When I read George Hamilton’s dishy descriptions of traveling with his ditsy socialite mother in his autobiography, “Don’t Mind If I Do” (2008), I thought she’d make a great Americana screen character. Obviously, so did screenwriter Charlie Peters and director Richard Loncraine. Because she’s is front-and-center in this lighthearted, nostalgic comedy that begins in the summer of 1953. Read more

AWFJ highlights films made by and about women Read more

Katherine Heigl would just shut up if she knew what was good for her (even if there are no decent roles for women in Hollywood), the value of female film critics, and Don Draper, the perfect imperfect man. Read more

Why, if we were nearing environmental sustainability thirty years ago, do we now find ourselves on the brink of ecological disaster? Earth Days chronicles successes of US environmental policies during the 1960s and 70s, and the collapse of the environmental movement during the Reagan administration. Read more>>

I hadn’t yet seen District 9 when I first met Sharlto Copley. I’d seen the trailer, of course, before I attended the pre-press screening reception with Copley and director Neill Blomkamp, but I didn’t instantly connect the handsome, vivacious man across the room with the awkward dork I’d seen in the film’s trailer. After speaking to Copley and seeing the film, I’m even more convinced: if he’s heading to stardom — and he certainly deserves to after the extraordinary performance he turns in in District 9 — Copley won’t get mobbed on the street. No one will recognize him. Read more

District 9 is one of the most anticipated movies of the year, even though we’ve never seen a movie from its director, Neill Blomkamp, before. Read more

AWFJ highlights films made by and about women: Read more

No girl critics allowed, no more chick flicks, and won’t someone please save us from male critics who don’t understand women? Read more

Charlyne Yi’s hybrid documentary, Paper Heart, has turned the young comic into an award winning filmmaker. Now she wants to come clean. After all, it’s one thing to stretch a few truths in her movie about looking for love. It’s another when it’s her actual life. Read more

Meryl Streep plays Julia Child in Julie & Julia, Nora Ephron’s sweet and spicy adaptation of the memoirs of two women whose obsession with food changed their lives. Streep’s Julia is a perfectly divine souffle. Read more