True to “My Life on the Road,” the 2015 autobiography that director Julie Taymor uses for inspiration, a good portion of the film takes place in Greyhounds and train cars, their wheels a rolling throughline linking past with present. It’s not uncommon to find two performers cast as the same character at various stages of life; here, the plurality of the title refers to the quartet (Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Lulu Wilson, Alicia Vikander, and Julianne Moore) engaged to play the author, activist, and co-founder of Ms. magazine. Taymor’s directorial sleight-of-hand is so gracefully executed that it helps to take one’s mind off the occasional lack of common sense required to justify character behavior. The infrequent fits of surrealism — those patentable bursts of oversaturated Technicolor phantasma that contributed to the eyegasmic memorableness of Taymor’s Titus and Frida — here seem out of place. Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto (Babel, The Wolf of Wall Street) is decidedly up for the challenge, but Ms. Steinem comes off as a person too grounded in principles to fan fumes of fancy. We end in the back of the bus; a long slow pullback reveals the quartet of Glorias mixing with other cast members as they all appear to enjoy a rolling wrap party. The shot ends on Ms. Steinem who, instead of occupying the front seat, should have been at the wheel. (2020) — Scott Marks
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