movie review
Reviews of films that depict the female experience from every facet; girlhood struggles, working women, gender inequality and everything in between.
Notes from the Mind Palace
The house is dead silent, but inside my ribcage, the engine is still throwing heavy sparks. Everyone else gets to slip away into the dark, trading the weight of the day for soft edges, slow breathing, and effortless drift. For them, midnight is a curtain that drops cleanly, bringing an end to the noise. But for me, the dark isn't a relief—it’s a mirror. It is a wide-open canvas where the shadows start to take shape if I sit still for too long, a quiet room where the past likes to pull up a chair and wait.
By Syl De'Vil8 days ago in Viva
Cosmic Displacement
Beneath the silent canopy of the trees and the cold light of the stars, a lifelong outsider finds her true reflection. There is a heavy, ancient silence that only exists deep beneath the tree canopy after midnight. Out here, away from the synthetic hum of the house, the endless logistics of a large family, and the relentless demands of the daylight world, the air completely changes. I step out into the cold grass, pull my star-covered robe tight against the chill, and look up through the dark, jagged silhouettes of the branches.
By Syl De'Vil8 days ago in Viva
The Armor of the Metalhead Matriarch
Out here in the predictable daylight of the suburbs, a forty-five-year-old mother of seven stands out. People notice the sheer scale of a massive family and automatically file you away into a neat, conventional box. They assume your identity has been entirely swallowed by the endless cycle of groceries, laundry, and schedules. They think the story ends there.
By Syl De'Vil8 days ago in Viva
Rearranging the Broken Furniture Inside My Head
I often find myself thinking about what it means to simply not be here—not in this era, not in this specific, heavy space. There is a persistent, quiet displacement in my chest, a feeling that I was either dropped into the world entirely too early or far too late. I exist on the periphery, a permanent outsider who doesn't fit into the conventional puzzles of society, or even within the familiar walls of my own family.
By Syl De'Vil8 days ago in Viva
Girlhood Personified
I often like to remind people that “it’s fun to be a girl” - and usually with an eye-roll and as much condescension as I can muster. And nothing has solidified that better than watching Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides (1999) for the very first time.
By Taylor Rigsby3 months ago in Viva
Thank you, Christopher Nolan. Top Story - July 2026.
I know a bit about Homer's Odyssey : the Cyclops, Circe, Calypso, Charybdis, Scylla, Sirens. I know that Penelope is the patient wife, waiting for her husband to return, undoing her tapestry every night to buy time and Telemachus is the son, yearning for his father to return or to become king, one of the two to escape the limbo in which he finds himself.
By Rachel Deeming3 months ago in Viva
Love Trap: When “Perfect” Isn’t Enough
In an era where curated perfection dominates our feeds, the new film Love Trap arrives as a quietly powerful antidote—an emotionally charged reminder that what looks “perfect” on paper can still feel profoundly unfulfilling in real life. Written and directed by Tiana Woods and released by Breaking Glass Pictures, the film invites women to look beyond appearances and ask a more difficult question: Am I truly living for myself?
By Ben Nelson6 months ago in Viva
Finding your groove in the 50s
How come we don't have a show on television called 50-somethings? There are plenty of shows with the kiddies as stars, or the teens as stars, or the 20 and 30-somethings as stars. They even have movies and shows for the silver haired folks in their 60s and up club. What about the 50-somethings? Where's our movie or show? When I was younger I had all kinds of guidance. The Breakfast Club helped me through high school. Sex in the City helped me through my 20s. Comic books and movies helped me through the 30s and 40s. Now what? Whose representing the 50-somethings journey and pathways? I feel like I have no guidance. In a way, I like that. I'm too old to be listening to a drill sergeant or condescended to as if I haven't been around the block. Yet, there's still a piece of me that is uneasy and insecure about navigating on this new territory commonly called "over the hill" or "after the change". Big changes, big accomplishments, yet not much art or literature for guidance or reference as if the 50-somethings are in unfamiliar living situations. I trust my own instincts and judgements most of the time, but I do feel a discomfort of not having more movies and books to use as a reference for this phase/chapter of my aging experience.
By Shanon Angermeyer Normanabout a year ago in Viva
