Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman (2006)

Director: Jennifer Fox

2

Critics' rating

Average user rating
3 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out New York

I remember a skit from an episode of SCTV in the ’80s called “I’m Taking My Own Head, Screwing It on Right, and No Guy’s Gonna Tell Me It Ain’t,” a razor-sharp spoof of plays that watered down feminism to a long, long list of narcissistic injuries. The personal was not political, but rather interminable.

Jennifer Fox’s six-hour-long first-person documentary plays just like that skit. This time, however, rather than chuckling, I often gasped in disbelief. Fox, 42 at the time her film begins, lives quite comfortably in a downtown NYC loft and enjoys boundless generosity and patience from her friends and family. Her “crisis,” which jump-starts Flying, is that she has two boyfriends and wonders, “Why were relationships with men so difficult these days?”

So Fox screws her head on right and travels all over the world, talking to other women about their relationships with men. Rather than being humbled, the director’s solipsism rages out of control. After hearing a Somali friend recount her genital mutilation, Fox says in voiceover, “Amina’s experience was much more extreme than mine. But she helped me understand my anger toward my grandmother.” Who will help Fox understand the anger viewers have toward her repellent self-absorption?

Author: Melissa Anderson 2007-07-02 22:07:11

Time Out New York

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

User reviews of this film

  • Kerry said...
    Posted on Jul 11 2007 11:04 Your review is totally on point. I was so disgusted at how self-involved and whiny she was, and the person that I was with was just as disgusted. There she was, living in some cushy apartment and jetting around the world to talk to women that live very hard lives, and yet she couldn't stop complaining about her two boyfriends and her mother. By the way, that scene in Part 2 in Pakistan when she wouldn't stop filming -- I almost lost it. She is insensitive and clueless.
    I only saw Part 2 -- three hours of my life wasted. I strongly advise potential viewers to stay away!
    Report as inappropriate
  • Rahzel said...
    Posted on Jul 05 2007 10:46 The fact that this film is centered around Jennifer Fox's personal life necessarily means that the film is going to have a bit of a narcissistic edge, however, I strongly feel that Fox has shot and put together the film in a way that is far from egocentric. If you choose to write off this film as a 6 hour bitching session of a middle-aged middle-class white lady then you really are preventing yourself from seeing what the film has to offer. This film is a unique look at our modern world and the connections between the diverse women in it. In being blindingly peeved by the premise of the film (Fox's personal life) you are truly missing out on some powerful stuff. Fox is traveling around the world and speaking with some incredibly amazing women; sex workers from Cambodia, a civil rights lawyer in India, widows in Pakistan, and on and on. If you choose not to listen to their stories, your loss.
    Report as inappropriate
  • Lisa said...
    Posted on Jul 04 2007 11:40 I saw a screener of this film and I actually found it to be an incredibly honest, albeit narcissistic, portrait of a woman who comes into feminism later in life. I agree that her naiveté can be irritating. But, I think what’s important is that her experience is quite prevalent among modern western women. I think through her honestly and narcissism, she's holding up a mirror to western society and showing us a common trap that we all fall into. It's easy to forget about very real issues that women around the world are still dealing with. It's easy to forget that feminism isn't a dirty word. And to watch someone discover that is engaging and difficult. I commend her for her honesty and her willingness to allow herself to be both the heroine and the villain.
    Report as inappropriate

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman

Cast & crew

Director: Jennifer Fox

Rated: NR

Duration: 353 mins


Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.