JANET ARVIA

Critic + Columnist Focusing on Women in Film

JANET ARVIA

Critic + Columnist Focusing on Women in Film

‘HamnET’ phone home
Congrats to Jessie Buckley on her triumph at the 98th Academy Awards. The Hamnet (2025) star is the first Irish-born woman to win in the Best Actress category and only the third Irish-born performer to receive an Oscar for acting. She follows Best Actor C
Rebellious Magazine
Oscars Female Films Biopic
SAG’s scary actor winners are ‘Weapons’ & ‘Sinners’
One Battle After Another lost two battles to the horror hit Sinners at the 32nd Annual Actor (formerly SAG) Awards on March 1. If that’s not shocking enough, Teyana Taylor may be shaking in her designer boots since Weapons witch Amy Madigan nabbed the Fem
Rebellious Magazine
Oscars Horror Movie Period Piece
Indie winners ‘Train Dreams’ & ‘Legs’ headed for Oscar crash
Train Dreams became the little movie that could, winning three out of its four nominations at the 41st Film Independent Spirit Awards last month. The lumberjack elegy was named Best Feature, Best Director (Clint Bentley), and Best Cinematography (Adolpho
Rebellious Magazine
Indie Flick Female Films
The controversial, cringy & clever casting of ‘Wuthering Heights’
By the looks of Warner Bros.’ new trailer, the upcoming adaptation of Wuthering Heights (2026) features a miscast star. But contrary to internet outrage, the problem’s not Jacob Elordi. After the Aussie actor convincingly portrayed a doomed and dashing En
Rebellious Magazine
Period Piece Female Films
Fellini’s ‘8½’ is a 10
There’s a thin line between real life and reel life in Federico Fellini’s 1963 comedy 8½ (Otto e mezzo). More self-deprecating than self-aggrandizing, the auteur’s avant-garde masterwork is considered the quintessential movie about moviemaking. Its semi-a
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Classic Cinema Oscars
‘The Buccaneers’ commandeers facts & fiction
If Edith Wharton knew her final work would inspire the Apple TV+ series The Buccaneers (2023-present), she probably wouldn’t have spent her golden years documenting the Gilded Age. As the Julian Fellowes dramas Downton Abbey (2010-2015), Belgravia (2020)
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Period Piece TV
‘Thelma’ is left in the dust during bumpy Oscar race
It’s been a long awards season with more twists and turns on social media than in Oscar-nominated thrillers. Throughout this year’s race, Best Picture frontrunners have flipped from Emilia Pérez to The Brutalist to Conclave to Anora as the Academy switche
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Oscars
Amy Adams is top dog in Marielle Heller’s ‘Nightbitch’
Motherhood is a bitch in Nightbitch (2024) — which is why Amy Adams is being rightfully recognized for taking on the demanding titular role. Her unflinching and unglamorous performance was honored at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival and at the
Rebellious Magazine
Female Films Indie Flick
‘The Candidate’ runs on relevance
The Democrats have a problem. They need someone to oppose a popular Republican running with “Keep America strong and sound” messaging. As such, they enlist a handsome hopeful whose youthful appearance registers as fresh to voters. That’s the premise of Th
Rebellious Magazine
Classic Cinema Oscars
‘Gaslight’ flicks burn more intensely today
The lights are dimming but someone says the room is bright. That’s gaslighting. The word stems from the MGM classic Gaslight (1944), a remake of the same-named British film from 1940 and a cinematic adaptation of Patrick Hamilton’s 1938 play Gas Light. In
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Classic Cinema Oscars Period Piece
The flawed feminism of ‘Poor Things’
The macabre comedy Poor Things (2023) has a lot going for it — Holly Waddington’s gorgeous BAFTA-winning costumes; Jerksin Fendrix’s delightfully distorted score; the dreamy BAFTA-winning sets by Shona Heath and James Price; and the freshest, funniest dan
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Oscars Horror Movie Period Piece
The flawed feminism of ‘Barbie’
Congrats to producer Margot Robbie for backing female filmmakers Emerald Fennell on Saltburn and Greta Gerwig on Barbie. And kudos to these writer/directors who are also mothers. It’s no easy feat to be successful in either capacity yet they manage to thr
Rebellious Magazine
Female Films Oscars
‘My Lady Jane’ wrestles with history & originality
Lady Jane Grey, the ill-fated teen who was briefly deemed Queen during the British Renaissance, is the latest historical figure to undergo a 21st century makeover. Prime Video’s My Lady Jane (2024) follows the “you go girl” formula seen in Apple TV+’s Dic
Rebellious Magazine
Period Piece TV
Home Sweet ‘Saltburn’
Emerald Fennell’s latest film Saltburn (2023) isn’t as promising as her directorial debut Promising Young Woman (2020) but those who appreciate allusions to Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca (1940), Ken Russell’s Women in Love (1969), Stanley Kubrick’s The Shini
Rebellious Magazine for Women
Female Films
With age comes wit and June Squibb in ‘Thelma’
For June Squibb, “slow and steady wins the race” since the nonagenarian scored her first leading role in "Thelma" (2024).
Rebellious Magazine
Comedy Indie Flick
Demi Moore adds more substance to ‘The Substance’
Women often greet the new year with resolutions for a reboot. This desire to become a better version of one’s self is the premise of The Substance (2024). Coralie Fargeat’s sci-fi satire begins when Hollywood star Elisabeth Sparkle (portrayed by a 60-some
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Oscars Horror Movie

About

JANET ARVIA

Throughout her career, Janet Arvia has worked as an Arts + Culture Editor; Columnist + Critic; Screenwriter + DVD Copywriter; and Film Industry Ghostwriter reaching 7 million readers a month. This site offers a sampling of her television and movie reviews from Rebellious Magazine for Women.