Anna Kendrick Shows Why Women Should Direct True Crime Stories in her Film Woman of the Hour

By Elizabeth Forsatz

On October 18, 2024, Netflix released the long awaited thriller, Woman of the Hour. This film tells the true crime story of Rodney Alcala, a 1970s convicted serial killer who somehow made an appearance on a dating show, The Dating Game, before his eventual arrest. This movie is being acclaimed for its amazing storytelling as Pitch Perfect star Anna Kendrick makes her directorial debut while also being a main character in the film. Just like any true crime story, the movie aims to show the audience the motives and intentions of the killer. However, instead of focusing on Alcala’s heinous actions, Kendrick aims to tell this story in a different way.

While this film can be viewed from various perspectives, some are noticing how Kendrick has taken a unique and distinct approach in telling the story of Rodney Alcala. Many true crime stories place the criminal as the main character, making sure to meticulously explain and portray the actions, intentions, and life of the killer. However, Kendrick, impacted by being a female director, effectively succeeds in emphasizing the anxiety, fear, and unease of the film by focusing on the female victims of this killer instead.

In three separate timelines – before his appearance on The Dating Game, during the filming of a dating show, and after being a contestant- the audience learns about Rodney Alcala but they also learn even more about his victims. While seeing the lives these women, the dreams they had, and all of it being taken away in their killings, Kendrick hopes to make the victims the most interesting characters of the story instead of the man who was the cause of their deaths. Through the amazing cinematic, storytelling, and acting choices of the film, the audience truly feels why these women had initially trusted Alcala and how quickly their situations went south, depicting that this has happened and continues to happen to women all the time.

Speaking about her experience directing, Kendrick says, “I hoped to kind of capture that feeling you have when an interaction has gone a little south but you’re not sure how much.” She continues by saying “there are a couple of moments in the movie where, again, the hope is that it puts you inside that feeling of, ‘Wait, what, what did — did I hear what I think I just heard?”. Through this true crime storytelling, Kendrick and the many talented actors of this film want to give a loose depiction of a real-life criminal while showing the audience the blindsiding ways of trust and listening to your intuition.