Women Talking

In an isolated Mennonite colony, women learn they have been drugged and raped in their sleep for years. When the men go into town, the women gather in a hayloft and vote between three options: do nothing, stay and fight, or leave. The film is almost entirely that argument. The source is Miriam Toews's 2018 novel, which draws on the real assaults at Manitoba Colony in Bolivia, where women were sedated with gas. Sarah Polley won Best Adapted Screenplay at the 95th Academy Awards. The film was also nominated for Best Picture, making it Orion Pictures' first nominee since The Silence of the Lambs. Costume designer Quita Alfred sourced the fabrics from an actual Mennonite community store and was open about the difficulty: convincing world-class actresses to wear long-sleeved polyester dresses in 43 degree heat was a challenge, though she noted the garments were more practical than they looked. The cast includes Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Ben Whishaw and Frances McDormand, who also produced. The box office was poor: 9.3 million dollars against a 20 million budget, though it rose 164 percent after the Oscar nominations. Who it is for: viewers who can watch an argument as cinema. Who it is not for: anyone wanting visual movement. It happens almost entirely in one barn and the colour is deliberately drained.