The Woman

A thoughtful coming of age story of not knowing where we come from and how we proceed with it. The pace of the film was just right not too slow not too fast. Even only for a film for just an hour long I felt it was just right.

Film left off letting viewers think for themselves how it may end. The cast did a swell job. Just 4 main characters mostly carried by the lead actor Aleksey Weyman. The drone shots I really did like. The shots at the university were probably my most favorite ones I would say. I say to viewers to give this a chance. Beautifully shot in parts of Washington state. My personal opinion.

First off, I want to say CONGRATULATIONS to Rose for her first film and strong start out of the gate! I salute you for your first production, which, having done many short films, is by no means a smooth effort with its share of ups, downs, in betweens.... it can be both fun and have its miserable moments too. And I give props to the cast and crew as well. Having a good collective here is invaluable and helps on the journey! And it shows here with bringing this powerful and poignant story to the screen. Well planned and thought out. Loved the imagery of the locations (some close to where I grew up).

I was drawn to The Woman because of its premise. Not the premise of the story itself, but the premise regarding how it was made. It is being reported that this film was made on a $1,000 budget in a very short amount of time by a female director (Rose Kreider). There are times while watching that you will not be able to even tell this fact. There are other times when you will clearly be able to tell this fact.

The story focuses on a college age man named Noah (Aleksey Weyman). He is haunted in his dreams and his life by the image of a woman whom he's never met that he obsesses about repeatedly in his mind. He doesn't have many friends or connections in life just his mother, Georgia (Jennifer Corbidge).

There is a beautifully executed opening sequence to the film that sets the groundwork for what will follow. The problem this movie unfortunately suffers from is the fact that it's lead actor is actually a pretty good actor and looks well enough on screen until he opens his mouth to talk. Aleksey Weyman struggles to deliver his lines. This is especially prevalent in a particular scene with his mother Georgia played by Jennifer Corbidge who acts brilliantly.

With all of those things said I definitely believe that Alexey Weyman shows promise on the screen and felt like he should have been right for the role he just needs more practice and I didn't enjoy seeing him overall. One of the few things this film suffers from is a repetitive behavior. We see a little too many drone shots where they don't necessarily fit into the story or help to sell the story it's just the filmmakers letting us know that they own a drone. These kind of shots work very effectively at the opening of the film and in its first scenes after that they grow tiresome and feel overused. The same could be said about the scenes of our character Noah waking up in bed to his alarm clock. Not only is a shot like that infamously overused in small budget indie films like this but it is revisited several times throughout the film.

I can actually appreciate the slow pacing and the build up to the characters mission and overall purpose because I am moderately interested through wonderful cinematography a great cinematic score and just a general interest of learning about what happened at the beginning of the film.

But then that brings another problem the runtime. The woman is roughly an hour long. While most of the time watching this you might feel like that's too long however by the time we reach the end we're left feeling like that's too short. The film ends prematurely. He feels like we should be continuing the journey of our character that we've slowly come to learn about. Instead we're fed another drone shot and the film abruptly ends.

For a first time filmmaker, Rose Kreider should learn and grow from this process. She should be glad to know that her film leaves her general audience wanting more. Unfortunately the once feel more like I missed step rather than a clever cliffhanger.

I love the way this movie was shot. The camera quality and locations were amazing. The actors and actress where good and, believeable. The cliffhanger was great. They can definitely make a part 2 of "The Women" if they wanted too. I was really impressed to find out that this was Rose's first movie she's ever created. I had the privilege of interviewing her on my podcast "The Peoples Choice Podcast" episode 71 as we discuss what motivated her to create "The Woman" also, finding out that she created the whole movie on $1000 budget that was super impressive because, of how great it came out. Not knowing that you could have easily thought this was a big budget film. Sky is the limit for Rose Kreider I'm so excited to see what the future holds for her in the film making industry she's definitely going places and fast!

I can tell you, that for the first film Ms. Kreider has created, it is very well done. With the minimal budget she used, the finished product turned out quite well. It is an independent film but many aspects are on par with the major features. Room for improvement? Sure. Ms. Kreider will only get better and better with each film she produces and directs. Keep an eye out for her. She will be a mover and a shaker!

The drone shots were especially effective in establishing the locale and the general mood of the story. The acting was great and the ending made sense to the story. Did I wish there was more? Sure. That's the testament of a good tale. Definitely recommend this movie and this director!