Personal Velocity: Three Portraits review

Why you can trust GamesRadar+ Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.

Based on a collection of short stories by writer/director Rebecca Miller (daughter of Arthur), Personal Velocity offers an intimate look at three women who are shaking up their lives.

In the first of these half-hour segments, a battered wife (Kyra Sedgwick) flees from her abusive husband; in the second, a New York editor (Parker Posey) starts an affair with a bestselling author; while the third sees a troubled twentysomething (Fairuza Balk) give a lift to a young runaway she meets on the road.

Each of the segments are well-structured short stories, building towards three very distinct climaxes, and each features faultless performances from their leading ladies. If there's any problem, it's that Miller's tales are still entangled in their literary roots, the pretentious voiceover reading straight from the page ("The damp underwear on the radiators gave off a stench of panic").

Nonetheless, this is a compelling, affecting drama, told in a strong female voice that refuses to be silenced.

The Total Film team are made up of the finest minds in all of film journalism. They are: Editor Jane Crowther, Deputy Editor Matt Maytum, Reviews Ed Matthew Leyland, News Editor Jordan Farley, and Online Editor Emily Murray. Expect exclusive news, reviews, features, and more from the team behind the smarter movie magazine.