Fondavision: Barbarella (1968)

Much like cinema, we're back, baby! Our official TIFF 2022 dispatch is here. Grab a pen and paper (if you're an analog lover like Emily) because we've got women-directed recommendations for your fall watchlists: Canadian gems ROSIE, THIS PLACE, and UNTIL BRANCHES BEND, genre faves THE PEOPLE'S JOKER, SUSIE SEARCHES, and NANNY, and soon-to-be indie darlings THE ETERNAL DAUGHTER, I LIKE MOVIES, and CORSAGE.

On the finale of their Fondavision miniseries, Emily and Danita try to wrap their heads around why someone as incredibly talented and charismatic as Jane Fonda would sign on to something as outrageously bad as 2014's This is Where I Leave You. After reviewing all the ways that movie could have treated Jane (and Kathryn Hahn and Rose Byrne) better, they launch into their Official Jane Rankings (hint: they have a very similar Top 6!) before offering a final word on what they learned from spending a year with the legendary actor and activist.

On the penultimate episode of WRLH's Fondavision miniseries, Danita and Emily hit the books with 1990's Stanley & Iris, a.k.a. the movie that supposedly made Jane Fonda leave acting for 15 years. Would this box-office bomb have succeeded if it chose a lane, focusing solely on the title characters' attempt to combat adult illiteracy (with a lil' romance still thrown in, of course)? Did John Williams actually go off with that overtly wistful score? Why don't more movies put Robert De Niro in glasses? What the heck was going on with Jane's wayward claw clips? And can someone please buy us an egg roll while we wait for our laundry to dry?

This week on WRLH! presents Fondavision, Emily & Danita need a tequila shot before watching (and talking about!) Sidney Lumet's The Morning After (1986). Was Jane drunk on set, or is that just an IMDb rumour? How much can one woman go through while perpetually hungover? Did this '80s thriller suffer from too much romance and not enough suspense? And most importantly, where can we get matching green velour suits?

Tonight on Fondavision (WRLH!'s miniseries dedicated to actor/activist Jane Fonda!), Danita and Emily have a lil' meltdown as they investigate 1979's The China Syndrome. Did this film, produced by and starring Jane, really start the war on nuclear power (a.k.a. "The Jane Fonda Effect"), or is that just another sexist conspiracy theory? How does journalist Kimberly Wells compare to depictions of other women whistleblowers like Karen Silkwood (who Jane wanted to make a film about!) and Erin Brockovich? And what in the hell happened to the humanistic political thriller? This and more at 11!

This week on another instalment of WRLH's Fondavision miniseries, Emily and Danita take a trip across multiple universes as they thrust themselves into the warped world of space-set sex bomb Barbarella (1968). Is it fair to call this orgasm machine of a film "feminist" when we know how damaging it was to Jane Fonda's personal and professional trajectory? Was Jane really drunk while shooting the opening striptease? Where does one procure a pink spaceship? And is it possible to enjoy this absolute trip of a movie without getting stoned out of your mind first?

This week on WRLH! presents Fondavision, Emily and Danita make it a special 2-for-1 episode with a double bill of California Suite and Coming Home. From revamping her image to making some of the most important films of her career, no one was busier than Jane in the late 1970s. So, how do these two very different roles from the same year fit into Jane's filmography? Would you rather live with Jane Fonda or Alan Alda? Is young Jon Voight hot? And while we love Hal Ashby, why was he so mad about *that* sex scene?

Danita and Emily are back from their winter break and ready to backflip into Jane Fonda's filmography! In this new episode of WRLH! miniseries Fondavision, they revisit the movie that Jane made to get her estranged father, Henry, an Oscar: 1981 sappy smash On Golden Pond. Did Jane really have beef with Katharine Hepburn on set, or is this another Debra Winger/Shirley MacLaine situation? How does Norman and Chelsea's strained relationship (which includes him ignoring her, criticizing her weight, and being unafraid to tell her he doesn't like her) compare to Jane and Henry's? And can this movie, which asks a "self-conscious" woman to forgive a grumpy old man who should know better, still stir up the same emotions today, when so many daughters of fathers have gone to therapy?

On this week's episode of We Really Like Her!'s FONDAVISION miniseries, Emily & Danita travel back in time to the depressing, depression-era La Monica Ballroom. What do today's reality shows have in common with the cruel dance marathons of the 1920s & '30s? How much did Jane draw from her personal life to craft the complex, cynical Gloria? And was this role the real catalyst for both the next decade of her career and her activism?

"Well now friends just lend an ear, for you're now about to hear ... the ballad of Cat Ballou!" On this week's episode of We Really Like Her!'s FONDAVISION miniseries, Danita and Emily ride into Wolf City, Wyomin' to hang with the infamous Cat Ballou. How did this zany, 1960s comedy-western (a favourite of Bryan Cranston and the Farrelly Brothers?) get away with giving Lee Marvin two scenery-chewing roles while Jane Fonda (who played the *titular* Cat) an underdeveloped one? Would it have been better as a full-fledged musical with Jane singing alongside the late, great Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye? And which young starlet could play Cat in a reboot where, hopefully, the so-called "wildest gal in the West" actually takes the reins?