Common Sense Media Review
By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Angry women bring down sleazy plastic surgeon; language.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 14+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Women on the Edge
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
In WOMEN ON THE EDGE, Vera (Julieta Diaz), who makes homemade organic cosmetics, and Angela (Carla Peterson), a successful TV actress clinging to her youth, end up in anger management meetings together in a school gym. Vera has thrown one of her cucumber creams at her husband. When he ducked it hit Paola, his boss, right in her recently redone face. She ends up in the hospital with a burned face, filing charges against Vera for assault. Vera learns the burns were, in fact, caused by work done by a sleazy plastic surgeon (Salvador del Solar), who has also disfigured Angela, her anger management classmate. Vera recruits Angela and the other members of their angry group to expose the Mafia-backed doctor and save other women from dangerous youth-preserving cosmetic procedures.
Is It Any Good?
Women on the Edge is a manic comedy that throws around terms like "patriarchal" and "gerontophobic misogynist" as proof of its pedigree as a feminist-forward comedy. Even an 8-year-old girl observes that "beauty salons are a product of the heteropatriarchy." An anger management class leader says that women's anger is sometimes generated by societal pressure for women to be "beautiful, always in a good mood, cheerful, younger and pretty." Meetings are filled with old jokes, group hugs, foot massages, martial arts workouts, and other means of "harnessing" anger, contributing to the way the movie is all over the place. It mocks women for going to tragic lengths to alter themselves physically to meet unreasonable beauty standards; men for creating the social pressure that makes women feel the need to alter themselves; and charlatans who prey on vulnerable women coerced by the above-mentioned social pressures.
Girl power wins the day as women who don't seem to like each other at first band together to fight the collective male oppressor. Even so, a generous and enlightened male lawyer is a hero while an otherwise useless husband is good for nothing but sex, which, thankfully, is not shown. This is not a movie that prioritizes making sense -- a doctor who recruits a famous actress to publicize his new age-reversing product doesn't care that his work disfigures her. Best scene: the cast line dances under the closing credits.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about what the movie says about women who take drastic measures to appear to be younger. What does it say about a societal atmosphere that fosters that compulsion to look younger?
Do you think that only women worry about looking younger? Do you think men also feel pressure to seem youthful and vibrant? Does the movie omit the fact that some men are also obsessed with looking younger?
How does the movie use comedy to look at serious subjects? Do you think the send-up is successful? Why or why not?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : December 1, 2023
- Cast : Carla Peterson , Julieta Diaz , Salvador del Solar
- Director : Azul Lombardia
- Inclusion Information : Female Movie Actor(s) , Latino Movie Actor(s)
- Studio : Netflix
- Genre : Comedy
- Run time : 95 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : December 8, 2023
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