Thelma Adams on Reel Women

Thelma Adams on Reel Women

How Actresses Can Save the Movie Industry for Women

by Thelma Adams on May 7 2012
How Actresses Can Save the Movie Industry for Women
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." 

Thomas Edison is not the first person I think of when it comes to advice for women, but this one rang true. Women, we know, are not afraid to work. But often, particularly in the film industry, women function as support staff. They work in development (the "D-girls"), or as agents, publicists, casting agents, executive assistants, designers. The women who currently have the most potential to change the face of the movies we watch are the most familiar faces -- the actresses who can use their star-power currency to "fund" projects. 

Some actresses vote with their choices of roles; some create their own production companies; and some step up behind the camera. Here are three who have made great strides for women in movies by bringing terrific and varied female images to the screen.
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Thelma Adams on Reel Women

She's Hot, He's Not -- It Must Be Love

by Thelma Adams on Apr 30 2012
She's Hot, He's Not -- It Must Be Love
We have gotten so used to the male-female beauty imbalance in life and movies that we hardly remark about it anymore. It's so Beauty and the Beast.

The idea that a far-more-attractive woman is thrilled to be with a far-less-attractive man just seems intrinsically obvious to us. But why? Maybe it's one of women's superpowers: seeing the inner beauty in men, even when men don't have that same ability.
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Thelma Adams on Reel Women

What Does Cannes Have Against Women Directors?

by Thelma Adams on Apr 23 2012
What Does Cannes Have Against Women Directors?
No one ever claimed that women had bridged the director's-chair gender gap, but it's a complete kick in the can that this year's Cannes Film Festival has not a single female-directed film among the 23 in competition.

I love contenders like David Cronenberg, whose Cosmopolis -- starring Robert Pattinson -- has been welcomed into the competition, and who headed the Cannes jury in 1999. I was a champion of his cerebral period drama A Dangerous Method, which had a terrific star turn by Keira Knightley. But, really, not a single film by a woman? I'm just gobsmacked.
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Thelma Adams on Reel Women

That's Not Funny! Why Comedy Is Different for Men and Women

by Thelma Adams on Apr 16 2012
That's Not Funny! Why Comedy Is Different for Men and Women
Am I too dumb, or too over-educated, or just not wired the right way to get The Three Stooges? I can never remember the trio's first names, even though I could identify the Pep Boys (Manny, Moe, & Jack) and all the Marx Brothers, even Zeppo. I never found the Stooges funny. All that aggressive slapstick made me wince. Is it a girl thing?
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Thelma Adams on Reel Women

5 Movie Characters That Changed the Way We View Women

by Thelma Adams on Apr 2 2012
5 Movie Characters That Changed the Way We View Women
Movies change how we think. They shape how we view ourselves, each other, and the world around us. But which female movie characters changed the way Americans view women?

Sometimes they shake the culture at large; sometimes they change an individual point of view. The characters which opened doors at different part of my life didn't necessarily do the same thing for you. But they were the touchstones that shaped my aspirations as a child, college student, job seeker, mother, and wife as I navigated my own life story.

Here's my list. What's yours?
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Thelma Adams on Reel Women

What "The Hunger Games" Owes to Milla Jovovich, Kate Beckinsale, and Sigourney Weaver

by Thelma Adams on Mar 26 2012
What "The Hunger Games" Owes to Milla Jovovich, Kate Beckinsale, and Sigourney Weaver
With all the buzz surrounding The Hunger Games and the anticipation for its three sequels to come, there's been plenty of shock and awe that a female-driven action movie has this kind of box office clout. And while some (like Melissa Silverstein on the must-read Women and Hollywood blog) have asked whether The Hunger Games will be the first real female franchise, I have a definitive answer: No. It can't be. Because it's not the first.
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Thelma Adams on Reel Women

What Your Daughter (and You) Can Learn from "The Hunger Games"

by Thelma Adams on Mar 19 2012
What Your Daughter (and You) Can Learn from "The Hunger Games"
When my 12-year-old daughter introduced me to The Hunger Games last year, I was immediately hooked. Suzanne Collins's dystopian trilogy has been a huge bestseller for tweens, teens, and their parents; critics and fans alike are already predicting that the movies will be the next Twilight or Harry Potter. And unlike those two series, at its core is an unapologetically powerful female hero.
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Thelma Adams on Reel Women

"Friends with Kids" and More Female-Helmed Movies to Watch For

by Thelma Adams on Mar 5 2012
"Friends with Kids" and More Female-Helmed Movies to Watch For
With the Oscars behind us and a clean slate ahead, it's time to preview some of the female-directed feature films coming our way in 2012. From comedies to action movies, small budgets to big, here are a few that caught our eye on the festival circuit and beyond -- including one opening this Friday.

Friends with Kids (March 9)
Jennifer Westfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein) writes and directs this R-rated anti-Apatow comedy that got lots of buzz at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall. Starring Westfeldt (making her directorial debut), Jon Hamm (her real-life partner), Adam Scott, Maya Rudolph, Ed Burns, and a host of Hollywood thirty-to-fortysomethings, it focuses on couples trying to keep their sex lives hopping once they start having kids. The sitcommy premise is that Los Angeles besties Julie (Westfeldt) and Jason (Scott) decide to have kids together in an impossibly open relationship. Hilarity -- and conflict -- ensue.
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Thelma Adams on Reel Women

Oscar Snubs - This Year's Overlooked Leading Ladies

by Thelma Adams on Feb 20 2012
Oscar Snubs - This Year's Overlooked Leading Ladies

With the Academy Awards rapidly approaching, we have become collectively obsessed with Viola versus Meryl -- not to mention Michelle, Glenn, and Rooney. But there are actresses whose impressive performances should have been -- but aren't -- part of this conversation. The most talked-about of these is certainly Tilda Swinton's in We Need to Talk About Kevin. But a few others warranted consideration by the Academy -- and by more viewers. For example ...

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Thelma Adams on Reel Women

Sundance Report: Empowered Women in "Smashed," "The Surrogate," and "Middle of Nowhere"

by Thelma Adams on Feb 6 2012
Sundance Report: Empowered Women in "Smashed," "The Surrogate," and "Middle of Nowhere"

Strong women were everywhere at Sundance last week -- and they flourished in three of the festival's standouts: Smashed, The Surrogate, and Middle of Nowhere. What's perhaps most interesting is that these women are in more traditional "caretaker" roles, not "I-am-woman-hear-me-roar" ones -- and yet they manage to prevail, to care not only for the men around them but also, ultimately, for themselves and their own narratives.

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Thelma Adams on Reel Women

Women on Top: Directors Angelina Jolie, Madonna, and Vera Farmiga

by Thelma Adams on Jan 23 2012
Women on Top: Directors Angelina Jolie, Madonna, and Vera Farmiga
Being a director means having power. And in the past year, three women already famous for being performers -- Angelina Jolie, Vera Farmiga, and Madonna -- claimed some of that power for themselves by stepping behind the camera, with varying degrees of success.

With In the Land of Blood and Honey, Higher Ground, and W.E., Jolie, Farmiga and Madonna made three very different movies, for very different audiences. The unifying factor? In all three movies, complex women owned the story arcs -- still a far-too-unusual occurrence in Hollywood.
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Thelma Adams on Reel Women

Unwitting Feminist: Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady"

by Thelma Adams on Dec 26 2011
Unwitting Feminist: Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady"
Meryl Streep has been raking in awards and nominations for her performance as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. But accolades for best picture, best director, or best script? Zip.

That's the conventional wisdom on The Iron Lady: Streep deserves the Oscar for playing the British Prime Minister, but director Phyllida Lloyd does not craft a movie equal to the performance. That's typically when someone snorts that Lloyd also directed the critically panned Mamma Mia! Reality check:
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Top Ten

Top 10 Most Memorable Movie Moms of 2011

by Thelma Adams on Dec 12 2011
Top 10 Most Memorable Movie Moms of 2011
Who doesn't have their favorite movie mothers? A lot of folks look no further than Mommie Dearest and Faye Dunaway's devil-in-tweased-eyebrows take on Joan Crawford. My personal favorite is Albert Brooks's Mother, because I like my acidic worldview with a heaping side of Jewish humor, and no one beats Debbie Reynolds as his overbearing, self-involved mamaleh.

This year offered plenty of memorable mothers in movies. Here are our Top 10:
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Thelma Adams on Reel Women

Naked Girls!: Carey Mulligan in "Shame," Kirsten Dunst in "Melancholia," and Kristen Stewart in "Twilight"

by Thelma Adams on Nov 28 2011
Naked Girls!: Carey Mulligan in "Shame," Kirsten Dunst in "Melancholia," and Kristen Stewart in "Twilight"
Write a post about actress Carey Mulligan stripping naked in Shame and suddenly you're in search-engine heaven: Carey Mulligan naked, Carey Mulligan nude, Carey Mulligan nudity Shame. It's the gift that keeps on giving. Pretty, naked girls stop traffic on the street, and drive traffic on the web, and to the movie theater.
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Thelma Adams on Reel Women

George Clooney in "The Descendants": Being Mr. Mom Isn't Easy

by Thelma Adams on Nov 14 2011
George Clooney in The Descendants: Being Mr. Mom Isn't Easy
Remember the famous line about Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, "Sure he was great, but don't forget Ginger Rogers did everything he did backwards ... and in high heels"? Keep that in mind while enjoying Alexander Payne's The Descendants, in which disaffected dad George Clooney finds himself by sliding into his wife's shoes.

Even as the balance between working parents gradually shifts in America, and co-parenting becomes the hard-won norm, on the screen it tends to be a big deal when mom disappears and suddenly dad has to tie on her apron. Mom sacrifices her life to awaken dad's inner parent -- it's so Bambi!
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Thelma Adams on Reel Women

Scary! The Real Women of "Paranormal Activity 3"

by Thelma Adams on Oct 31 2011
Scary! The Real Women of "Paranormal Activity 3"

When I saw the first Paranormal Activity in 2007, I loved the haunted-condo horror. I grew up in Southern California watching The Addams Family and believing the supernatural, like the Salem Witch trials, happened to other people, in older places. We had sunshine even when the rest of the world had cloudy days.

Paranormal Activity turned that sense of suburban safety on its head.
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Thelma Adams on Reel Women

Why Do We Need More Women Directors?

by Thelma Adams on Oct 10 2011
Why Do We Need More Women Directors? Nancy Savoca

Following a summer where Bridesmaids and The Help book-ended the mainstream box office, Hollywood execs and mainstream critics have to wake up and smell the nonfat latte: Women's movies are here to stay.

One would think those awful-yet-profitable Sex and the City movies should have already made this point, not to mention the movies of Sandra Bullock, Angelina Jolie and Emma Watson, to name a few. Still, with Bridesmaids having made $268 million worldwide without bankable stars, what's the takeaway?

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