A Garota Da Vez

Woman of the Hour isn't a great movie. It's a film about a lot of things that don't always come to fruition.

Despite Woman of the Hour's sometimes shaky execution, its story is undeniably powerful.

The movie can be punishing to watch; I certainly struggled to sit through my screening. Still, Kendrick proves herself a skillful director, with a knack for building suspense.

Woman of the Hour smartly weaves into the narrative the many ways in which women are conditioned to put up with men.

"What are girls for?" Cheryl playfully asks her bachelors, who mostly flub their replies. Kendrick's film fares no better answering that query.

A confidently made thriller that's not just a true crime story but an unpacking of systemic misogyny and how it encourages violence.

The star has the smarts and the stuff of a born filmmaker, and her performance is nervy and astute...

[An] effective see-saw between satire and terror.

It's that detail and a focus on how sexism and laziness factored into why Rodney wasn't stopped that distinguish "Woman of the Hour" and make it better than recent true crime stories

Woman of the Hour may be sensational, in the tabloid sense, but it is angry, too, and full of questions.

Woman of the Hour will surely send many looking up this stranger-than-fiction story. But Kendrick's achievement is in capturing, from a woman's point of view, just how hard it can be to pick a serial killer out of an all-male line-up.

"Woman of the Hour," Anna Kendrick's tense, insightful directing debut, re-centers the narrative on Alcala's victims and the rampant misogyny that suffused the 1970s.

Woman of the Hour takes some time to show its strengths, but it's a challenging and impressive directorial debut.

Kendrick simply and effectively frames situations where women are rightfully fearful of men.

Anna Kendrick succeeds as both director and star, convincing as the bachelorette who chooses a monster as her date.

Woman of the Hour is a lot of things. But what this unsettling, undeniably compelling look back at an odd collision of psychopathy and pop culture is getting at beneath its paisley-patterned decor goes beyond just one mass murderer.

This is a self-assured take on a story that stretches far, wide, and deep.

Before the violence becomes scintillating or exploitative, she abruptly cuts away, making sure the viewer is aware of their own voyeurism, which she has the power to deny.

The circular structure, as much as it may make thematic sense, also prevents cohesion.

This is an accomplished directorial debut, a movie made with smarts and vision.