Eerie timing for this one, a movie about Chicago’s The Jane Collective (a documentary about this same group came out this year as well). My review gave me the chance to sing the praises of Elizabeth Banks, in general. As my brother said to me last night, “She is a national treasure.” And talk about “national treasure”, Sigourney Weaver is in this, and it’s basically a two-hander, although Banks is the lead. It’s a joy to watch Weaver in this. She’s really easy, no discernible “acting”. Directed by Phyllis Nagy, whose screenplay for Carol was nominated for an Academy Award. This is her first feature. I reviewed for Ebert.
Categories
Archives
-
Recent Posts
- Reviews: Suze (2025)
- “Make them laugh, make them cry, make them wait.” — Charles Dickens
- “For I, the chiefest lamp of all the earth…” — Christopher Marlowe, Tamburlaine
- “Guilt pins a fig-leaf; Innocence is its own adorning.” — poet Anne Spencer
- “and I / spoke with tongues that sent their devotees / out of this world!” — poet Melvin B. Tolson
- “Since the beginning, I’ve said, ‘I’m not going to get involved with my image.’” – Charlotte Rampling
- “I don’t need to ‘tell’ the story…The story is being told from itself by following the different moments in different locations.” — Mia Hansen-Løve
- “Often I pretended to a cameraman to know less than I did. That way I got more cooperation.” — Ida Lupino
- February 3, 1959: The Day the Music Died
- January 2025 Viewing Diary
Recent Comments
- Kelly C Sedinger on February 3, 1959: The Day the Music Died
- Bill on All That Jazz: Remembering and Loving Erzebet Foldi
- Johnny on December 2024 Viewing Diary
- Todd Restler on January 2025 Viewing Diary
- sheila on “Since the beginning, I’ve said, ‘I’m not going to get involved with my image.’” – Charlotte Rampling
- sheila on “Since the beginning, I’ve said, ‘I’m not going to get involved with my image.’” – Charlotte Rampling
- sheila on “Often I pretended to a cameraman to know less than I did. That way I got more cooperation.” — Ida Lupino
- Gemstone on “Since the beginning, I’ve said, ‘I’m not going to get involved with my image.’” – Charlotte Rampling
- Maddy on “Since the beginning, I’ve said, ‘I’m not going to get involved with my image.’” – Charlotte Rampling
- Maddy on “Often I pretended to a cameraman to know less than I did. That way I got more cooperation.” — Ida Lupino
- sheila on January 2025 Viewing Diary
- Ian on January 2025 Viewing Diary
- sheila on “Often I pretended to a cameraman to know less than I did. That way I got more cooperation.” — Ida Lupino
- Maddy on “Often I pretended to a cameraman to know less than I did. That way I got more cooperation.” — Ida Lupino
- sheila on January 2025 Viewing Diary
- sheila on January 2025 Viewing Diary
- Stevie on January 2025 Viewing Diary
- mutecypher on January 2025 Viewing Diary
- sheila on February 3, 1959: The Day the Music Died
- Kelly C Sedinger on February 3, 1959: The Day the Music Died
-
Thanks for the review. It makes me want to see this movie. If I were a betting person, I’d wager a cup of coffee that Sigourney Weaver will get a Supporting Actress nomination for this. Elizabeth Banks might get nominated for Best Actress, too, but Weaver is the type of performer the Academy likes to recognize: she’s been around forever, made a bunch of movies that lots of people remember fondly, and voting for her in this movie would be a way to express anger at the Court’s overturning of Roe. (I don’t mean all of that to sound cynical or to denigrate Weaver’s work; it’s just that a lifetime of Oscar watching suggests that this is a possibility.)
It doesn’t denigrate SW’s work at all. The top level Oscar categories have been (internal) politically driven since the beginning – even moreso since the 90’s. If external politics come into play then all the better for her. We’ll see if she’s willing to play the behind the scenes game.
It’s hard to express how little I value the Oscars in terms of meaning actual worth! Cary Grant never won one. That academy gets things wrong more than they get things right!
Elizabeth Banks’ work is subtle, and the academy – and most people – don’t value subtlety like this – what wins awards is a lot of “transformation” and whether or not the movie is on the “right” political side – and people making a big DEAL out of how HARD they worked. lol and obviously a lot of good films and good performances fall under those categories. But someone like Elizabeth Banks isn’t that type of actor. She’s just GOOD, that’s all. She’s not like “dammit I must win an Oscar and to do so I must play a coal miner with a Swedish accent and only THEN will I be taken seriously.” Many actresses make this choice and okay I get it.
But the way she listens to John Cusack in Love & Mercy … THAT to me is good acting. Big show-offy physical transformations mean NOTHING (or … mean LESS) if you can’t listen the way she does.
So. there’s my 10 cents.
and Sigourney is just great! I love how much space the character took up in this – I’d love to see a whole mini-series JUST on this woman’s life. You can bet she has stories!
Just to add – also I really think it’s true that a lot of the times it’s the role that gets the award, not the actor. And the academy loves super emotional stuff.
Sigourney’s performance in Call Jane is intense but very low key. Very appropriate to the role, human-sized, no histrionics.
It’s not really an Oscar-type role.
It’s worth it just to see the scene she has with the doctor. WOW. I literally had no idea what was going to happen next.