Tag: greta gerwig

The Women Who Did Get Nominated for Oscars

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There’s been a lot of talk about who didn’t get nominated for the Oscars and should have, and while I’m as disappointed as anyone that Greta Gerwig didn’t get a director nod, she did get nominated for best adapted screenplay, and her costume designer, Jacqueline Durran, was nominated as well. So those are two women that I’m rooting for. (In fact I wrote a review that is pretty much an argument for why Gerwig should win for best adaptation.)

Looking over the other nominations, I noticed the usual gender breakdown, with a lot of women in the art department, but hardly any in the cinematography, special effects, and editing categories — though I was happy to see that this blog’s namesake, Thelma Schoonmaker, was nominated for editing The Irishman.

Here are some other women to watch for this weekend. This isn’t a comprehensive list of all the female nominees (though it’s close), just the nominees whose work I am familiar with from the past year in movies . . .

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Gerwig’s Wonderfully Literary Adaptation is Unexpectedly Faithful to the Original — Including the Ending

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JO

I have friends who cried their way through Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, and I expected that I would, too, but I spent much of my first viewing in a state of mild agitation. I had re-read the novel a few days before seeing the film, and was distracted as I tried to figure out the mechanics of Gerwig’s complex temporal structure. Little Women was originally published as two books: Little Women and Good Wives, and Gerwig braids together these two volumes, going back and forth between past and present. As with Gerwig’s debut feature Lady Bird, the pace is galloping. Not only are there two separate timelines, Gerwig cuts rapidly between characters and locations within each timeline.

Read the rest over at The Common . . .

December Trailers Round Up

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I trust everyone knows that December will bring us Greta Gerwig’s version of Little Women. But there are four more women-directed movies coming our way next month:

Litte Joe  Writer & Dir. Jessica Hausner – December 6
A Million Little Pieces  Dir. Sam Taylor-Johnson – December 6
Portrait of a Lady on Fire  Writer & Dir. Céline Sciamma – December 6
Clemency  Writer & Dir. Chinonye Chukwu – December 27
Little Women  Writer & Dir. Greta Gerwig – December 25

Trailers after the jump . . .

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Revisiting Frances Ha

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Frances-Ha-6

I re-watched Frances Ha the other night and it’s as fresh as a daisy despite being made seven years ago. I was a little worried that it wouldn’t hold up because I remembered its plot as being somewhat slight, focused on the travails of Frances Ha (Greta Gerwig) a late-blooming twenty-something who hasn’t quite figured out her path in life — or as she puts it, “I’m not a real person yet.” In our exhausting, post-Trump world, where we seem constantly to be in the midst of environmental and human rights catastrophes, I wasn’t sure the story would feel urgent enough. But I forgot how funny and self-aware this movie is.

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9 Women-Directed Films I Can’t Wait to See in 2019

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I just updated my list of 2019 movies that are directed by women, and it gave me a chance to think about what movies to watch over the next few weeks–and also to get excited about what’s ahead for the year. So, here’s a preliminary last. Two of these, High Life and My Zoe are repeats from last year, because they didn’t end up being slated for release until this year–but I am still just as eager to see them. . .

sword

SWORD OF TRUST    Writer & Director: Lynn Shelton

This is an ensemble comedy, starring Marc Maron, Michaela Watkins, and Jon Bass among others. I like Shelton’s low-key movies, especially when she does comedy. I’m also a fan of Maron and his WTF podcast. So, I’m here for this one. In theaters March 8.


HIGH LIFE  Writer & Director: Claire Denis

This sci-fi movie is French director Claire Denis’s English-language feature film debut. It revolves around a group of prisoners who have been sent into deep space as a way to shorten their sentences. Apparently, Denis has been trying to make this movie since 2002 and wrote the screenplay with Philip Seymour Hoffman in mind. After Hoffman’s death in 2014, Robert Pattison signed on for the lead. I’m intrigued by the premise and the trailer is so creepy I couldn’t finish watching. In theaters April 12.

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Female Representation at the Oscars

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ladybird

So, as has been widely reported, this is the first time in 8 YEARS that a woman, Greta Gerwig, has been nominated for best director, and only the fifth time that a woman has ever been nominated for best director. I loved “Lady Bird” and I’m really happy to see that it got so many nominations–especially its screenplay, which was so witty but also a total tearjerker. (The picture above pretty much sums up my mood while watching it.) Here’s a round up of women nominated in other categories (excluding acting): Continue reading “Female Representation at the Oscars” →