Maggie Greenwald

A woman living as a man in a Western is a useful place to begin with Maggie Greenwald. The Ballad of Little Jo (1993) brings together her interest in women with restricted choices and her willingness to reconsider a familiar genre. She approaches the past through the details of daily life, without the sepia finish that can make hardship look inviting. That attention is the strongest reason to seek out her films.

Her early features include Home Remedy (1987), which she wrote and directed, and the Jim Thompson adaptation The Kill-Off (1989). The later Songcatcher (2000) turns to Appalachian music, a subject well suited to a director interested in the everyday customs of a community. Composer David Mansfield scored both that film and Sophie and the Rising Sun (2016), a romance set in 1941 which also concerns prejudice and female friendship. Greenwald’s care with ensemble performances matters as much as her period detail.

On television, Nashville (2012) has the convincing singing and strong central performances that can carry a wavering story. We cared about its central rivalry because Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere make the feeling behind it convincing. The crowded opening and unnecessary plot complications are the reasons our recommendation comes with a caveat. Greenwald directed one episode, “Ghost in This House”, in 2017; our affection for the series cannot simply be credited to her. Her work spans independent features, television films and episodic drama, but a series credit tells us less about her choices than the films she writes herself.

Songcatcher can grow stiff, while Sophie and the Rising Sun sometimes draws its characters and their conflicts too broadly. Greenwald’s ensemble work and attention to period detail are persuasive enough without the scripts pressing the point, and we would prefer her to trust them more. Start with The Ballad of Little Jo for a Western that makes a woman’s freedom its practical concern.