In Anna Kendrick’s “Woman of the Hour,” a chilling, based-on-a-true-story drama about when a 1970s serial killer appeared on an episode of “The Dating Game,” one of the most telling images isn’t a

Anna Kendrick’s ‘’Woman of the Hour’’ is a sometimes awkwardly plotted but consistently insightful thriller about the anxiety of the female experience.

The main reason for that is Anna Kendrick, who makes a formidable, clear-eyed directorial debut in addition to playing Bradshaw. Using plenty of her own career experiences, Kendrick presents Bradshaw’s story as a grimly common one of pervasive,

That simply cannot be true” is the reaction many will have to the narrative centerpiece of Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut, “Woman of the Hour.” And yet: On a 1978 episode of “The Dating Game,” one of the “eligible bachelors” was a serial killer in the midst of a murder spree.