Woman of the Hour is a 2023 American crime thriller film directed by Anna Kendrick in her directorial debut and written by Ian McDonald.

It is based on the factual incident of Rodney Alcala appearing in 1978 on the television show The Dating Game before he was captured in 1979 and identified as a serial killer for murdering numerous women and girls.

The film stars Kendrick as game show contestant Sheryl Bradshaw and Daniel Zovatto as Alcala, along with Nicolette Robinson and Tony Hale.

In December 2017, Ian MacAllister McDonald's screenplay Rodney and Sheryl was featured on the Black List, an annual survey of the most popular scripts yet to be produced.

[4] In May 2021, Netflix announced it had bought a package around McDonald's script with Chloe Okuno on board as director and Anna Kendrick attached to star.

The website's consensus reads: "Deftly directed by star Anna Kendrick, Woman of the Hour uses an incredible true story as the foundation for a powerful examination of the intersection between systemic misogyny and violence.

She praises Kendrick's ability to capture period details that extend beyond aesthetics and fashion, and highlights her exploration of the deeply rooted sexism in the entertainment industry and broader culture of the era.

[20] Benjamin Lee of The Guardian rated the film 4 out of 5 stars, calling it a "fascinating and frightening stranger-than-fiction tale" and noting its unusual choice for Kendrick’s directorial debut.

Lee highlights Kendrick's balance in depicting Alcala’s violence while humanizing his victims, allowing the audience to understand the brutality without explicit imagery while maintaining shock value.

He also points out that the film includes moments of dark comedy that effectively highlight the absurdity of the situation but can sometimes feel discordant and too modern for the context.

He states that while structuring the film around The Dating Game provides an intriguing thematic angle, it leads to a dry and predictable narrative, lacking cohesion and depth in exploring both protagonists.

He concludes that the film ultimately feels "a bit too careful: composed but also more than a little academic," and that it "winds up existing mostly as a series of well-staged scenes all wrapped up in a bow that tells us the world is not safe out there" without offering significant new insight.

[22] The New York Times's Alissa Wilkinson praises the "competently handled" directorial debut's smooth storytelling as well as Kendrick’s performance.

She notes that while the film's drama is both effective and infuriating, it becomes overly "self-consciously illustrative" midway through, with characters feeling more like archetypes than fully realized individuals.

Wilkinson concludes her review by affirming that the film is worth watching; she highlights its avoidance of any fascination with Alcala, who is presented as a perpetrator rather than as an object of psychological interest.

[20] It critiques the societal structures that enabled Alcala, emphasizing how seemingly innocuous sexism and misogyny normalize violence against women, potentially leading to escalated harm.