Wanda

Wanda (1970) is Barbara Loden's crime drama, available to watch online on iFILM. It was her directing debut and her only feature, with Loden herself in the lead. Her heroine drifts through the coal country of Pennsylvania with no money, no plan, and no illusions left.

Wanda walks out on her husband and kids almost without emotion — in the divorce court she simply hands them to their father. What follows is aimless wandering: cheap motels, passing men, one small humiliation after another. In a bar she latches onto a jumpy petty crook named Mr. Dennis (Michael Higgins), who drags her into the setup for a bank robbery. Loden shot on 16mm with nonprofessional actors and a handheld camera, so the result feels closer to a document than a staged film.

The movie took the International Critics' Prize at the Venice Film Festival and was later restored by Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation and folded into the Criterion Collection. For decades people called it a lost landmark of American independent cinema. It's slow, uneasy, and unsparingly honest about a woman left with no good options, and viewers hoping for redemption won't get any. Stream Wanda (1970) online on iFILM.