When the two-part documentary Phoenix Rising aired on HBO on March 15th and 16th 2022, I saw it and immediately wrote my review of part two, having already written my review of part one when I saw its premiere at Sundance over a month earlier. I didn't have much time to process it at the time, because it has a lot of information, and with limited space to write about it in a limited time, there was only so much you could address. After watching the documentary about 3 or 4 times, I realized I could easily write a book with all I had to say. Now that some time had passed since I last saw it, I just rewatched the documentary this past week on the anniversary of its premiere, and there were things that stood out to me that I didn't either capture a year ago or didn't have enough knowledge at the time to better comprehend. I will try to summarize my thoughts and observations into a list of ten things I wanted to address, though it could easily be more than ten, choosing five t
Evan Rachel Wood Coming Into 2019 As we entered 2019, Evan Rachel Wood continued her activist role as a self-proclaimed warrior fighting on behalf of all women, and she made sure all women knew this when she gave a stirring speech at the third annual Women's March on January 18th, where she said among other things: "When you are knocked down, you get back up. Keep getting back up. Now, women are really good at that. We’ve had a lot of practice. But we are tired. I’m tired. As a mother, as a rape survivor, as a domestic violence survivor, I am tired." Almost a few weeks later, Evan revealed in a Nylon essay she wrote that she had once committed herself to a mental hospital, specifically when she was 22 years old after a suicide attempt. A few days after publication, on February 2nd, the Daily Mail published an awkward article of Evan emerging from LAX in her first public appearance since writing that essay. Chronologically, her stay in the mental hospital coincides wi