Maid of Honor
2022 · 6m · United States
Directed by Jessica McHaugh
Genres: comedy, coming-of-age, drama
Tones: contemplative, tender
When chosen as maid of honor for her best friend’s wedding, Tasha is forced to try on traditional dresses that don’t fit her identity — and confront what womanhood is supposed to look like.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A coming-of-age film about dress codes and identity sounds like every festival circuit cliché—except McHaugh seems genuinely uninterested in resolving it, which is the only reason it doesn't collapse into inspirational pablum.
McHaugh works in the lineage of tender feminist cinema that trusts the audience to sit with discomfort; the restraint here—letting the wedding's formal rituals do the thematic work—shows real curatorial control.
The genius move is how the film never cuts away during the dressing scenes themselves; that sustained, unflinching eye on the physical mismatch between body and expectation is what makes six minutes feel like a full reckoning.