A slow week at the movies is not the same as a weak week

This week is a strong one for women here at The Big Screen. The big news is Sonia Braga, who not only plays a strong, intelligent woman in Aquarius, but also plays a strong, intelligent woman who is over 60 years old. And she's not even English, or Meryl Streep! Crazy times. And what do you know, Scott Marks also found it to be a really excellent film, despite his distaste for disease in drama.

He was less taken with the "softcore lesbian porn" in Chan-Wook Park's The Handmaiden, but say this for softcore lesbian porn: the participants are both women, and odds are, they aren't talking about a man. It ain't quite on par with Guardians of the Galaxy 2's promise to "not only pass the Bechdel test, but run over it and back up over it again and again in an eighteen-wheeler truck," but it's something, I guess.

And he was even less taken with Girl Asleep, but look: "Girl" is right there in the title! And it was directed by a woman!

As for me, I was fortunate enough to take in another fine performance from Elisabeth Moss in The Free World. Looking back at my review for her previous feature, Queen of Earth, I find I was impressed by the same thing both times: the utter transparency of expression. Plus, you know, plenty of interior stuff for that transparency to reveal.

Stepping aside from this fusillade of film femininity is America's Dad Tom Hanks, walk, walk, walking his way through some very pretty locales in Inferno. There's so little to say about this film that I'm almost tempted to give you my pitch for Nine Rings, a story about a big-city lawyer named Dante who finds himself out in the sticks and off the beaten path at Virgil's Bar & Grill... Almost tempted. Almost.

Finally, in the realm of the restored and returned to the big screen: Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.