Amid all the cultural debates about women’s struggles to be heard in Hollywood, over everything from onscreen representation to sexual abuse to open gender discrimination, Karyn Kusama’s name is one of the most visible, both because of her struggles in the industry, and because she’s so clearly managed to fight past them. After her breakout movie Girlfight — the muscular, uncompromising boxing movie that launched Michelle Rodriguez’s film career — Kusama fought for work and for recognition. Her second film, 2005’s Aeon Flux, was disastrously recut after a regime change at Paramount took control away from her and tried to repurpose her footage into a more conventional action film. Her 2009 dark horror-comedy Jennifer’s Body, written by...
