Director: Unjoo Moon
Starring: Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Danielle Macdonald, Evan Peters
Running Time: 116 minutes
Synopsis: It's 1966, and having won a contest promising a recording contract, Australian singer Helen Reddy (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) arrives in New York City with her 3 year-old daughter. When the record company breaks its promise, Helen defaults to a lounge singer and forges a friendship with rock journalist Lilian Roxon (Danielle Macdonald). Eventually she falls in love with fledgling music manager Jeff Wald (Evan Peters). They get married and move to Los Angeles, but with Jeff developing a cocaine habit and ignoring Helen's ambitions, breaking into the music business will not be easy.
What Works Well: This standard biography effectively tracks the arduous path to stardom, Helen initially singing to an empty bar and living with her daughter in a cockroach-infested apartment. Despite a variable performance, Tilda Cobham-Hervey captures Helen's determination to overcome misogyny and achieve stardom on her terms. She finds her calling through Lilian's association with the women's movement for equal rights, and Helen's song I Am Woman becomes the anthem for a generation of women seeking a new social contract.
What Does Not Work As Well: Similar stories has been told before with more impact, and both the metronomic story beats and the rudimentary writing and performances are not far from television drama levels. The narrative veers towards a hagiography, where Helen can do no wrong and all the men surrounding her are dinosauric blocks.
Key Quote:
Helen: Did it ever occur to you men to ask women what they want to listen to?