My Review- Netflix. "I Am Woman." My Rating 7/10
I remember seeing Helen Reddy perform at The Hodern Pavillion in Sydney and the billing was Helen Reddy October 4, 1975 Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, AUS (supported by Peter Allen)
Helen was a huge star in America after a very bumpy start in Los Angeles thinking the she had prize won on Brian Henderson's Bandstand included an American recording contract.
Helen had just won The Starflight International Contest but arrived in America and the Recording Executives didn't want to know her at first.
At that Sydney Concert Helen Reddy had a triumphant return to her native country and Peter Allen was just gaining popular success ,what a great show that night in Sydney with two great performances on stage.
In those days Australia unlike today was more isolated from the entertainment media frenzy we have today and Helen Reddy's great success wasn't really appreciated apart from her Anthem for Women's Equality the title of this Biopic
"I Am Woman."
In 1974, at the inaugural American Music Awards, Helen won the award for Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist. In television, she was the first Australian to host a one-hour weekly primetime variety show on an American network, along with specials that were seen in more than 40 countries.
This movie's screenplay by Emma Jensen drew from Helen Reddy's auto-biography 'The Woman I Am: A Memoir' (2005). The film was made and first released just under fifteen year's after its first publication.
It was intended for Cinema release but due to COVID 19 had its Netflix premiere today and it's a very entertaining and well directed debut movie for Unjoo Moon .
Director Unjoo Moon was awarded the Athena Breakthrough Award for this picture at the 2020 Athena Film Festival in New York City.
The best thing for me in this familiar "Star Is Born" type scenario of girl singer eclipsing her husbands talent and success is Tilda Cobram-Hervey .
She was very impressive in Hotel Mumbai 2018) and she is much more impressive in "I Am Woman." especially capturing so well the unique tone of Helen Reddy's voice and also the look and character of this strong woman ,who changed the history of Women's Liberation by writing such a historic song with collaborator Ray Burton.
"I Am Woman" was the first number one single for Capitol Records since "Ode to Billie Joe" by Bobbie Gentry five years earlier, in 1967. It was the first number one hit on the Billboard chart by an Australian-born artist and the first Australian-penned song to win a Grammy Award (in her acceptance speech for Best Female Performance, Reddy thanked "God, because Shemakes everything possible"). It also became the second Helen Reddy hit - after "I Don't Know How to Love Him" - to peak at number 2 in Australia.
Tilda Cobram-Hervey certainly deserves all the critical praise she has received for her performance as Helen Reddy.
Tilda was named by Entertainment Weekly magazine as one of the breakout stars of the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) for her role in this movie.
Helen Reddy's husband Jeff Wald played well by Evan Peters is not a sympathetic character and his addictions included gambling and substance abuse so I was pleased to see in the credits that he did find recovery from his vices.
It's an entertaining and well done film and worth a look to appreciate another example of the talent our nation has produced .
