For her directorial debut, Violet, Justine Bateman isn’t taking the easy route with some softball rom-com or coming-of-age drama. The film stars Olivia Munn as a hard-working exec in the movie business as she struggles with anxiety in a business dominated by white men. While that may sound like something we’ve seen before, the way Bateman presents it is something different.
As seen in the trailer for Violet, Munn’s character keeps all of her insecurities bottled up inside, presenting herself as cool and confident. But her inner monologue, which sounds like Justin Theroux because it is him, is preventing her from moving forward. She can’t keep it locked away forever.
Also in the cast are Laura San Giacomo, Luke Bracey, Jason Dohring, Zachary Gordon, Erica Ash, Steve Agee, Rain Phoenix, Colleen Camp, and more. Bateman, who most still know from her role in classic ’80s sitcom Family Ties, also wrote the script.
I saw the film at SXSW earlier this year and while lukewarm on it, I did find it to be “a fascinating mess, one with valuable insights on mental health, female objectification, sexism, and more.”
Violet gets a limited release in theaters on October 29th, followed by VOD on November 9th.
A Los Angeles–based film executive, Violet has worked arduously to gain status in an industry still dominated by older white men, often at the expense of her dignity and taste. Nowhere is this more apparent than in her relationship with her boss, who exerts his power by regularly humiliating her in front of clients. Violet presents as confident, chilly, even callous, but inside her, a cauldron of desperate anxieties is on the brink of boiling over.
