On tap: Not all women see themselves in romantic comedies, how to be fat and ugly in Hollywood, and the inevitable and imminent arrival of the young buck in love with Grandma… Read more

After you see this film–and it is essential that you do–you will never again approach nutrition in the same way. Not only will you eschew fast foods, you’ll find it difficult to find any foods that are readily available in popular outlets to be appealing, nutritious and healthful. Read more>>

Never underestimate the pleasure of a screwball comedy, that ephemeral inspiration involving a reversal of the usual sexual roles. Thus, the woman is the arrogant, ambitious, potent personality, while the man is the self-deprecating ‘victim’ of her demands. Eventually, after a predicament, she gets ‘humbled’ as love prevails. The challenge is to find an actress who can be gleefully funny and glamorous at the same time…someone like earthy, exuberant Sandra Bullock, a master of physical farce and comic timing. Read more

Under Our Skin is a gripping documentary primer about the devastating bacterial affliction known as Lyme disease Read more>>

The very pretty, ever popular Evan Rachel Wood has been acting since she was seven. Now, at age 21, she’s coming of age in her first comedy, “Whatever Works,” written and directed by the one and only Woody Allen. Read more

After fleeing to London and Barcelona for film financing, Woody Allen’s back in Manhattan where he belongs, reviving a screenplay he first wrote more than 30 years ago for Zero Mostel. After Mostel’s death, Allen shelved the script but decided to retool it specifically to fit the talents of Larry David (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”). Read more

Producer/writer/director Harold Ramis’ supposed satire on Hollywood’s staple of Old Testament adaptations turns out to be more of an Abbott-and-Costello-like buddy movie that wallows in tasteless, crude, vulgar humor revolving around bodily functions.

Back when the Neanderthals ruled the huts and caves, the accident-prone hunter Zed (Jack Black) violates tribal law by eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge and the geeky gatherer Oh (Michael Cera) gets enveloped by a deadly snake. Having proven themselves inept at even the most rudimentary survival skills, they’re banished from their village. After crossing the mountains and wandering in the desert, these bickering, blithering idiots witness Cain (David Cross) quarreling with and killing his brother Abel (Paul Rudd), not once but several times, and prevent circumcision-obsessed Abraham (Hank Azaria) from sacrificing his son Isaac (Christopher Mintz-Plasse a.k.a. McLovin from “Superbad”). Eventually, they make their way to the sin city of Sodom – “What transpires within the confines of Sodom stays within the confines of Sodom” – where they must rescue two of their tribe’s most nubile nymphs, Maya (June Raphael) and Eema (Juno Temple), from a vengeful king (Xander Berkeley).

“When do you think the smiting’s gonna go down?” one asks. Not soon enough.
Written - probably in papyrus - by the pagan Ramis along with the TV-trained team of Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg (“The Office”), the script tastelessly mocks both superstition and organized religion with irreverent skits involving the reading of entrails and a hairy Sodomite high priest (Oliver Platt) with a penchant for hot oil massages. Moving at a glacially ponderous pace, it’s inexcusably gross, culminating with the usual closing-credit ‘outtakes.’ While Jack Black’s overt comedy works well in certain circumstances, he’s not a good foil for Michael Cera’s fey facade of insecurity. Perhaps the greatest conundrum is how this offensively raunchy mess got a PG-13 rating from the MPAA. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Year One” is an unfunny, repulsive 1. Thou shalt avoid it like the plague – at least until the dvd is released.

The Alliance of Women Film Journalists highlights films made by and about women Read more

Men, bless their blindered little hearts, really, really don’t get it, but at least cable TV loves strong women. Read more

Jessica Biel has such a contemporary sensibility that casting her in Noel Coward’s 1920s comedy-of-manners-and-morals is more than a fish-out-of-water, it’s a feminist-out-of-century. Read more