Movies Update: ‘The Woman King’ and More

Plus, what stood out at the Toronto International Film Festival.
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By Stephanie Goodman

Film Editor

Hi, movie fans!

We're in the thick of what feels like a revitalized fall film season — or maybe it's that the festivals seem like they're back to their prepandemic selves, overflowing with so much interesting work that I can't keep up.

Our co-chief critic Manohla Dargis has just returned from the annual Toronto International Film Festival and reports happily that there was a bounty of projects by women about women, ranging from chamber pieces to spectacles: "For someone who makes a living primarily writing about movies made by men with men and for men, it was especially gratifying," she wrote as part of her look at especially notable work.

Our columnist Kyle Buchanan is also back from the festivals (Toronto as well as a drama-filled Venice) and has this roundup of titles that debuted there and got an awards-season boost. Women-led films figure prominently in this list, including "Everything Everywhere All at Once" (starring Michelle Yeoh), "Tár" (with Cate Blanchett), "Women Talking" (directed by Sarah Polley) and "The Woman King" (directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and starring Viola Davis).

Prince-Bythewood talks about her choices for "The Woman King" in Mekado Murphy's Anatomy of a Scene series. The 19th-century tale of female warriors, in theaters, is a Critic's Pick, with Dargis calling it "a sweeping entertainment."

Other new releases this week include the David Bowie documentary "Moonage Daydream." The co-chief critic A.O. Scott described it as more of a séance than a biography, and wrote that the director, Brett Morgen, "conjures the singer's presence through an artful collage of concert footage and other archival material."

Whatever you decide to watch, enjoy the movies!

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Sony Pictures, via Associated Press

Critic's Pick

'The Woman King' Review: She Slays

Viola Davis leads a strong cast into battle in an epic from Gina Prince-Bythewood, inspired by real women warriors.

By Manohla Dargis

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via Nan Goldin and Neon

Critic's Notebook

In Toronto, Films by Women About Women, but That's Where the Similarities End

The Toronto International Film Festival returns to business mostly as usual with throngs of excited attendees and some of the year's most anticipated new movies.

By Manohla Dargis

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Clockwise from top left: A24; Michael Gibson/Orion Releasing; A24; Merie Weismiller Wallace/Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment

The Projectionist

The Eight Film Festival Movies That Got the Biggest Awards Boost

"Women Talking," women fighting, a pair of Brendans and more: After Toronto, Venice and Telluride, here are the titles and performances in the conversation.

By Kyle Buchanan

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Zoetrope Studios

An Appraisal

Godard Taught Me How to Watch Cinema, Even as He Kept Reinventing It

Jean-Luc Godard was a prophet of film's future as an art form, layering images and sound that the body could sink into and the mind could puzzle through.

By Manohla Dargis

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MOVIE REVIEWS

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Neon

'Moonage Daydream' Review: David Bowie's Sound and Vision

Brett Morgen's new documentary about the singer uses archival material, not talking heads. But the film is more séance than biography.

By A.O. Scott

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Kim Simms/Netflix

'Do Revenge' Review: Strangers on a Text Chain

Two high school girls with grudges form a bond to get back at those who wronged them.

By Amy Nicholson

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IFC Films

'God's Country' Review: A Solitary Woman Isn't Left Alone for Long

In this simmering thriller, Thandiwe Newton plays a professor in rural Montana who confronts two hunters who say they're just passing through.

By Manohla Dargis

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Lukasz Bak/Focus Features

'The Silent Twins' Review: Keeping the World at Bay

A beguiling look at the complicated story of the real-life twins June and Jennifer Gibbons, who lived in a mental institution for over a decade.

By Beandrea July

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A24

'Pearl' Review: A Farmer's Daughter Moves Up the Food Chain

A horror-movie killer gets a surprising origin story in Ti West's prequel to "X."

By A.O. Scott

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Netflix

'Drifting Home' Review: A Sinking Development

Two friends visit their old apartment building and make haunting discoveries in this animated film from Hiroyasu Ishida.

By Maya Phillips

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Parisa Taghizadeh/Searchlight Pictures

'See How They Run' Review: An Agatha Christie Mystery Spoof

Unraveling a murder case backstage at a Christie play in 1950s London.

By Teo Bugbee

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David Giesbrecht/Prime Video

'Goodnight Mommy' Review: Behind the Mask

Twin boys worry that their mother might be an impostor in this disappointing remake.

By Jeannette Catsoulis

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