Parents' Guide to I Am Woman

This biopic is a factual dot-to-dot rather than a real exploration, but it's still an encouraging piece of entertainment for young women. Reddy was a young mother trying to succeed alone in a man's world, and while the sexist comments and attitudes she faces in I Am Woman are a drop in the bucket, they're just enough to set the scene for why so many women fought so hard for equal rights.

"Just enough" is actually the best description for this film. It can't decide whether it's emphasizing Reddy's personal life or tracking her career success, so both come across as muted versions of reality. This is music documentarian Unjoo Moon's first scripted feature, and it doesn't give many of Reddy's substantial accomplishments much, if any, attention (for example, there's no mention of her starring in Pete's Dragon!). Her marriage to music manager Wald, a Hollywood hothead who became the industry's poster child for the perils of cocaine use, is depicted as far too forgiving. And for all the movie tries to say about Reddy's role in propelling women's liberation, there's no elation in the moment that she becomes liberated from her controlling husband, nor is there acknowledgement of the irony that, once she did become liberated, that man silenced her voice. I Am Woman is a serviceable retelling of Reddy's life, and yet it doesn't do enough service for the icon that she is.