CALL JANE MOVIE REVIEW

It’s a goddamn travesty that a movie about women risking their lives seeking out safe abortions in a time when they were illegal would still be poignant and reflective of our modern times, but here we are. Call Jane stars Elizabeth Banks as Joy, a married woman who is in the midst of a pregnancy that will end her life if brought to term. When she isn’t allowed to get a legal abortion, and after considering all other options, she finds a group of suburban women known as the Jane Collective, led by Virgina (Sigourney Weaver), and her life is forever changed. Jane was an underground women’s health service in Chicago, from 1969 to 1973. The collective sought to address the increasing number of unsafe abortions being performed by untrained providers. Since illegal abortions were not only dangerous but very expensive, the founding members of the collective believed that they could provide women with safer and more affordable access to the procedure. But how does this film handle the history of the Janes? Do the performances and narrative do justice to some of the most influential women and allies in the war for the right of a woman to make autonomous decisions about her own body and reproductive functions? Melina, T.C. and Bradly discuss this biopic with the understanding that there is a much, much larger conversation to be had about not just the moment in American history this movie portrays but our current world.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE/TRAILER

DIRECTED BY: Phyllis Nagy

STARRING: Elizabeth Banks, Sigourney Weaver, Chris Messina, Kate Mara, Wunmi Mosaku, Cory Michael Smith, Grace Edwards, John Magaro, Aida Turturro, Bianca D’Ambrosio, Bruce MacVittie, Rebecca Henderson, Maia Scalia, Sean King, Alison Jaye

 

YOUR REVIEWERS

 

T.C. De Witt (Screener Squad)

T.C. De Witt is a multi-awarded writer/director originally from Wisconsin and now based in Los Angeles. His life has been devoted to the arts since he was a child. He’s been a stage performer, playwright, stand-up comic, film and television actor, radio DJ, podcaster published author, recorded musician, and comic writer/illustrator. He is now a professional screenwriter and has been thriving for the past decade, regularly offering his talents to production studios in LA, Chicago, Milwaukee, and internationally in Sydney and Poland. He’s provided content for Amazon Prime, Netflix, and several YouTube partners. His films have screened internationally, and his stageplays have been performed across the country. In the last ten years, he has directed 57 films, 23 episodes of his series The One Minute Rewatch, 300+ episodes of podcasts, and his multi-award-winning short film Screen: Righter screened at the Festival de Cannes in 2016. He has released two feature films, The Princess Knight and A Christmas Sunset. He thrives on collaboration and the thrill of sharing stories in all forms.

 

 

Melina Eames (Screener Squad)

Melina first discovered that she carried the nerd gene at the tender age of four following her exposure to a little film called A New Hope. In the twenty-some years that followed, Melina continued to grow into her geek identity through the discovery of Batman, Mst3k, Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings and The Mandalorian. But perhaps her most significant discovery came at the age of fourteen when a night of YouTube mining led her to the review site of Spill.com. Melina became a devoted follower whose fandom did not end with the site’s demise. By then, it had worked its dark magic and left her with a love and appreciation for film criticism that she has yet to shrug.

 

 

Bradly Martin (Screener Squad, Eye on the Prize, Breakfast Pub)

Bradly Martin was born in the united states and grew up on a healthy diet of sports, films, and books.