In EGG, Marianna Palka/Risa Mickenberg delve into motherhood, womanhood, career and men

Marianna Palka is at it again. After gracing us with the fine, thoughtful and very sexual rom-com, Good Dick, back in 2008, she went on to give us the little-seen but one of 2017's best films, Bitch. Palka wrote and directed those two groundbreakers. With her latest, EGG, she has directed a screenplay by Risa Mickenberg (her first) that seems a very good fit for Ms Palka's interests and skills.

Bitch is streaming now via Netflix. If you haven't seen it, do. It's a difficult movie that goes places I don't think any other film quite has. It turns itself -- and will likely turn you -- inside out, moving from the most intense and difficult anger into, well, you'll see. Ms Palka consistently challenges us, and her gauntlet is worth running.

In her new film, she and Ms Mickenberg explore what "motherhood" means to three very different women (and of course to us, her audience) along with some ideas about feminism, career, male entitlement and, yes, much of the rest of the usual baggage. Yet in the hands of the these two filmmakers (Ms Palka is shown at left), nothing is quite as simple nor as obvious as it may first appear.

There are three women involved in the "motherhood" here, two of which are played by Alysia Reiner, below, left, and Christina Hendricks, right, who were "best friends" in art school a decade or more ago but have not kept up with each other much since.

Reiner, a relatively successful conceptual artist, is having a go at motherhood via a surrogate, while Hendricks, who gave up art but married "well," is very much pregnant and seemingly quite proud of it. Initially these two, along with their husbands, seem like the kind of hypocritical cliche-spouters who you're going to love to hate. But wait. As usual with Palka, things proves not quite so easy.

The movie is divided into sections: first Reiner's, then Reiner's and Hendricks', and finally one devoted to these two plus the beautiful blond surrogate, delightfully played by Anna Camp, above. Everyone's views -- both their pretense and their actual wants and needs -- are aired and given their due, and you will eventually find yourself having to deal with these characters as complex and very problematic people deserving of more than any easy dismissal.

The women, at least. The two men -- nicely played to reveal depths of needy narcissism and male entitlement, by Gbenga Akinnagbe (as Reiner's hubby, shown above, left) and David Alan Basche, as Hendricks', shown above, second from right) -- are mostly poster boys for, yes, narcissism and male entitlement. But both actors make the most of their duplicitous naughtiness, so that they remain fun to smirk at and enjoy.

The movie rightly belongs to Reiner, Hendricks and Camp, and all three come through quite beautifully, though in the last analysis, the film belong to Ms Reiner. A striking presence (as she was as well in Orange Is the New Black and Equity), here, she is given the chance to open up, reveal more layers of feeling, and actually touch us.

Hendricks, in the slightly smaller role, does the same and with lovely subtlety and ease, while Ms Camp, playing a lady with less on the ball, proves able to hold her own shakier ground quite well. There's a nice sense of theatricality here -- the movie is mostly shot on a single set, so the dialog counts for more than usual -- and there is also a kind of genuine modesty at work.

Egg knows what it's about and what it needs to accomplish, and it manages all this with -- along with some anger -- surprising empathy and grace. From Gravitas Ventures and running just 84 minutes, the film opens theatrically this Friday, January 18, in Los Angeles at the AMC Universal Cinema at Citywalk Hollywood, and in New York City at the Roxy Cinema Tribeca. Simultaneously, Egg will be available nationwide via VOD.

DVDebut for Dominic Savage's unusually dark and difficult drama, THE ESCAPE

All about a woman who, to save her sanity and herself, must opt out of marriage, motherhood and maybe even -- were it on the menu -- apple pie, THE ESCAPE, written and directed by Dominic Savage, goes so quietly against some of life's ingrained tenets that it will genuinely disturb viewers happy with the status quo. When the movie opened here theatrically this past May, reviews were quite positive, yet the response of audiences, whom one would assume were mostly the "art" film crowd, has been not so good. This is one anxiety-making movie.

As both writer and director, Mr. Savage, pictured at left, has what seems an unusual way of working with script and actors (do watch the Bonus Feature interviews with both him and his star, Gemma Arterton, shown below): a kind of "lay out the bare bones of what happens, make sure your actors fully understand their characters, and then... improvise!" It works. The Escape is an intelligent, deeply-felt exploration of a woman unhappy because her life (which, yes, she has had the major hand in determining) has proven not at all satisfying.

Ms Arterton -- beautiful and extremely capable -- continues to grow as actress with each role. Last year she starred in one of 2017's best films, Their Finest, and if The Escape does not prove quite up to that level, her performance in it certainly does. Interestingly, her character of Tara has much in common with another character currently on theater screens: a married woman named Agnes, played by the great Kelly Macdonald, in the movie Puzzle.

Puzzle is the easier film to accept, not nearly as hard-edged or demanding and also closer to our status quo is finding a balance between a woman's needs and the demands of marriage/motherhood. Both films are must-sees, even if The Escape may prove difficult for more conventional folk to accept.

In the role of Tara's somewhat obtuse, self-involved but still loving/caring husband, Dominic Cooper (above, left, who starred with Ms Arterton back in 2008 in the underseen/underappreciated Tamara Drewe) makes a terrific foil for his co-star. We feel for him and his situation, even as we can also see him through Tara's tired eyes.

The filmmaker coaxes fine and very real performances from his two child actors, while Frances Barber,  French star Jalil Lespert (above) and Marthe Keller all get excellent cameos as, respectively, Tara's more traditional mother, a hot-looking photographer who trails Tara and then befriends her at a museum, and a sudden unexpected helper toward the end of her journey.

The movie belongs to Ms Arterton, however, with whom we remain at every step of this difficult voyage. So emotionally and articulately on-point is the actress at each moment that, even when we can't agree with her actions and decisions, we absolutely understand them.

By the finale, the movie has circled around to end where it began. But, my, the amazing difference between what we knew then and know now allows us to understand and (perhaps grudgingly) accept the difficult decision that has been made.

From IFC Films and running just 101 minutes, the movie hits DVD and digital streaming tomorrow, Tuesday, August 14 -- for purchase or rental.