Does The New Helen Reddy Biopic Do The Australian Icon Justice?

When you think about the global impact of Helen Reddy and her career, it’s kind of surprising that it’s taken until 2020 for a film about her life to be released. 

Near on 50 years since the release of her seminal track, I Am Woman, comes the film of the same name. 

It's a tale more than worthy of telling too - the story of the Australian singer who would move to the United States and write a song that defined a movement. Director Unjoo Moon and screenplay writer Emma Jensen tell it beautifully too. 

Released on streaming service Stan today, here's why I Am Woman should be added to your 'must watch' list.

Cobham-Hervey

Considering that Reddy grew up in a 'showbiz' family situation, it feels fitting that the woman who portrays her is kind of the same, with actress Tilda Cobham-Hervey's parents working in production and dance. 

"I definitely knew her song, I Am Woman. I didn’t know a lot more than that. I’m so thrilled that I got to learn a whole lot more about her over this process," Cobham-Hervey told Billboard around the film's Toronto International Film Festival debut. 

"I now am her biggest fan and I could probably start a museum, I’ve done enough research on her. That’s what’s really interesting, is that not a lot of people in my generation know a lot about her life. But that being said, her song I Am Woman, the words are on most placards at any women’s march. Her story is so incredible, and to look back and honor all the amazing work she did, and what she did for women and just the music industry in general. I mean, she had four gold records in a year. She was the first Australian to win a Grammy, and people don’t know that. So it feels like a really lovely thing to be able to share that."

The film starts with a young Reddy and her three-year-old daughter arriving in New York in the early '60s, with her expected recording deal falling through. Barely minutes into the film, Reddy's character is met with lines like “Is that a religious thing or diet? I know how you ladies like to look your best…" when asked why she won't accept a cocktail, or the insinuation that surely her failed marriage couldn't have been due to anything more than just a simple forgotten birthday or the like - ya know, just girl stuff (*insert eye roll here please*). It's clear from the start that the film is angling itself to show how Reddy's hit came to be. 

Soon after we see the introduction of the man that would become both her husband and manager, Jeff Wald (played by American actor Evan Peters, pictured below), and music journalist and best friend Lillian Roxon (portrayed by Australian Danielle Macdonald). 

These characters are as key to the story as Reddy herself, with the real life Wald and Roxon holding legacies as legendary as Reddy's in their own right. Wald, in addition to managing Reddy's career, would go to on manage the likes of Sylvester Stallone, Donna Summer, Crosby, Stills & Nash and more. The management side wasn't all that earned Wald attention though; Hollywood producer Julia Phillip alleged in her 1991 memoir You'll Never Eat Lunch In This Town Again that Wald spent some $40 million of Reddy's music career earnings on cocaine (so much so that he once had to undergo a six hour emergency surgery to fix a literally 'bugging out' eye...). 

Roxon earned herself the name "Mother Of Rock" for a damn good reason. One of Australia's first internationally renowned music journalists, it was Roxon who Reddy credited as sparking the I Am Woman flame following her story about the 50th anniversary women’s suffrage rally in the US which saw 25,000 women march for equality. "This is the hardest piece I have ever had to write in my life … I am supposed to be telling it briskly and factually and without bias. Fat chance. I’m so biased, I can hardly think straight," she wrote in the report. "Mainly, I think, what women want is to be taken seriously. Being a woman has always been a bit of joke. Women don’t even take one another seriously." 

Cobham-Hervey & Macdonald

"I wanted people to know she was more than just another singer," said Roxon about why she wrote the liner notes for Reddy's debut album, in a recording titled Have You Discovered Helen Reddy Yet in the National Film & Sound Archive Of Australia. 

The film goes on to reference all of these points - plus Roxon's Rock Encyclopedia - a credit to a woman who was pioneer for her time. So important was Roxon and her work that a documentary about her life premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival back in 2010, with the likes of Iggy Pop, Germaine Greer, Danny Fields, Alice Cooper and more making appearances in it no less. Macdonald's I Am Woman portrayal of Roxon is a credit to her. 

You might spot a few more familiar faces throughout the film too - comedian, actress and singer Jordan Raskopoulos picks up significant screen time as George Slyvia, while Gareth Davies (Little Monsters, The Letdown) is credited as New York Journalist. If you look closely too you'll spot ARIA Award-winning producer Adrian Breakspear as a studio engineer. 

The film's detail is well worth noting too - there's mentions of The Easybeats, Wald's time with Deep Purple and more - and it's these points that help sell just how influential Reddy, Wald and Roxon's work was in music history. Stick around for the end too where you'll get to hear Reddy's real-life granddaughter make her own contribution to the soundtrack too. 

While there's parts of the film I'm not 100% sold on, ultimately it's a pretty close portrayal of a music and second-wave feminist icon that truly deserves it. And that in itself deserves celebration. 

I Am Woman hits Stan today.