Woman of the Hour (2023)

	Directed by: Anna Kendrick	COUNTRY USA GENRE Crime/Thriller NORWEGIAN TITLE Woman of the Hour RUNNING TIME 94 minutes
	Produced by: Roy Lee Miri Yoon J. D. Lifshitz Raphael Margules
	Written by: Ian McDonald

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Sheryl Bradshaw	Anna Kendrick	½
Rodney Alcala / Bachelor #3	Daniel Zovatto	½
Ed Burke	Tony Hale	½
Laura	Nicolette Robinson	½
Terry	Pete Holmes	½
Amy	Autumn Best
Charlie	Kathryn Gallagher	-
Sarah	Kelley Jake	-
Bachelor #1	Matt Visser	-
Bachelor #2	Jedidiah Goodacre	-

Review

The great efforts of the set decorators and costume designers to faithfully recreate the 1970s aren't quite matched by Anna Kendrick's contemporary vocal fry and snappy quips in this recounting of how serial killer Rodney Alcala and young bachelorette Sheryl Bradshaw met on the TV show The Dating Game in 1978. However, Kendrick's main feat with her directorial debut isn't in the acting department, but rather her remarkably tight and suspenseful direction. Woman of the Hour has an unmistakable satirical undercurrent – a damning verdict on 1970s male behaviour (and not particularly that of serial killers) – but it plays like a smooth classical thriller. Kendrick's intercutting between various timelines and characters, all centered around the recording of that one episode of The Dating Game, functions as a gripping intensifier and highlights the various psychological aspects at play for everyone involved, including Bradshaw, Alcala, and his final victim in this story, the young Amy (Autumn Best). In the role of Alcala, Daniel Zovatto (It Follows) delivers a sizzling performance that constantly balances on the fine line between maintaining a courteous, even charming appearance and revealing his true self, which, in one harrowing scene towards the end, seems terrifying even to himself.