The earnest, if considerably flat-footed, documentary “Stuntwomen: The Untold Hollywood Story” works finest as a public service announcement on behalf of its title topics. The film makes use of interviews with girls from throughout the Hollywood stunt world to display their willpower and skills, even whereas it additionally decries the acquainted movie-industry sexism that asks them to crash the automotive however gained’t allow them to drive it.
The ladies are fascinating, and their work is dynamic. In clips from their movies, they execute daring feats with precision and talent. And whereas the documentary efficiently champions stunt girls’s dignity within the office, it lacks finesse — failing to showcase their abilities in a method that may be thrilling for an viewers exterior the {industry}.
Most of “Stuntwomen: The Untold Hollywood Story” is spent, properly, telling. In onscreen interviews, younger stunt performers interview their asphalt-shredding, car-flipping elders about their time within the enterprise. There are some great characters right here, most notably the veterans Jadie David and Jeannie Epper, who regale their doting successors with tales of performing alongside Pam Grier and Lynda Carter.
The movie is much less memorable when it seems at stunt work itself. There are just a few scenes that showcase the ladies falling from ceilings or forcing their tires right into a skid, but whether or not the director April Wright is zeroing in on stunt coordination or stunt driving, she fails to dynamically current the motion. There’s little sense of how stunt individuals truly execute their seemingly unattainable feats and with out this sense of labor, these scenes appear mundane, even unexciting. The proselytizing is righteous, however the film might use extra curiosity about how the magic occurs.
Stuntwomen: The Untold Hollywood Story
Not rated. Operating time: 1 hour 14 minutes. Hire or purchase on iTunes, Google Play and different streaming platforms and pay TV operators.
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