''A Woman, a Part'' is a 2016

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

film, written and directed by

Elisabeth Subrin Elisabeth Subrin is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker, screenwriter, and visual artist. She is known for her interdisciplinary practice in the contemporary art and independent film worlds. She is a professor in Temple University's Department of Film and ...

. The story concerns Anna Baskin (

Maggie Siff Maggie Siff (born June 21, 1974) is an American actress. Her most notable television roles have included department store heiress Rachel Menken Katz on the AMC drama '' Mad Men'', Dr. Tara Knowles on the FX drama '' Sons of Anarchy'' for whic ...

), a successful yet burnt out actress who absconds from a mind-numbing television role in LA to reinvent herself in

NYC New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, confronting the past and the people she left behind in the process.

Cast

as Anna Baskin *

Cara Seymour Cara Seymour (born 6 January 1964) is a British actress from Essex, England. She has appeared in films such as ''You've Got Mail'', ''American Psycho'', '' Adaptation'', ''Dancer in the Dark'', ''Gangs of New York'', ''Hotel Rwanda'', '' The S ...

as Kate *

John Ortiz John Ortiz (born May 23, 1968) is an American actor. He is known for his antagonist role as Arturo Braga in '' Fast & Furious'' (2009) and '' Fast & Furious 6'' (2013), and Clyde in '' Jack Goes Boating'' (2010), which earned him a nomination fo ...

as Isaac *

Khandi Alexander Harriet Rene "Khandi" Alexander (born September 4, 1957) is an American dancer, choreographer, and actress. She began her career as a dancer in the 1980s and was a choreographer for Whitney Houston's world tours from 1988 to 1992. During the 199 ...

as Leslie *

Dagmara Domińczyk Dagmara Domińczyk ( ; born July 17, 1976) is a Polish-American actress and author. She has appeared in the films '' Rock Star'' (2001), ''The Count of Monte Cristo'' (2002), '' Kinsey'' (2004), ''Trust the Man'' (2005), '' Lonely Hearts'' (2006) ...

as Nadia *

Sophie Von Haselberg Sophie Frederica Alohilani von Haselberg (born November 14, 1986) is an American actress, best known for co-starring in the Woody Allen film ''Irrational Man''. Early life and education von Haselberg was born in Los Angeles, California, the da ...

as Alex *

Eszter Balint Eszter Balint (born 7 July 1966) is a Hungarian-American singer, songwriter, violinist, and actress. Biography Eszter Balint was born in Budapest, Hungary, to Marianne Kollar and Stephan Balint. She was living with the avant-garde Squat Theatre ...

as Heidi * Lucas Near-Verbrugghe as Sam *

Laila Robins Laila Robins is an American stage, film and television actress. She has appeared in films including '' Planes, Trains and Automobiles'' (1987), ''An Innocent Man'' (1989), '' Live Nude Girls'' (1995), ''True Crime'' (1999), '' She's Lost Control' ...

as Bernadette

Release

The film premiered at the 2016

International Film Festival Rotterdam The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Since its foundation in 1972, it has maintained a focus on independent and experimental f ...

Strand Releasing Strand Releasing is an American film production company founded in 1989 and is based in Culver City, California. The company has distributed over 300 auteur-driven titles from acclaimed international and American directors such as Apichatpong Wee ...

acquired all rights to US distribution. The film was released on March 22, 2017 on limited screens.

Reception

''A Woman, a Part'' has a score of 87% based on 15 reviews on review aggregate website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

the film has a score of 66 out of 100 based on 8 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Owen Gleiberman Owen Gleiberman (born February 24, 1959) is an American film critic who has been chief film critic for '' Variety'' magazine since May 2016, a title he shares with . Previously, Gleiberman wrote for ''Entertainment Weekly'' from 1990 until 2014 ...

of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' lauded Siff's performance, noting "It’s also got a fascinating actress. Maggie Siff...has a distinctive brainy sensuality, with hints of neurotic anger." Jeannette Catsoulis of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' praised the filmmaking, stating, "Ms. Subrin, an accomplished visual artist and filmmaker, sifts addiction, celebrity and the plight of the aging actress into something rarefied yet real."

Glenn Kenny Glenn Kenny (born August 8, 1959) is an American film critic and journalist. He writes for '' The New York Times'' and ''RogerEbert.com''. Biography Kenny attended William Paterson University, where he majored in English literature.

RogerEbert.com ''RogerEbert.com'' is an American film review website that archives reviews written by film critic Roger Ebert for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' and also shares other critics' reviews and essays. The website, underwritten by the ''Chicago Sun-Times ...

awarded the film 3 out of 4 stars, writing that the film "mixes passion and ambivalence to create a work with ambiguities that seem earned, and lived in." Neil Young of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly large ...

'' was less impressed with the film itself, finding the "conventional, even familiar nature all the more puzzling" given Subrin's past work. Nevertheless, Young reserved particular praise for Seymour's "nuanced supporting turn", further stating that, "Seymour has somehow never quite attained the household-name status her talents deserve." He commended Ortiz as well, noting that "it's always a delight to see Ortiz flex acting muscles that he doesn't often get to deploy in his more lucrative Hollywood outings". Kristen Yoonsoo Kim of ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...

'' found the film "impressive" yet "stylistically conventional", but commended Siff's "modest but poignant performance that rings true for women of a certain age and career."

References

External links

* *
A Woman, a Part
' at AllMovie
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Woman A Part 2016 films 2016 drama films 2016 independent films American drama films Films about actors Films set in New York City 2010s English-language films 2010s American films