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AWFJ Women On Film – Releasing October 28, 2009

Jennifer Merin , , , , ,
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AWFJ highlights films made by and about women:

Friday, October 2

  • Adventures of Power – Variance Films limited, NY
  • A Beautiful Life – New Films International limited NY – Writer Wendy Hammond adapted her stage play for the screen in “A Beautiful Life,” which opens only in New York. The drama featuring Debi Mazar, Dana Delaney, Bai Ling and Angela Sarafyan in leading roles, is about a female teen who runs away from her family and forms some unusual friendships.
  • Whip It – Fox Searchlight, 111 mins. – Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut “Whip It” stars Ellen Page as a rebellious Texas teenager who rejects the refined realm of beauty pageants and skates and takes on the rough-and-tumble of roller derby. Co-stars Juliette Lewis and Kristen Wiig play butt-kicking teammates and Marcia Gay Hardin rounds out the strong female cast as mom. Shauna Cross wrote this sports-action-dramedy.
  • St. Trinian’s – NeoClassics Films, 97 mins., limited – Pushed back from its original September release, “St. Trinian’s” is a girls’ school comedy in which an unorthodox headmistress and her unconventional students come up with creative fast-cash schemes to keep their beloved but bankrupt school open. They also thwart bureaucratic efforts to change its liberal ambience. Mischa Barton stars.
  • Zombieland – Columbia Pictures – “Zombieland,” a hilariously funny shock-and-horror spoof. It includes fabulously feisty performances by Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin, playing sisters whose wiles and undying loyalty to each other give them a leg up on the undead as well as on their co-stars, Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson.
  • Capitalism: A Love Story – Overture Films, 120 mins., opens wide
  • The Invention of Lying – Warner Bros, 100 mins.
  • More Than a Game – Lionsgate, 105 mins.
  • A Serious Man – Focus Features, 105 mins., limited
  • Toy Story & Toy Story 2 in 3D – Walt Disney Pictures, 81 mins. & 92 mins, rerelease as double bill in select theaters.
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Jennifer Merin

Jennifer Merin is the Film Critic for Womens eNews and contributes the CINEMA CITIZEN blog for and is managing editor for Women on Film, the online magazine of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, of which she is President. She has served as a regular critic and film-related interviewer for The New York Press and About.com. She has written about entertainment for USA Today, The L.A. Times, US Magazine, Ms. Magazine, Endless Vacation Magazine, Daily News, New York Post, SoHo News and other publications. After receiving her MFA from Tisch School of the Arts (Grad Acting), Jennifer performed at the O'Neill Theater Center's Playwrights Conference, Long Wharf Theater, American Place Theatre and LaMamma, where she worked with renown Japanese director, Shuji Terayama. She subsequently joined Terayama's theater company in Tokyo, where she also acted in films. Her journalism career began when she was asked to write about Terayama for The Drama Review. She became a regular contributor to the Christian Science Monitor after writing an article about Marketta Kimbrell's Theater For The Forgotten, with which she was performing at the time. She was an O'Neill Theater Center National Critics' Institute Fellow, and then became the institute's Coordinator. While teaching at the Universities of Wisconsin and Rhode Island, she wrote "A Directory of Festivals of Theater, Dance and Folklore Around the World," published by the International Theater Institute. Denmark's Odin Teatret's director, Eugenio Barba, wrote his manifesto in the form of a letter to "Dear Jennifer Merin," which has been published around the world, in languages as diverse as Farsi and Romanian. Jennifer's culturally-oriented travel column began in the LA Times in 1984, then moved to The Associated Press, LA Times Syndicate, Tribune Media, Creators Syndicate and (currently) Arcamax Publishing. She's been news writer/editor for ABC Radio Networks, on-air reporter for NBC, CBS Radio and, currently, for Westwood One's America In the Morning. She is a member of the Critics Choice Association in the Film, Documentary and TV branches and a voting member of the Black Reel Awards. For her AWFJ archive, type "Jennifer Merin" in the Search Box (upper right corner of screen).

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