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    ‘Winner’ Review: Not Like Other Girls

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    This dramedy starring Emilia Jones depicts the life and times of Reality Winner, a former National Security Agency contractor and whistle-blower.“Winner,” an oddly perky dramedy by the director Susanna Fogel (who wrote “Booksmart”), is loosely based on the life of Reality Winner, the former National Security Agency contractor and Air Force linguist who was arrested in 2017 for leaking a top-secret report about Russian interference in the 2016 United States presidential election. (She was released from prison in 2021.)But the eerie docudrama “Reality,” from last year, starring Sydney Sweeney as the titular polyglot, captured the tragedy of Winner’s case far more effectively than “Winner,” a sweeping biopic that presents her as something like an American Girl doll for the “I’m not like other girls” set.Extending from her adolescence through the aftermath of her arrest, “Winner” portrays the young woman as an endearing anomaly, with an anti-authoritarian streak shaped by her leftist father (Zach Galifianakis). Winner (Emilia Jones) is a pink-gun-toting animal lover and relentless freethinker who openly questions mainstream explanations for 9/11.The paradox of the real Reality Winner is that, despite her idiosyncratic views and her ability to speak the Pashto language, she was pretty normal. The film underscores this dynamic — she goes shopping with her mother (Connie Britton), moves in with her boyfriend (Danny Ramirez), powers through her 9 to 5 and eats dinner on the couch while watching CNN.This quirky girl-power comedy gives way to something darker as Winner becomes aware of U.S. government secrets, with the director drawing a connection between Winner’s political idealism and the public’s seemingly willful indifference toward corruption and human rights abuses. In this sense, the character plays to the archetype of the “social justice warrior” with some conservative touches. That’s the big problem with this strange film, which tries to humanize its protagonist but winds up making her feel plastic.WinnerRated PG-13. Running time: 1 hour 43 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on most major platforms. More

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      Chloé Zhao Becomes Second Woman to Win Top Directors Guild Award

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      The “Nomadland” filmmaker is the first woman of color to take the feature-film directing prize. She’s now the prohibitive front-runner for the Oscar.The Directors Guild of America made history Saturday night, giving the group’s top prize for feature-film directing to Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”), the first woman of color to receive the award and only the second woman ever to win in the category, after Kathryn Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker”).Zhao was considered the heavy favorite after a dominant awards-season run for her film that has also included top honors at the Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards and Producers Guild Awards, and she will now enter Oscar night as the prohibitive front-runner, since the DGA winner has won the best-director Oscar 13 of the last 15 times.A best-picture victory for “Nomadland” appears increasingly likely, too: Few films have gone on to take Oscar’s top prize without first winning at the DGA or PGA. Still, one of those curveballs came just last year, when “Parasite” won best picture without either of those trophies but after netting a high-profile win at the Screen Actors Guild.That may provide a path forward for “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” which also pulled off a SAG victory last week. But though that film’s director, Aaron Sorkin, was nominated alongside Zhao for the DGA Award, he was snubbed for a directing nomination at the Oscars.In her acceptance speech, Zhao offered fulsome praise for Sorkin — “I can feel my heart beating with yours when I watch your film,” she said — as well as for the other nominees, Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”), Emerald Fennell (“Promising Young Woman”), and David Fincher (“Mank”).And though he didn’t win, Fincher may have gotten the line of the night when he was asked to sum up his career: “Directing,” Fincher said, “is a bit like trying to paint a watercolor from four blocks away through a telescope, over a walkie-talkie, and 85 people are holding the brush.”In other news at the virtual ceremony, the award for first-time feature-film directing went to Darius Marder for “Sound of Metal,” while the documentary prize went to Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw for “The Truffle Hunters,” which was snubbed by Oscar.Here is the full list of winners:Feature: Chloé Zhao, “Nomadland”First-Time Feature: Darius Marder, “Sound of Metal”Documentary: Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw, “The Truffle Hunters”Television Movies and Limited Series: Scott Frank, “The Queen’s Gambit”Dramatic Series: Lesli Linka Glatter, “Homeland”Comedy Series: Susanna Fogel, “The Flight Attendant”Variety/Talk/News/Sports (Regularly Scheduled): Don Roy King, “Saturday Night Live”Variety/Talk/News/Sports (Specials): Thomas Schlamme, “A West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote”Reality Programs: Joseph Guidry, “Full Bloom”Commercials: Melina Matsoukas, “You Love Me” for Beats by Dr. DreChildren’s Programs: Amy Schatz, “We Are the Dream: The Kids of the Oakland MLK Oratorical Fest” More