"Apex" Captures the Primal Fear of Being a Woman
Given a choice between a man and a mountain, it’s safer to choose the mountain.

A drama based on the director's experience of coming to terms with multiple sclerosis. 'A Prayer Before Birth' chronicles, with disturbing intensity, the physical and emotional traumas of a young woman's journey from able-bodied exuberance to the acceptance of disability. Rejecting the objective worthiness often associated with such subject matter, the filmmaker opts instead for an escalating sequence of symbolic and impressionistic images to convey the increasing sense of unreality as the disease inexorably enters her daily life. Confronts debilitating illness with creative vitality, simultaneously desperate and defiant.
Given a choice between a man and a mountain, it’s safer to choose the mountain.
Netflix's new thriller Apex, starring Charlize Theron, puts a twist on survival horror. Despite its setting in the beautiful- yet-dangerous Australian wilderness, Apex is not a movie about man vs. nature. Instead, it’s woman vs. man. While checking out the title card and its unpretentious Netflix release might lead viewers to believe Apex is just another celebrity project churned out of the streaming machine, Apex - whether by luck or by intention - is a consistently harrowing film about the reality of being a woman in a public space.
Having Sersi be the central force in Eternals is unprecedented in its viewpoint and focus, from demonstrating a gentle type of leadership, to being overlooked in a group setting but succeeding in the goal at hand anyways, to having romantic options, to strength and integrity, and majority screen time - for a group that's given less screentime than aliens.
While the camera is objectifying her body to invoke a sexual response in male viewers, Lara Croft still defies the expectations of women in action films.