review for Female Perversions on AllMovie

Former Hollywood agent Susan Streitfeld's directorial debut is a fiercely intelligent sexual polemic on the insanity of gender roles in the modern world. Tilda Swinton is terrific as the aptly named Eve, a lawyer on her way up the ladder to high-powered success. Eve's life illustrates the film's thesis, that women are forced to play rather twisted roles, and succumb to these "perversions" to fill desperate needs. Eve is being torn apart by the conflicting demands she thinks she has to fulfill -- beauty, intelligence, sexuality, ruthlessness, tenderness...it becomes maddening. Streitfeld crams in a lot of ideas, showing other women who represent different images (marriage, sexploitation, self-loathing), and brings in child abuse, fantasy scenes, and the like. Perhaps it's too busy for only 119 minutes, but it's undeniably powerful, thought-provoking material. It may be too rough for some, but those with a taste for brutal honesty might consider a double feature with In the Company of Men for an evening of equal-opportunity cinematic hell.