Anna Kendrick’s Girl of the Hour is a strong, true-crime debut for the gifted actress. It ought to play properly now that Netflix is lastly releasing it.
PLOT: The true story of an actress (Anna Kendrick) who, within the seventies, went on The Relationship Recreation and was matched with Rodney Alcala (Daniel Zovatto), who was later revealed to be a serial killer which will have murdered as much as 130 girls.
Girl of the Hour was initially reviewed at TIFF 2023
REVIEW: The story behind Girl of the Hour is fairly wild, even so far as true crime goes. Whereas the film takes a number of vital liberties along with her story, a younger actress named Cheryl Bradshaw actually did go on The Relationship Recreation in 1978 and selected serial killer Rodney Alcala as her match. Whereas the premise is skinny, as there wasn’t a lot to Bradshaw’s interactions with Alcala past the present, Anna Kendrick, who makes her directorial debut from a Black Record script by Ian MacAllister McDonald, has put collectively a chilling movie.
A lot of the movie enters round Alcala’s homicide spree, specializing in the younger girls he received over together with his appreciable appeal (which is why he did properly on The Relationship Recreation) and ultimately killed. It’s an identical method to the one Ryan Murphy utilized in American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace in that it humanizes the victims and offers them a voice. It additionally by no means glamorizes Alcala or lingers on his crimes, tastefully chopping away earlier than the killings occur (it’s not that type of film).
It’s a fairly assured debut for Kendrick, who additionally retains herself merely a part of the ensemble fairly than the main focus. Cheryl’s story is crucial, however a lot of the movie is centered round Zovatto’s Alcala, together with his heat smile and attractiveness hiding the monster beneath. Whereas sure facets stretch the premise a bit, similar to Cheryl’s brother’s girlfriend within the Relationship Recreation viewers being somebody whose good friend was murdered by Alcala, it’s a well-paced and thought-out movie.
A lot of the plot revolves round a typical reality discovered in lots of different true crime tales of the period, primarily that folks’s considerations weren’t all the time taken significantly by the police. Kendrick does a superb job depicting the informal sexism of the interval, with Tony Hale carrying a hideous wig, making his seventies recreation present host an actual sleaze. Kendrick portrays Cheryl as a girl determined to please, as being an actress, she doesn’t wish to be labeled troublesome. Nevertheless, she comes into her personal throughout a fictionalized bit the place she goes on a date with Alcala. The boys aren’t all two-dimensional both, with the sleaziest contestant on the present making an attempt to warn Cheryl concerning the dangerous vibes he’s choosing up from Alcala at one level.
Regardless of working with a restricted funds, Kendrick’s finished a wonderful job evoking the period with its hideous fashions and decor. Regardless of Alcala’s crimes making for fairly grim fare, Kendrick by no means makes the movie too dour and isn’t afraid to have a bit enjoyable depicting the cheesiness of The Relationship Recreation. She additionally does some fascinating stuff visually, with the film shot in scope by DP Zach Kuperstein and having a properly atmospheric rating by Dan Romer. One factor value noting is that TIFF had a number of movies by actors turned administrators the yr this playe. As Michael Keaton’s terrific Knox Goes Away, the supporting solid is given an opportunity to shine right here, with Zovato crafting a nuanced portrayal of Alcala that, whereas by no means shying away from the truth that he was a monster, makes us perceive how he may seduce girls.
Girl of the Hour was a giant sale at TIFF in 2023, with it snapped up by Netflix. Given their success with true crime, it was a smart buy, particularly if they will pair it with a few of their non-fiction programming. I anticipate it to be a giant hit for the streamer when it will definitely comes out.
