Not only is Anna Kendrick’s new movie Woman of the Hour about a fascinating true crime case, it’s already received a massive Rotten Tomatoes score… and its Netflix release date is coming soon.
If Monster Season 2 left a bad taste in your mouth, you might want to give Woman of the Hour a go. While it’s also a true crime dramatization, it delivers biting commentary on societal misogyny, weaved within a truly stranger-than-fiction case.
Helmed by Kendrick in her directorial debut, the new movie is based on the real-life story of Rodney Alcala, a serial killer who appeared on the popular ‘70s game show The Dating Game.
Running alongside the case is that of Cheryl Bradshaw (played by Kendrick), the wannabe actress who ended up choosing Alcala on the show, unaware that at that point in time he’d already murdered at least five women.
Footage of the real-life episode has gone viral since being uploaded to YouTube, with Inside Edition’s clip earning more than 9.1 million views at the time of writing.
Spinning this into a movie that is, first and foremost, about Bradshaw and society’s view of women at the time is no mean feat. But so far, Kendrick has garnered plenty of praise from critics.
Woman of the Hour currently has a Tomatometer score of 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. Vox wrote, “Woman of the Hour smartly weaves into the narrative the many ways in which women are conditioned to put up with men.”
Elsewhere, The Wrap said that “first-timer Kendrick manages to make her film both weirdly entertaining and thoroughly disturbing.”
RogerEbert.com described it as a “confidently made thriller that’s not just a true crime story but an unpacking of systemic misogyny and how it encourages violence.”
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The story at the center of the film is chilling in that Alcala had already committed numerous murders before even appearing on The Dating Game.
Although he was linked to eight murders, the true number of victims is unknown to this day, with some estimating it could be as high as 130. Alcala died in prison in 2021 at age 77.
When asked why he chose to cover this story, Woman of the Hour screenwriter Ian McDonald told Netflix’s Tudum, “In true crime circles you’ll sometimes hear people say, ‘Oh yeah, he’s kind of like Ted Bundy.’
“But the truth of the matter is, he’s kind of the opposite. Ted Bundy was a chameleon. He was really good at pretending to be something he wasn’t. And Rodney Alcala really seems to have flouted a lot of his worst tendencies.
“It wasn’t that he was being sneaky, it’s that other people were kind of actively looking the other way.”
Adding to this, Kendrick said, “There are so many heroes in this story, but the heroes were outnumbered and outgunned by basically incompetence and negligence and a culture that did not prioritize victims.”
If you’re keen on giving it a watch, Woman of the Hour drops on Netflix on October 18. Until then, read about where the Menendez brothers are now, whether Jailbreak’s Vicky White was manipulated, and where Janel Grant is now.