The M Word (2014) Poster

(2014)

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6/10
Employee Lib wrapped in a menopause story
steven-leibson24 August 2014
"M" is for menopause and this movie is certainly about that. However, I think the movie's bigger mission is to serve as a beacon for employee lib. The movie uses the fictional TV station KZAM in Los Angeles as the pivot for the action. KZAM is an independent station filled with mostly older people. A couple of "suits" from the New York office arrive early in the movie and you know that heads will roll. When they start rolling, the movie shifts into high gear to talk about the damage to people's lives that layoffs cause. "It's just business," the watch phrase of corporate America, always rings hollow when you hear actual businesspeople say it and sounds that same way in this movie too.

Meanwhile, the movie is interlaced with dozens of interviews with women who are experiencing or have experienced menopause. It's R rated, for the numerous F-bombs I guess unless discussions of menopause and menstruation require an R rating. This movie is likely the only film targeting a broader entertainment audience to look at womens' opinions about menopause in such detail. I thought these vignettes were really the most honest part of the movie. At least that's how they struck me. This movie has its funny spots and looks at a topic that rarely if ever catches Hollywood's attention.

Which brings us to the movie's biggest flaw, in my opinion. The cast of this movie consists of many hard-working, accomplished actors (look them up on IMDb) and it feels very much like an actors' movie to me, meaning that it feels like it's been made for actors using code language and situations best understood by the entertainment workforce of southern California. As a result, the whole movie feels just a bit stilted to me. It feels like an insider's movie. Perhaps that's because the movie is set in a southern California TV station but I had a hard time identifying with any of the main characters although I had a lot more sympathy for the rank and file working at KZAM.
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