven Wall Street drama. The movie stars Anna Gunn ("Breaking Bad"), James Purefoy ("The Following"), Sarah Megan Thomas ("Backwards") and Alysia Reiner ("Orange is the New Black").  The film follows female investment banker Naomi Bishop as she navigates a world where big money and high-power is brutal and fierce. When a controversial Ipo threatens the delicate balance of power and confidentiality, Naomi finds herself swimming in a shark pool of politics and deception. With an aggressive prosecutor (Alysia Reiner) from her past on her heels, plus a strained relationship with her junior, Erin (Sarah Megan Thomas), Naomi is forced to reexamine her own ambitions and the cutthroat world in which she lives in, one where women have yet to break the glass ceiling.  The film is directed by Meera Menon. Broad Street Pictures' Reiner and Thomas...

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired worldwide rights to “Equity,” a female-driven Wall Street tale starring Anna Gunn, James Purefoy, Sarah Megan Thomas and Alysia Reiner. The company made the announcement hours before the film’s world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on Monday night in Park City, Utah. “Equity” follows senior investment banker Naomi Bishop (Gunn), who thrives in the fierce world of big money dealings. When a controversial Ipo threatens her fragile balance of power and confidentiality, Naomi finds herself entangled in a web of politics and deception. Also Read: Sundance Scene and Heard: Matt Damon, Kate Beckinsale,...

Update: James Schamus’ feature directorial debut has gone to Summit in a North American deal in the mid-$2m range.

Meanwhile a rapturous reception for Nate Parker’s slave revolt drama The Birth Of A Nation following its world premiere on Monday put it high up on the target list of buyers.

Spc announced its second worldwide deal on a Sundance film, acquiring Meera Menon’s female-driven Wall Street drama Equity.

Summit has not yet set a release date for Indignation and will likely weigh up critical response before orchestrating a campaign. CAA represented the filmmakers in the deal and FilmNation handles international sales.

Logan Lerman and Sarah Gadon star in the 1951-set Philip Roth adaptation about the ambitious son of a kosher butcher who leaves New Jersey for a conservative Ohio college where he lusts after a troubled girl.

Schamus adapted the screenplay and produced with Likely Story’s Anthony Bregman and Rodrigio Teixeira.

Likely Story’s [link...