I Am Woman

Once dubbed "the queen of housewife rock" by Alice Cooper, Australian singer Helen Reddy (1941-2020) became a star in America with her 1972 empowerment anthem I Am Woman. Director Unjoo Moon's biopic begins in 1966, with a penniless Reddy (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) arriving in New York, three-year-old daughter in tow, and finding work as a bar singer - albeit one who gets paid less than her (male) backing band. It proceeds to chart Reddy's friendship with music journalist Lillian Roxon (Danielle Macdonald), rocky marriage to feckless manager Jeff Wald (Evan Peters, whose jittery energy is wasted) and eventual rise to fame. Though Moon makes earnest attempts to contextualise Reddy's struggle against the sexism of the era, the drama never feels authentic, with soapy, nothing's-going-to-stop-us dialogue and an overreliance on stock footage. Unfortunately, Cobham-Hervey's hollow turn in the lead threatens to sink the whole enterprise, having more in common with Reddy's conventional music than her revolutionary message.