As Paul Feig’s all-female Ghostbusters reboot enjoys its day in the sun at the center of an industry-wide push for more women in major Hollywood movies, the existence of smaller pictures like Equity—directed by, produced by, written by, and starring women—speaks to the power of the independent spirit. If no one’s listening, you must build a platform and shout, and the women behind Equity have done just that.

Whether intentional or happenstance, Equity feels hyper-aware of the way it handles…

Somewhere between Catherine Hardwicke’s Thirteen and Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers lies the rebellious mood of Elizabeth Wood’s White Girl, a Sundance firecracker that easily finds its place among the cinematic canon of great dramas cut from the good-girl-gone-bad cloth.

With wide-eyed curiosity guiding her, Leah (Homeland’s Morgan Saylor) leaves behind a sheltered life in Oklahoma for a sketchy apartment in New York. A rising college freshman with little direction (she says she “um, maybe” wants to “work in media”) but…

By the Sea is a film crafted by the bruised hands of a woman who understands both the complicated act of looking and the perils of being gazed upon.

Angelina Jolie, the film’s driving creative force, is of course a renowned icon of the screen, having graced the covers of magazines and starred in blockbuster hits for the better part of the last two decades. There’s a certain allure about Jolie’s image as an untouchable, godlike entity and a money-making…

There’s a certain vanity involved in the art of becoming a comedian. You have to identify something within yourself, you have to know you’re funny, and believe you’re ready to take your material to the stage. Beyond that, there’s an incredible, truthful confidence and bravura about those so assured in their own talents that they jump ship, momentarily leaving behind their conditioned image without monumentally rerouting the course of their entire career.

Sarah Silverman, whose foot has remained firmly planted…