'Woman of the Hour' review: Anna Kendrick's directorial debut delivers

WHAT IT'S ABOUT Anna Kendrick makes her directorial debut with "Woman of the Hour," a thriller constructed around the true story of serial killer Rodney Alcala appearing on "The Dating Game" TV show in 1978.

Kendrick also stars in the picture as Cheryl Bradshaw, the aspiring actor who appeared as the bachelorette on the Alcala episode. The movie spans several time frames over the course of the 1970s as it reveals the scope of the monstrous crimes Alcala committed, as well as the inability or unwillingness of the law enforcement apparatus to take the tips about him seriously.

Co-stars include Tony Hale as the host of the show, Nicolette Robinson ("The Affair") as a woman who survived a run-in with Alcala and Daniel Zovatto ("Station Eleven") as the killer.

MY SAY There was one obvious way to go in telling the story of Alcala appearing on "The Dating Game," a real event that is both completely unfathomable while also being strangely plausible, given how surreal things tend to get in Hollywood.

That's what we might call the Ryan Murphy approach, exemplified by the TV impresario's mini-empire including dual current shows about the Menendez brothers and former NFL player Aaron Hernandez. That would mean playing up the lurid qualities, heightening the true crime drama and doubling down on the commentary about the darker side of American iconography.

Kendrick shows herself to be a thoughtful and promising filmmaker by rejecting that easy way out. She's not here to imitate someone else and she has a much different take on this story.

Her vision has far less to do with Alcala himself and more to do with what he represents: the predatory realities facing women every day, in all kinds of circumstances, in a society that's dominated by insidious and pervasive forms of toxic masculinity.

Alcala exemplifies this in its worst form, and Kendrick never shies from his ruthless manipulations. But "Woman of the Hour" is also filled with more routine examples.

The first time we meet Cheryl, it's in a humiliating and distressing casting call. Robinson's Laura pours out her heart to her boyfriend about her traumatic history with Alcala and he promptly gaslights her. No one else listens to her warnings. The depiction of "The Dating Game," in which Cheryl is exhorted to smile and laugh and downplay her intelligence, exposes the extent to which even innocuous forms of entertainment can actually be something far more sinister through their upholding of patriarchal standards.

Kendrick, working from a screenplay by Ian McDonald, understands the most essential principle of genre filmmaking, which is that the movies that stand apart from the pack do so because they're about something of meaning and value beyond just bottom-line entertainment. That she also shows herself to be an accomplished stager of tense moments, understanding how to shoot them from a character-first perspective and to link them to a larger portrait of tangible, abiding discomfort, suggests that the star's future behind the camera is bright.

BOTTOM LINE This is an accomplished directorial debut, a movie made with smarts and vision.