Last year’s Toronto film festival was notable for several factors: a red carpet stripped bare of glitz by the US actors’ strike was one; another was a crop of feature film-making debuts from well-known actors turned directors. The quality was wildly variable – don’t expect to see Chris Pine’s first feature, Poolman, released anytime soon – but Anna Kendrick’s 70s California-set true crime thriller, Woman of the Hour, was a standout.
Kendrick also stars in the film, as Sheryl, an out-of-work actor persuaded by her agent to appear on a popular TV show, The Dating Game. A fellow contestant on the show – the one she picks as her date – is Rodney Alcala (Daniel Zovatto), a quick-witted charmer who, the film’s deft nonlinear structure reveals, also happens to be a serial rapist and murderer.
Kendrick’s knack for capturing period detail goes beyond the psychedelic synthetics and kipper ties. She taps into the treacherous sexism that was hardwired into the entertainment industry and wider culture of the time, both of which are shown to be minefields of fragile male egos and potential violence.
