Search - The New Women on DVD

Zany Guilty Pleasure

H. Semones | Denver, CO United States | 06/03/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Complete and utter camp, The New Women is a must see for anyone into cult B-movies. Full of hilariously bad lines, weird sci-fi twists and kooky characters, it wears its love of John Waters and Russ Meyer on its sleeve. It stars Mary Woronov ("Eating Raoul") as Lisa LaStrada whose husband is cheating on her with the town slut. At her sister's BBQ, she starts boozing it up for the first time in 3 years and spirals down into a despair the likes of which only Devine has ever surpassed.On her way home from the party, a weird rainstorm hits. It causes the entire world to go into a sleep from which only the women awake days later. What will Lisa do? Why, take her cheatin' husbands' job as town sheriff and unsuccessfully attempt to stop the rampant looting and chaos, of course.And it gets loonier. It eventually turns into a road movie when Lisa, her sister, the town's senior citizen floozy, and the local feminist all jump in an RV and head to Elysium, a new society that was made by women for women. On the way, they meet hippie chicks, biker babes and scientists who want to make sure the human race continues. There are enough zany shenanigans here to satisfy the guiltiest of pleasures."

Frisky, Feisty and Fierce

H. Semones | 02/08/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Within THE NEW WOMEN's opening minutes, at least 10 ways to love the feature film emerge. You've got a sumptuous, rural noir road trip. You've got femmes - fatale, frisky and fierce. You've got film references that range from '40s noir to '50s sci-fi to '60s chixploitation to '70s apocalypse, and that crackling, smart dialogue we haven't heard for decades. While the film's core is feminine nuance, the film's look is a rhapsody of texture.
THE NEW WOMEN gives you that rare aesthetic density, a funky, sophisticated humor and a provocative voila! Riffing off the feisty, all-female melodrama George Cukor pioneered in THE WOMEN, this film likewise exults in an all-girl milieu, but amped with a sci-fi premise. The film's humor is sharp and ingenious, and the women are by turns frenetic, profound, campy and coy - full-bodied females that straight cinema could care less about."