Anna Kendrick revisits the time a serial killer appeared on The Dating Game as she makes the transition to directing with Woman of the Hour.

To say that this film is stranger-than-fiction would not be an understatement. Even though it looks colorful with the 1970s and all, serial killer Rodney Acala (Daniel Zovatto) is on the loose and he just happens to be one of the three contestants competing for aspiring actress Sheryl Bradshaw’s (Anna Kendrick) affection. Even though Cheryl is a real person, the film fictionalizes her to the point where Sheryl is the entrance into providing satirical commentary. There’s not much of the original episode available anywhere. What exists online is not much to draw from.

Kendrick’s direction and screenwriter Ian McDonald approaches the subject in a respectful manner. The film’s point-of-view is through the victims and survivors. Unlike most directors, Kendrick was first attached to the film as an actress and producer. It was only closer to the start date in which she stepped up to the plate to make her directorial debut. In any event, she fought to make sure the film kept its opening scene. It’s certainly not a seen that one would watch and think that they are watching an Anna Kendrick movie. I found myself thinking that maybe I pressed play on the wrong Netflix screener or that there was something wrong with the file. I went into the film knowing next to nothing about it. Well, other than the fact that it deals with The Dating Game.

Anna Kendrick discusses the film’s violence in the production notes:

“In general, my approach was that things that are beautiful should be beautiful, and the things that are awful should be awful. Yet the violence in the movie is rarely literal or explicit. I wanted to be removed from the violence without sanitizing it. Violence is uncomfortable. It shouldn’t be easy to watch. But sometimes the suggestion of it has more impact.”

This film is a weird one to describe as far as genre is concerned. On the one hand, there’s an argument for true-crime. But on the other hand, there’s biting satirical commentary about Hollywood in the late 1970s. And then, you have Netflix, which labels it a thriller. Maybe it’s a comedic, albeit satirical at times, thriller? It is not an outright comedy. Without seeking it out on YouTube, one can make the comment about misogyny during the era. Still though, how is it that talent coordinators and producers did not do their due diligence? Acala had already been convicted of sexual assault by this point–make it make sense!

The part that confuses me is this: when Laura (Nicolette Robinson)–she’s fictional but her character is friends with one of the murder victims–shows up, she is basically whisked a way to another room, probably with the hope that she’ll leave. It comes off in a way that she saw him on the show but if it’s anything like today, she could not have seen the show on TV until after the taping. Color me confused on that end. In today’s era, you couldn’t even walk into the show’s security office without already having a studio pass to get on the lot. What happened on the show and with one of the victim’s friends would not happen today. If it did, multiple parties would find themselves on the receiving end of a lawsuit.

It feels rare for a serial killer movie to focus on the victims and survivors but Woman of the Hour provides a needed change to the genre. One cannot wait to see what Anna Kendrick chooses to do for her sophomore film.

DIRECTOR: Anna Kendrick
SCREENWRITER: Ian McDonald
CAST: Anna Kendrick, Daniel Zovatto, Nicolette Robinson, Autumn Best, Pete Holmes, Kelley Jakle, Kathryn Gallagher, with Tony Hale

Netflix will release Woman of the Hour on October 18, 2024. Grade: 4/5

Please subscribe to Dugout Dirt and Solzy on Buttondown.