Fede Alvarez

Emmy and Golden Globe winner, Claire Foy, kicks ass as a queer-crime-fighting-hacker-heroine in The Girl in the Spider’s Web.

We’re introduced to the film and to the main character, Lisbeth, with an opening scene of her saving a woman from the abusive clutch of one of Stockholm’s most powerful men. She has made it her job to do justice for women and the men who have perpetrated them.

Based on the fourth novel in the Swedish Millenium series, The Girl in the Spider’s Web follows Lisbeth Salander and journalist, Mikael Blomkvist (played by Sverrir Gudnason) as they track down cybercriminals trying to claim possession of a top-secret NSA program. Originally hired to steal and return the program to its original owner, Lisbeth is confronted by both new and old evils.

The film’s timing could not be more topical. Director and co-writer, Fede Alvarez, has gifted us with a new feminist superhero. She is one of mental and emotional intelligence, independence and strength. As the intricate web of her past unravels throughout the film, we see her flaws, her greatest fears and her past trauma; this is a picture of resilience in a world full of seemingly unmanageable injustice for women.

The Girl in the Spider’s Web discusses how we find ourselves stuck in the web of our own past. How, despite the strong pull of life’s traumas, we must continue to move forward. This film sends a strong message of hope for those who choose to make peace with the past and a rather bleak one for those who allow fear to shape the future.

Check out The Girl in the Spider’s Web in theaters November 9th!