Enter Tony Hale and Anna Kendrick Woman of the Hour.
Photo: Leah Gallo/Roadshow Films/Everett Collection

You wouldn’t expect Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut to be a grim serial killer drama, but maybe that’s the point. The actress, best known for her vibrant work in comedies and musicals, also stars in the film as aspiring performer Cheryl Bradshaw, a Columbia graduate who we first meet during what appears to be a failed audition. The year is 1978 and Cheryl’s days in Hollywood are not going well. Although she is a hard worker, she can’t seem to book any roles, partly because casting directors and filmmakers seem more concerned about whether she will laugh and do nudity than whether she can act. (“She seems angry,” they whisper to each other, in her presence.) Her neighbor and fellow actor Terry (Pete Holmes) is supportive of her appearance, but really only wants to get her into bed. Out of options, Cheryl reluctantly agrees to her agent’s suggestion that she resign The dating gameas a way to get her face out. After all, this is a world where women are ruthlessly judged by their looks and their charm; someone with more serious ambitions is simply lost.

Also seen in the same episode of The dating game as Bachelor No. 3 is Rodney Alcala, played by Daniel Zovatto, who we’ve already met in the opening scene of the film, set in 1977 Wyoming, where he photographs a young woman and then strangles her. It’s all based on a completely insane true story: Alcala was a serial killer and rapist in New York and California for over a decade, and was in the middle of his incredible crime spree – following his appearance on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List and two stints in prison – he appeared on the legendary dating show.

The film alternates between Cheryl’s appearance and Alcala’s various crimes as the film jumps through the timeline. We see him in 1971, killing a flight attendant in New York who has asked him for help moving some of her belongings to a new apartment. We see him in 1977, working as a typesetter for Los Angeles Timeswhile trying to lure a young man for a solo photo shoot. Kendrick, a promising director, artfully stages these sequences without relying on cheap thrills or exploitative gore. She has a good eye and a deft editorial hand; she knows exactly when to cut away, when to put in a telling apostrophe. The overarching tone of these sequences is not tension but sadness.

The film’s organizational principle reflects the frustratingly repetitive nature of this story. Despite numerous warning signs and several run-ins with the law, Alcala was able to operate freely for years. The structure also conveys something else: in a world of sexist horndogs and dopes, Alcala often stands out as respectful and thoughtful. As played by Zovatto, he is knowledgeable, respectful and even a little charming. He studied film at UCLA and is knowledgeable about independent theater and critically acclaimed literature. He tells a girl that she reminds him of Linda Manz Days of heaven. He discusses Sam Shepard and Edward Albee with Cheryl. He talks a good game and says the right things. But of course he’s also a psychopath, and every now and then he says or does something that betrays the monster lurking within him.

Unfortunately, as it plays out on screen, Woman of the Hour isn’t as convincing as you might hope. Structuring the film around The dating gamein which Cheryl is largely treated like a piece of meat by everyone (including the smug host, played with oily, soothing skeeziness by Tony Hale), might make for an intriguing thematic trick, but it also sets the scene in a routine, dry cadence, as it story starts to become overdetermined. (Even those unfamiliar with Alcala’s appearance The dating game pale in real life, can probably see some of the story beats coming.)

The circular structure, no matter how thematically logical, also prevents cohesion. We watch scenes from the life of a serial killer without really understanding much about him; nor do we ultimately learn much about Cheryl herself (about whom relatively little is known in real life).
The whole film feels a little too cautious: composed but also more than a little academic. It largely ends as a series of well-staged scenes, all wrapped up in an arc that tells us the world out there isn’t safe. In our current serial killer, true crime obsessed media landscape, that may get some clicks, but it won’t yield many new insights.