7 Female Film Critics You Should Be Reading

A study released today by San Diego State professor Martha Lauzen, as reported by The Wrap, has some pretty distressing statistics about gender equality in the world of film criticism. The study tracked more than 2000 reviews written by authors designated as “Top Critics” on the aggregation service Rotten Tomatoes over the course of several months and found, incredibly, that a whopping 82% were written by men. A similar study conducted in 2007, which tracked reviews written for the top 100 American dailies, found that men accounted for 70% of the material—which suggests not only have the numbers gotten worse, but that, more alarmingly, things are actually worse for female critics online than they were exclusively in print media. Whatever the reasons (or excuses), this is clearly a sorry state of affairs.

There are many great female film critics writing outstanding film criticism every week, and maybe the best thing we can do in response to a study like this is read more. We need more women writing about movies, certainly, but we also need to be more aware of the women who are writing about movies already. Men have a tendency to shout over other people; we don’t need to hear more of that.

With all of this in mind, we thought it would be a good idea to highlight a few of the most essential female critics working today, from some of the most respected names in criticism to less established voices on the rise. If you’re not reading these women already, get on it.

- Farran Nehme – New York Post, Self-Styled Siren
Twitter: @selfstyledsiren

Nehme has long been well-regarded for her incredibly insightful film blog “The Self-Styled Siren”, where she muses on obscure works of classical Hollywood cinema and unearths rare bits of film-legend arcana. Over the last year or so she’s been steadily contributing feature reviews to the New York Post, which is an excellent fit.

Read: Her hilarious takedown of “No One Lives.”

- Kiva Reardon – Cleo Journal, Cinema Scope, Reverse Shot
Twitter: @kiva_jane

Kiva Reardon made a name for herself as a regular contributor to respected outlets like Cinema Scope and Reverse Shot, offering in-depth criticism that goes much deeper than an ordinary review. But her biggest achievement is also her most recent: last month she founded Cleo, a new journal offering feminist perspectives on film.

Read: Her thorough consideration of Soderbergh’s “Magic Mike”

- Zeba Blay – Slant Magazine, Black Voices
Twitter: @zblay

Blay’s recent festival coverage for Slant Magazine’s House Next Door has been superb, but some of the most notable writing she’s offered to date hasn’t been strictly reviewing movies, but looking at them more deeply for issues of race and representation (including a provocative piece for Huffington Post about Lena Dunham and “Girls”). Her deep engagement with issues too few critics pay mind to is refreshing and important.

Read: Interesting thoughts on the use of “yellowface” in “Cloud Atlas”

- Miriam Bale – The L Magazine, NY Daily News, MUBI, Filmmaker Magazine
Twitter: @mimbale

Miriam Bale is one of my very favorite film critics for the simplest of reasons: her writing makes me think. Writing with intelligence, curiosity, and wit, the only bad thing about Bale is that she doesn’t write enough. We need more critics like this.

Read: A sharp analysis of “Sleeping Beauty” 

- Stephanie Zacharek – Film.com, The Village Voice
Twitter: @szacharek

Our former critic, the wonderful Stephanie Zacharek has been rapidly gathering readers and esteem lately, culminating in her recent and much-deserved takeover as chief critic for the Village Voice.

Read: A killer D+ pan of “Les Miserables” 

- Karina Longworth – LA Weekly, Grantland Vanity Fair
Twitter: @KarinaLongworth

Karina Longworth might be the most widely read name on this list, and so needs no introduction. But her writing remains as vital as ever, not only in her role as a film critic but also as the author of a newly published book on Al Pacino.

Read: Her award-winning piece on the Sundance Film Festival

- Dana Stevens – Slate
Twitter: @thehighsign

Dana Stevens is one of the most respected film critics working, and for good reason: her direct, candid style is engaging and inflected with personality, her voice as open as it is authoritative.

Read: A recent reappraisal of “Heaven’s Gate” 

Categories: Features, Lists

Tags: Calum Marsh, Dana Stevens, Farran Nehme, Female Film Critics, Karina Longworth, Kiva Reardon, List, Miriam Bale, Stephanie Zacharek, The Wrap, Zeba Blay

Given Braveheart, Should Pixar Have Named Brave Something Different?

Let me make a bold, radical, and unexpected statement: I love everything about Pixar’s Brave. I love the cast. I love the concept and the setting. I love the poster and the teaser. (I’m certain I’m the only person who feels this way. Pixar! Who likes them, right?) I even dig the title for ridiculous, romantic, and altogether mythic reasons.

I shouldn’t like the title. I can foresee a thousand and one stories and reviews playing with some variation of Braveheart.  “Brave Has Heart” is one you’ll undoubtedly see. “Brave Shows Pixar Has a Brave Heart” is clunkier, but also doable. I bet some smart-ass will even write “Brave: Every Film Plays, But Not Every One’s A Hit” or “Brave Shows Pixar’s Freeeeeedom!” or something equally wink-wink-nod-nod. The comparison and jokes to Mel Gibson’s kilted and bloody epic are inevitable, at least for traffic purposes. One might even argue Pixar is asking for trouble given Gibson’s plummeting popularity, and the sinking of anything and everything he cinematically touched.

But that’s just silly. Brave is a fantastic title, and a marked improvement over The Bear and the Bow, which screamed working title and not theater marquee. Brave immediately evokes a lot of things, whereas The Bear and the Bow will undoubtedly leave many (especially children, who haven’t quite grasped the one-word-multiple-meanings trick yet) confused as to what kind of bow we’re talking about, and how a bear plays into it. Does the title mean, like, a ribbon? Or what a man does in front of the Queen? Oh, you mean a Robin Hood bow!  Well, now the bear bit makes sense! Someone probably shoots it!

Frankly, there’s nothing you can title a Scottish-themed picture but Brave. The Scots are a brave people, possibly even the bravest. Everything about them is strapping and hardy — their architecture, their weather, their bagpipes, their brogues, their alcohol, their food. (Cue the haggis jokes — but as someone who has eaten it, I can assure you haggis is far more palatable than homemade oatcakes or tablet.) Even the national wardrobe is a flag of courage. The kilt is sneered at by lesser beings — “The men wear skirts!” — which only proves what guts it takes for the men to wear them so casually, particularly since they’re generally not wearing anything underneath. (Consider that parts of Scotland are further north than Moscow, where they favor furs, and then wonder how they run around bare-legged, with the wind having no place to go but up.) Even without the haggis and the kilts, the Scots have their history, and their chronicles are full of valor. You can sneer at Mel Gibson’s film all you like (and I don’t), but William Wallace was no man to dismiss. He wasn’t the only man or woman risking it all for independence, either, and he wasn’t the only Scot to suffer the traitor’s death, which was only meted out to the “worst” offenders to the crown. You have to admire a people who watch one leader hung, drawn, and quartered, but keep on fighting, even as others meet the same hideous fate.

Even their unofficial anthem (or rather, one of the unofficial anthems) says how damn brave they are. Even America — as full of Scots as it was — didn’t have that kind of swagger. Our anthem isn’t “America the Brave,”  we favored “The Star-Spangled Banner” as a title (and could get no tougher than “America the Beautiful” for our unofficial one), as if we were afraid Scotland would collectively sail over and kick our butts if we opted to title it after the catchiest lyric. (And “The home of the brave”  was probably just Francis Scott Key acknowledging we’d mixed the Scots into the general population.)

In fact, I’m willing to wager Scotland, as a collective unit, quietly emailed Pixar and said, “You’re not actually going with that The Bear and the Bow title, are you? May we quietly suggest you refer to our massive courage? Perhaps you could just call it Brave? P.S. Did you get the haggis we sent? P.P.S. You know, the execution scene in Braveheart was the censored version of what happened. Just thought you should know.”

Trying to fight was pointless. Why try to pretty it up with a title like Merida and the Bear, or The Warrior Princess? It’s about a Scottish lass who picks up a weapon and defies all odds, so let’s just cut to the chase: she’s brave.  As brave as William Wallace, the unofficial national anthem, Robert Burns poems, kilts, Sean Connery in Zardoz, haggis, and whiskey. Mel Gibson has no claim on the rugged brogue of a word. Scotland does. So, keep the freedom jokes and eye rolls to a minimum. They might see you …