Kerry Ann Enright’s Nobody Wants to Shoot a Woman is a noir crime drama with a feminist pulse and a Brooklyn soul. It opens with a funeral and a woman named Mary staring blankly at her husband’s body as other mourners surround her. The Lord’s Prayer is recited while her son stands beside her. She reaches out and clutches a white rose. That image alone tells us we’re entering not just a crime story, but a slow-burning, emotionally complex portrait of survival.
What follows is a story that plays out like a smoky blend of Wanda, Goodfellas, and a bruised domestic drama. In many ways, it’s a film about power- who has it, who abuses it, and what a woman has to do to take it back.
Mary is not your typical noir heroine. She starts as a housewife, grateful when her husband, John, surprises her with a house. “It’s not a mansion like you deserve,” he says. “But the chips are up.” There’s tenderness in their dynamic - until there isn’t. When Mary’s new neighbor, Louise, brings a fern as a housewarming gift, Mary’s surprise says it all. She’s not used to this kind of care.
From the outset, Mary is surrounded by male violence - subtle at first, then increasingly overt. John, as it turns out, is a criminal. A robbery sequence makes this clear: he’s aggressive, in control, flanked by two hot-headed partners. One of them, Sean, threatens a bank teller by name, a misstep that sends John into a spiral. “I can’t work with you,” he snaps, drunk and paranoid. “Take your shit and fuck off.”
John returns home not just angry but violent. After what appears to be rough, but consensual sex, Mary wakes up with bruises. He asks her if she’s okay. She says she’s “tough.” He offers a limp apology. This becomes a repeated occurrence: him hurting, her absorbing. The film is subtle in how it maps the abuse - not just physical, but emotional, psychological. Mary is minimized and touched in ways that feel invasive and demeaning. Her voice is constantly talked over. She’s slapped on the ass by John after their arguments, repeated like punctuation - a symbol of casual control. She tries to keep it hidden from the people around her, but it’s still noticeable.
But Nobody Wants to Shoot a Woman isn’t about Mary staying a victim. It’s about the slow and painful process of her reclaiming autonomy. Mary begins to see the consequences of her silence, not just for herself, but for other women. Louise, suffering from her own abusive marriage, tells her, “They do whatever they want. And if they fall, we suffer.” That line cuts to the heart of the film’s thesis. These men live recklessly. The women are left to pick up the pieces - or be broken by them.
Things get real when John is shot just outside of their home. Staring at the casket of her husband, Mary is now confronted with the choices she has before her. How will she continue supporting her family?
Visually, the film embraces its 1970s influences. Shot with gritty realism, often handheld and closely framed, it echoes the rawness of Cassavetes and the streetwise cool of early Scorsese. Brooklyn isn’t just a backdrop—it’s a breathing character, worn and alive, echoing with sirens, cheap wine, and domestic struggle.
Nobody Wants to Shoot a Woman is a film about what happens when someone who’s been sidelined for too long decides to rewrite the rules. It’s noir, it’s feminist, and it’s unflinching. Mary might be down when we meet her - but she walks away on her own terms.
And that, in this world, is a revolution.
Nobody Wants to Shoot a Woman screens at the Summer 2025 New Jersey Film Festival on Sunday, June 8th. The film will be Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 7 PM in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ. Director Kerry Ann Enright will be on hand to do a Q+A with the in-person audience! Tickets are available for purchase here.
The 30th annual New Jersey International Film Festival will be taking place between May 30-June 13, 2025. The Festival will be a hybrid one as we will be presenting it online as well as doing select in-person screenings at Rutgers University. All the films will be available virtually via Video on Demand for 24 hours on their show date. VOD start times are at 12 Midnight Eastern USA. Each General Admission Ticket or Festival Pass purchased is good for both the virtual and the in-person when both are offered. Plus, we are very proud to announce that acclaimed singer-songwriter Mike Kovacs will be doing an audio-visual concert on Friday, June 13 at 7PM! The in-person screenings and the Mike Kovacs concert will be held in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ beginning at 5PM or 7PM on their show date. General Admission Ticket=$15 Per Program; Festival All Access Pass=$120; In-Person Only Student Ticket=$10 Per Program.
For more info go here: https://2025newjerseyinternationalfilmfestival.eventive.org/welcome
