I really really enjoyed this movie (if enjoy is the right word to use)

A late-December release with a murderer's row of actresses tackling a weighty, heavy topic that's essentially just characters talking to each other sounds like Oscar bait to the nth degree, but it manages to be eminently watchable with a sub-2-hour-runtime and without feeling _Very Important_

This could've sagged under its own sense of self-importance or come across as highfalutin preaching but it never does. It could've just boiled down to _men bad, religion bad, women good ra ra sisterhood_ and it doesn't, nor does it resort to triumphantlism in _women made a decision together and now they're united and unstoppable against the world_ (another would-be awards contender mining similar ground, _She Said_, also mostly side-stepped this, focusing on the nuts and bolts of tracking down a story and piecing it together bit by bit). One of my favorite things to watch is when a group of (usually marginalized) people seemingly all united in one goal are shown to be almost tearing apart at the seams, all agreeing on the goal but when talking about the means on achieving the goal are fractious, with the group almost threatened to be consumed by fighting each other rather than against their common enemy (see: French movie _BPM_ about ACT UP and who gets a say and how big a say in the group's activism; Germany's _And Tomorrow the Entire World_ where a group of anti-fascist activists squabble over how far to push their fight against fascism; and at least the early episodes of the miniseries _Mrs. America_ about the effort to pass the Equal Rights Amendment in America and the prioritization (or lack of) of women of color and LGBTQ in the movement). The women here very clearly do not all share the same feelings but argue and disagree and quote Biblical passages at each other and swing back and forth between wanting things to change, imagining life without the constant threat of violence, then withdrawing from that imagined life when it the cost is giving up the only life they've known for the unknown and the lack of security that entails vs the lack of security in their current situation.

It deals with its heavy topic, philosophizes, moralizes, but also manages to squeeze in a recurring joke about 2 horses named Ruth and Sheryl, a budding romance sub-plot, and 2 excellent jokes ("I'm sorry, I think I'm dying" & "Oh fuck it off!" "I think it's just fuck off")

I've seen a lot of criticisms about the dialogue and how the women talk to each other but I've also seen a very good rebuttal in that, while they are illiterate, they've been raised on Biblical passages and sermons and have memorized many of them by heart thereby informing how they speak

Excellent performances all around, no surprise there, both from the name actresses along with faces that may not be immediately recognizable to most. Claire Foy finally, _finally_ getting a part that lives up to her talents after _The Crown_. Frances McDormand basically just makes a cameo appearance, likely more involved in producing it and just popping in for an appearance to help sell the movie (though even that brief appearance has her marking an x on a sheet of paper in the most Frances McDormand-character way possible).

I've also seen a ton of complaints about the color-grading, about it being almost black-and-white, about it looking cheap made-for-television...did not bother me at all. Did not even realize it was an issue until looking up comments online. I was too entranced by the actresses (plus a lot of it takes place at night albeit people also complained it was too dimly-lit) to care.

Music was lovely (by Hildur Guðnadóttir of _Joker_ and _Chernobyl_ fame). Hair-braiding was lovely. Costuming was nice. Editing was wonderful and made what could've felt like a filmed stage play feel a bit livelier and cinematic. There was no need to show any violence or gore and there are just enough quick snippets of the immediate consequences to turn the audience's stomachs and drive home the repeated, regular violations these women endure