Women Are the Fiercest Creatures

Dunlop (We Came Here to Forget) follows two women whose ideas are exploited by a tech entrepreneur in this dramatic if simplistic outing. Jake Sarnoff is about to become a dad again with his much younger second wife Jessica, whom he started seeing while still married to Anna. Jake still flirts with Anna and relies on her for support and advice regarding his social media site, Strangers, which Anna helped create. In public, Jake pays a lot of lip service to the importance of family, but at home, he hardly lifts a finger. Meanwhile, Sam Flores-Walsh moves to town and founds a popular yoga studio that Jessica frequents, though she’s unaware that Sam is Jake’s ex and an uncredited cofounder of Strangers. Sam has been telling a reporter at the New York Times how Jake ran with her concept and cut her out of the company, though she’s worried she doesn’t have enough proof. Though Dunlop’s girl-power angle feels a bit stock (“A mother is capable of anything,” reads one of Sam’s Instagram posts; Anna and a friend clank wine glasses and shout “fuck the patriarchy”), she does a good job showing Jake’s slippery, selfish nature. There’s plenty to root for, but readers who prefer nuance should look elsewhere. (Mar.)