MOVIE REVIEW: WOMEN IN TROUBLE

Mix chick flick with soft core, and stir in some unexpectedly good dialogue.

Being one of two guys on the digital team, I was a bit skeptical when I was sent to a screening of Women in Trouble, directed by Sebastian Gutierrez. I suddenly realized the last five films I saw all starred explosions instead of actors. I was even more shaken during the film’s bizarre opening: A scene with an imprisoned nun and cowgirl duo – a set-up for a racy movie (okay, a movie-within-a-movie) starring Elektra Luxx and Holly Rocket (played by Carla Gugino and Adrianne Palicki).

Women in Trouble follows a strange day in the lives of 10 women, with an ensemble cast made up of a porn star, a psychiatrist and her patient, a flight attendant, and a pair of call girls.  It’s a comedy saturated with “I can’t believe she just said that” moments, which you might expect from Juno or Little Miss Sunshine.     

The film also stars Emmanuel Chriqui, Marley Shelton, and, the real highlight, Isabella Gutierrez, a forty-year-old actress playing a sassy tween named Charlotte. Joseph Gordon-Levitt (of 500 Days of Summer fame) also makes a hilarious after-credit cameo, interviewing Elektra Luxx and Holly Rocket for his porn blog.

I didn’t think I would like a movie with a title sequence entirely in pink, but Women in Trouble was definitely as exciting as any Terminator / Transformer movie I saw this year.
--TYLAN CUNNINGHAM



This story was published on November 12, 2009.