ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

Female Film Critics 24/375

News Women on Film 

AWFJ Women On Film – Releasing January 14 and 15, 2010

Jennifer Merin , , , , , , ,
0 Flares 0 Flares ×

AWFJ highlights films made by and about women:

Thursday, January 14

  • Bran Nue Dae – Mayfan, 88 mins, limited – Rachel Perkins directed and co-wrote this Australian coming of age musical comedy about a boy who runs away from home, only to find his way back to it.

Friday, January 15

  • 44 Inch Chest – Image Entertainment, 95 mins., limited LA, followed by NY, DC, San Diego on January 29
  • The Book of Eli – Warner Bros, 118 mins.
  • Fish Tank – IFC Films, 122 mins, limited – Andrea Arnold directs this coming of age drama about a rebellious British Midlands working class teenage girl who has a rough encounter with her mother’s new boyfriend. Katie Jarvis is garnering a lot of attention for her portrayal of the girl.
  • Hoodwinked 2: Hood vs. Evil – Weinstein Co. – This time, the animated Red Riding Hood is training in the group of Sister Hoods, when she and the Wolf are called to examine the sudden mysterious disappearance of Hansel and Gretel.
  • The Last Station – Sony Pictures Classics, 112 mins., limited NY, LA – The drama about the elder years of Leon Tolstoy features a marvelous performance by Helen Mirren as Sofya Tolstoy, the very dramatic wife of the great Russian author.
  • The Lovely Bones – Paramount Pictures, 135 mins., wide release) – With screenplay by Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, and based on Alice Sebold’s best-selling novel, the film is about a murdered girl who watches her family’s response to her death from heaven. Starring Rachel Weisz, Saoirse Ronan and Susan Sarandon.
  • The Spy Next Door – Lionsgate, 92 mins.
0 Flares Twitter 0 Facebook 0 0 Flares ×

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).