Woman of the Hour (2024)
Directed by Anna Kendrick
Yes — Woman of the Hour is woke, scoring 60 out of 100 on our wokeness meter.
Anna Kendrick's directorial debut arrives with the grim tidings of a true-crime story and the better manners not to enjoy it.
Consciousness Markers
The film is a direct examination of systemic misogyny, sexism in the entertainment industry, and violence against women, directed by and starring a woman.
The film carries a clear social message about misogyny and violence, with some critics noting it feels 'self-consciously illustrative' and academic in its approach.
The film features a diverse cast including a Black supporting actress (Nicolette Robinson) and a Latino lead (Daniel Zovatto), but diversity is not a central focus or marketing point.
A Black character's concerns are dismissed by authorities, but the film does not explicitly explore racial themes beyond this incidental moment.
No LGBTQ+ themes or characters are present in the film.
No climate or environmental themes are present.
The film critiques sexism in the entertainment industry but does not advance an anti-capitalist message.
No body positivity themes are present.
No neurodivergence themes are present.
The film is a dramatization of true events but does not revise history to fit a modern ideological narrative.
Why it received this score
Anna Kendrick's directorial debut arrives with the grim tidings of a true-crime story and the better manners not to enjoy it. The film follows Sheryl Bradshaw, a struggling actress who agrees to appear on The Dating Game in 1978, and Rodney Alcala, a serial killer who happens to be Bachelor Number Three. Kendrick, who also plays Sheryl, keeps the camera on the women, on their wariness, on the way they are asked to smile through an afternoon that could end badly. The result is a patient, chilly piece of work that treats a famous anecdote as a window onto something larger and less anecdotal.
The film's real subject is the machinery of everyday misogyny: the game show questions that reduce a woman to a prize, the agent who insists exposure is opportunity, the boyfriend who tells a frightened woman she must be mistaken. Kendrick directs with a steady hand and an evident thesis, and the thesis is not subtle. Critics have called the film academic, composed, self-consciously illustrative. They are not wrong. It would rather explain the world than unsettle us with it, and a few scenes play like a seminar with better lighting. The anger underneath is real, though, aimed squarely at the structures that let a man like Alcala move through a decade unchallenged.
Where the film earns its restraint is in what it declines to do. It does not linger on the violence, does not make a spectacle of the victims, does not ask us to find the killer fascinating. The cast is diverse without announcing itself, and a Black audience member's warnings are waved away by a security guard in a moment that says something about whose fear is taken seriously and whose is not, though the film does not stop to underline it. Elsewhere, the picture leaves its other causes unclaimed. There is no lecture on the climate, no sermon on capital, no detour into the body or the mind. What remains is a tight, sober, faintly pedantic study of how a society talks itself out of protecting women. Worth watching. Worth flinching.
Thematic tags: true_story.
Analysis generated by our Consciousness Algorithm
Synopsis
An aspiring actress crosses paths with a prolific serial killer in '70s LA when they're cast on an episode of "The Dating Game."
Questions about Woman of the Hour
Is Woman of the Hour woke?
Yes — Woman of the Hour is woke, scoring 60 out of 100 on our wokeness meter. That earns it a verdict of Woke.
What makes Woman of the Hour woke?
3 of the 10 markers register at 30 or above, led by Feminist Agenda (85), Lecture Energy (60) and Representation Casting (35). On Feminist Agenda: The film is a direct examination of systemic misogyny, sexism in the entertainment industry, and violence against women, directed by and starring a woman.
How does Woman of the Hour compare to other 2024 movies?
It ranks #10 of the 189 films from 2024 we've scored; their average is 22. The wokest is The Six Triple Eight (92).
How is the Woke Score calculated?
An AI-assisted process researches the film and its reception, scores it 0–100 on ten markers, then combines those into one 0–100 Woke Score. It measures a specific set of 2020s cultural themes, not film quality.