Abbey Bender

Abbey Bender is a regular film contributor at Voice Media Group. VMG publications include Denver Westword, Miami New Times, Phoenix New Times, Dallas Observer, Houston Press and New Times Broward-Palm Beach.

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Latest Articles

Dog of War: Megan Leavey Follows a Woman and a Canine onto the Front Lines

By Abbey Bender
Jun 8, 2017

Megan Leavey is a war picture, but the scenes of combat, while suitably tense, are not its selling point. Instead, the film, based on a true story, follows aimless young Leavey (Kate Mara), who in 2003 leaves home to become a Marine. Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite condenses the scenes of boot...
The Very British Their Finest Shows It Took a War to Get Women Screenwriting Jobs

By Abbey Bender
Apr 12, 2017

The comforting analog clack of typewriter keys is a leitmotif in Their Finest, Lone Scherfig’s slight but appealing adaptation of Lissa Evans’ novel Their Finest Hour and a Half (who knows why the subject of the original title was confusingly cast aside). In this tale of British filmmaking during World...
Set in a Now Better Than Ours, Miss Sloane Pits a Powerful Woman Against the Gun Lobbyists

By Michael Nordine and Abbey Bender
Dec 7, 2016

Miss Sloane opens with a clever gambit: Jessica Chastain’s face fills the screen in a tight close-up as she talks about strategy, breaking the fourth wall. From its opening minutes, the audience is put at the mercy of a charismatic figure and forced to piece together what she might represent...
Kate Winslet Saves the Poor and Miserable With Couture In the Insulting The Dressmaker

By Abbey Bender
Sep 21, 2016

A woman wears sunglasses, a tight red dress, matching long gloves, and red lipstick. She stands and smokes a cigarette, ostensibly watching a rugby game, but really the players are watching her, fumbling their footwork, and it’s exactly the effect she desires. This early scene, with its shifting gazes and...
Blame Fatale: White Girl Suggests Its Heroine's Suffering Is All Her Own Fault

By Abbey Bender
Aug 31, 2016

It’s hard to watch White Girl without experiencing a creeping sense of anxiety. Loosely based on the adolescent life of writer/director Elizabeth Wood, the film follows Leah (Morgan Saylor), a college student who parties all night and snorts prodigious amounts of cocaine. She and her roommate, Katie (India Menuez), live...

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