‘The Glorias’: Julie Taymor’s Gloria Steinem Biopic Will Stream On Amazon Next Month
Since directing 2007’s operatic, Beatles-inspired musicalAcross the Universe, filmmakerJulie Taymorhas only directed two movies: 2010’sThe Tempest, and a filmed version of her stage showJulie Taymor’s A Midsummer Night’s Dreamin 2014. Now she’s back withThe Glorias, a biopic of feminist icon Gloria Steinem which starsJulianne Moore,Alicia Vikander,Janelle Monáe, and more.
The film, like so many others over the past few months, was originally slated for a theatrical release, but amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Amazon Prime Video has scooped up the movie and will make it available for audiences to stream starting next month.
The Gloriaspremiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in January, and was originally supposed to hit theaters on August 21, 2025. But according toEntertainment Weekly, plans have changed: the movie will now stream exclusively on Amazon Prime Video in North America and will be available for purchase on all electronic platforms starting onSeptember 30,2020.
An official trailer has not been released yet, but here’s a detailed description of the movie courtesy of the Sundance Film Festival’s program guide:
Journalist, fighter, and feminist Gloria Steinem is an indelible icon known for her world-shaping activism, her guidance of the revolutionary women’s movement, and her writing that has impacted generations. In this nontraditional biopic, against the backdrop of a lonely bus on an open highway, five Glorias trace Steinem’s influential journey to prominence—from her time in India as a young woman, to the founding ofMs.magazine in New York, to her role in the rise of the women’s rights movement in the 1960s and beyond.
In her hotly anticipated new film, Julie Taymor (Frida,Across the Universe) brings her signature inventiveness and audacity to craft a complex tapestry of one of the most iconic and legendary figures of modern history, based on Steinem’s own memoirMy Life on the Road. Remarkable performances by Julianne Moore and Alicia Vikander steer an engaging cast with strong supporting turns from Janelle Monáe andBette Midler. Taymor makes her own rules in this dazzling ode to self-reflection, exploring the importance of forging your own path and embracing the challenge of the open road.
The film, which was shot before we discovered who would win the 2016 presidential election, evidently still manages to speak to our modern political and cultural landscape. In a post-screening Q&A at Sundance, Steinem explained how she hoped this movie would be released before this year’s presidential election to inspire people to get out there and vote. Even though it’s skipping theaters, that hope is still coming true.
