Female Perversions

R

Released Jan 22, 1996

1h 50m

Drama

LGBTQ+

List

71%

24 Reviews

Tomatometer

45%

500+ Ratings

Audience Score

Evelyn (Tilda Swinton) is a lawyer who is soon to become a judge, but her intense focus on her career has resulted in a cold demeanor and passion-filled but ultimately dissatisfying personal life. She has a boyfriend (Clancy Brown) and a lover (Karen Sillas) but connects with neither. When her sister, Maddie (Amy Madigan), gets caught shoplifting, however, and she goes to the middle of nowhere to save her, Eve gets the chance to learn more about her own demons and troubled childhood.

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Audience Member

Tilda Swinton in one of her earliest roles directed by Susan Streitfeld The journey of a woman balancing work, sex, insecurity, and stability based on the book by Louise J. Kaplan Evelyn is a lawyer who is soon to become a judge, but her intense focus on her career has resulted in a cold demeanor and passion-filled but ultimately dissatisfying personal life She has a boyfriend (Clancy Brown) and a lover (Karen Sillas) but connects with neither Eve is filled with self-doubt and struggles to find satisfaction while conforming to society's expectations of her as a woman She is troubled by erotic nightmares and flashbacks to the lives of her parents, centering on her unfeeling father and the suspicious death of her mother, Beth When her sister, Maddie (Amy Madigan), gets caught shoplifting, however, and she goes to the middle of nowhere to save her, Eve gets the chance to learn more about her own demons and troubled childhood There's so much talking in this and not enough thrills Despite some erotic scenes and dream like sequences feeling like a Tarsem Sighn experience it feels very meandering Clancy Brown is barely in the movie and there's hardly a reason to care about Swinton's ordeal This is very short on plot that's for sure that works better as psychological treatise Yet it's haunting in several ways that'll have you think time and again even if it's bathed in its own symbolism

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

L'estrema attenzione con cui viene creato il personaggio di Tilda Swindon offre un punto di partenza ottimo, solido e credibile. Questa attenzione è riportata con successo anche nella ricerca dell'erotico e della tensione sessuale; di cui la protagonista ne è perfetta incarnazione. Purtroppo i lati favorevoli si fermano qui, la trama seppure interessante è poco esplorata e lascia troppo spazio ad una versione onirica dei dilemmi e dei problemi della sua protagonista; che per giunta non viene supportata con egual costruzione da tutti i restanti personaggi, molto più piatti e monotematici.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/12/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Slow-moving and self-important.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

Full Review

Audience Member

mixed-up kinda movie - more plots than a daytime soapy.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/14/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Aptly named, this film depicts several activities labeled perverse by society at large, yet through those revelations we come to understand the demons that Evelyn (Tilda Swinton) is facing down. Strong performances by Swinton and Amy Madigan, as her (younger? older?) sister, Madelyn propel the film. Both women are successful, Evelyn as an attorney being considered for a judgeship, and Madelyn as a doctoral candidate about to make her oral defense of her thesis, and both women get a less than enthusiastic response from their emotionally distant father when they try to share their news. Excellent use of dreams, fantasy, and flashback to help the viewer understand Evelyn's fragility and somewhat self-destructive behaviors. Good supporting cast, with only a couple of weak links, and an interesting side-story concerning a young girl struggling with identity issues helped to keep it from veering off into pure psycho-drama. Good to see Karen Sillas, a personal favorite in a small role here.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Meh. Too much bi-sexual fantasy scenes.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/15/23

Full Review

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Susan Streitfeld

Director

Tilda Swinton

Evelyn 'Eve' Stephens

Amy Madigan

Madelyn 'Maddie' Stephens

Karen Sillas

Renee

Laila Robins

Emma

Clancy Brown

John

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Emanuel Levy

Variety

The women (played by Tilda Swinton and Amy Madigan) are so intriguing and complex that they almost overcome the trappings of a non-linear narrative that's borderline academic.

Rated: 3/4

Jun 27, 2006

Full Review

Rick Groen

Globe and Mail

The result is short on plot but long on observational detail and psychological resonance.

Rated: 3/4

Apr 12, 2002

Full Review

Kevin Thomas

Los Angeles Times

Even if it works better as a provocative psychological treatise than as art, it does come alive and does provide major roles for Tilda Swinton and Amy Madigan.

Feb 14, 2001

Full Review

Michele Kort

The Advocate

It's a challenge to adapt a nonfiction book about sex into a fictional film. Lesbian director-cowriter Susan Streitfeld meets the test in her darkly funny, absurdist adaptation of Louise J. Kaplan's Female Perversions.

Apr 5, 2022

Full Review

Ren Jender

Bitch Flicks

I'm not sure I've ever seen nudity used as well in a film as it is in Perversions.

Mar 8, 2019

Full Review

Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

I could never warm up to any of the characters or their perversions or neuroses.

Rated: C+

May 31, 2013

Full Review

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Synopsis

Evelyn (Tilda Swinton) is a lawyer who is soon to become a judge, but her intense focus on her career has resulted in a cold demeanor and passion-filled but ultimately dissatisfying personal life. She has a boyfriend (Clancy Brown) and a lover (Karen Sillas) but connects with neither. When her sister, Maddie (Amy Madigan), gets caught shoplifting, however, and she goes to the middle of nowhere to save her, Eve gets the chance to learn more about her own demons and troubled childhood.

Director: Susan Streitfeld
Producer: Zalman King, Gina Resnick, Rena Ronson
Screenwriter: Susan Streitfeld, Julie Hébert
Distributor: October Films, Lakeshore Entertainment
Rating: R
Genre: Drama, LGBTQ+
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 22, 1996, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 31, 2014
Box Office (Gross USA): $884.0K
Runtime: 1h 50m

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