Phyllis Nagy’s new movie, titled “Call Jane” is based on a very interesting premise of a woman with complicated pregnancy finding support in an underground group of women who would help her with a “necessary” abortion.
Nagy made her directorial debut in 2005 with the Television film Mrs. Harris which starred Annette Benning, Ben Kingsley, and Ellen Burstyn in pivotal roles. For her debut film, Nagy got nominated in both writing and direction categories at the Primetime Emmy Awards 2006.
Her next work came almost a decade later in the form of Todd Haynes’s Carol (2015), for which she penned the screenplay. Starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara in the lead, this film was adored by both the critics and a large section of the audience. It was pretty much successful at the box office as well. Nagy went on to receive many awards and nominations for Carol including an Academy Award nod for best-adapted screenplay.
Seventeen years after her debut, Nagy is finally back in the director’s chair again. But instead of writing her own screenplay, this time she is handling a script written by Hayley Schore and Roshan Shetty which originally appeared in the 2017 blacklist and got 7 votes. The filming for Call Jane started in Hartford, Connecticut in the month of May 2021.
As per the official synopsis, when a traditional housewife Joy gets to know her second pregnancy might be a threat to her life she comes across “Janes”, an underground activists women’s group who take all kinds of risks to provide abortion facilities to women who need it.
Even though it is set in the sixties, a time when patriarchy and oppression of females used to be much higher than the present time, the theme is still relevant as abortion is still considered a crime in several American states.
The film has been receiving pretty much positive reviews from the critics if the 77% positive score on Rotten Tomatoes is anything to go by. At Metacritic, it currently stands at a 63 out of 100 score based on 24 critics, which only implies the reviews have been “generally favorable”.
CALL JANE CAST:
Elizabeth Banks stars as Joy and her performance is already being hailed as her career best. The legendary Sigourney Weaver, who’s still going all guns blazing when it comes to her acting career is supporting Banks in the cast; along with popular names like Chris Messina (The Mindy Project, The Sinner) and Kate Mara (House of Cards, American Horror Story, A Teacher).
WHERE TO WATCH AND STREAM “CALL JANE” ONLINE?
After its premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 2022, Roadside Attraction acquired the distribution rights of the film on February 4, 2022, with a fall release plan. Call Jane is finally releasing in theaters across the US in a limited capacity on October 28, 2022. You can check for theatre listings near you, or book your tickets on Fandango.
As of now, the film is not available for streaming on any OTT platform. However, one can expect it to eventually land on Hulu after the multi-year deal to stream Roadside Attraction films was made earlier this year. As to when that would be is still unknown. One can also expect Call Jane to arrive on Video on Demand platforms like Apple TV and Amazon, but its Box Office performance will be a key factor there.
UPDATE
Call Jane is available for only Buying on Amazon, VUDU, and Microsoft.
