The Hunger Games: And Still Men Talk More (Women & Men in the Movies No. 11)

Posted on March 27, 2019March 27, 2019 by admin

This week I’ll look at how women are portrayed, and how they interact with other characters, in the 2012 dystopian thriller The Hunger Games, one of my favorite films. And books for that matter. (You can find out more about the 3 tests I'll use in Women, Men, and Movies or just read on.) The Story In the future a wealthy capitol city governs twelve districts that once rebelled against it. As payback, the Capitol requires each district to draw names of one boy and one girl—called Tributes—ea...

The Protagonist Might Be Anyone In Transcendence (Women & Men in the Movies No. 10)

Posted on December 12, 2018December 12, 2018 by admin

This week I’ll look at how women are portrayed, and how they interact with other characters, in the science fiction thriller Transcendence. (Find out more about 3 tests I’ll use to guide the conversation in Women, Men, and Movies or just read on.) Spoiler Warning: I usually try not to spoil any major plot points in my articles. For Transcendence, however, I found that particularly difficult. The conversational topics often require revealing aspects of the plot. If you want to watch the...

A Quiet Place: Defying Monsters and Common Sense (Women & Men in the Movies No. 8)

Posted on November 14, 2018November 28, 2018 by admin

This week I’ll look at how women are portrayed in the horror movie A Quiet Place. (Find out more about 3 tests I’ll use to guide the conversation in Women, Men, and Movies or just read on.) The Story A family struggles to live in a silence in a post-apocalyptic world where monsters hunt and kill based on noise. Spoilers: I’ve done my best not to spoil anything major that wasn’t shown in the previews, but if you want to remain completely spoiler-free you may want to watch the movie first ...

Avengers: Infinity War – Women Talk, Men Talk More, & Everyone Fights (Women & Men in the Movies No. 7)

Posted on October 31, 2018November 14, 2018 by admin

This week I’ll look at how women are portrayed, and interact with other characters, in the 2018 Marvel film Avengers: Infinity War. (Find out more about 3 tests I’ll use to guide the conversation in Women, Men, and Movies or just read on.) The Story Superheroes the Avengers and their allies fight to defeat the seemingly all-powerful Thanos who is seeking out and stealing Infinity Stones. With these stones, he can alter life as we know it. SPOILERS: The ending of the movie and major plot ...

Terminator 2: Sarah, Action Hero, But… (Women & Men in the Movies No. 6)

Posted on October 17, 2018October 19, 2018 by admin

This week I’ll look at how women are portrayed and interact with other characters in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the sequel to my favorite movie, sci fi thriller The Terminator, which I wrote about last week.. (Find out more about 3 tests I’ll use to guide the conversation in Women, Men, and Movies or just read on.) The Story A powerful computer network sends a cyborg back from the future to kill John Connor, the leader of the humans who defeat it, when he's a boy. The human resistance send...

The Terminator: Men Talk, A Woman Fights (Women & Men in the Movies No. 5)

Posted on October 10, 2018October 19, 2018 by admin

This week I look at how women are portrayed and how they interact with other characters in the sci fi/thriller classic The Terminator. (Find out more about 3 tests I’ll use to guide the conversation in Women, Men, and Movies or just read on.) The Story A young woman, Sarah Connor, must flee from and ultimately fight a cyborg from the future intent on killing her. Chasing Bechdel (Does a named female character talk to another named female character about anything other than a man?) Who’s ...

Annihilation: Five Women And The Unknown (Women & Men in the Movies No. 4)

Posted on October 3, 2018October 19, 2018 by admin

This week I’ll look at how women are portrayed and interact with other characters in the 2018 suspense/thriller film Annihilation. (Find out more about 3 tests I’ll use to guide the conversation in Women, Men, and Movies or just read on.) The Story Annihilation was written and directed by Alex Garland, who also wrote and directed last week’s movie Ex Machina. In Annihilation, Natalie Portman plays Lena, a biologist and professor grieving the disappearance/ presumed death of her husband o...

Set It Up: A Rom-Com Where Women Talk About Something Other Than Men (Women & Men in the Movies No. 2)

Posted on September 19, 2018October 19, 2018 by admin

This week I’ll look at how women characters are portrayed and how they interact in 2018 Netflix rom-com Set It Up. (Find out more about the tests mentioned below in Women, Men, and Movies or just read on.) The Story Think Devil Wears Prada crossed with Parent Trap. In Set It Up, two assistants, Harper and Charlie, work long hours for horrendous bosses. When Harper orders a midnight second dinner for her boss but has no cash to pay for it she meets Charlie. Charlie has cash, so he swoo...

Extant, Transcendence, and Who’s Talking To Whom

Posted on August 26, 2014 by admin

The concept of recent sci-fi movie Transcendence– what if a human’s brain becomes an A.I.? – fascinated me, and I enjoyed the film. What bothers me is that despite one of the two main characters being a woman, Dr. Evelyn Caster, I can’t remember, in the entire movie, any woman speaking one-on-one with any other woman. About anything. I understand men outnumber women in the hard sciences, but Evelyn has not a single woman friend to support her in a crisis? I also understand that writers can’...

The Bionic Woman, Buffy, and the Man of Steel

Posted on July 24, 2013 by admin

I recently saw Man of Steel. Superman was a bit too dark for me, and the special effects struck me as overkill. All the same, retellings and new approaches to familiar tales fascinate me. I'm intrigued by questions such as why the storyteller chose to modify the origin story, or the mentor character's advice, or the overall theme. Was it to fill empty spaces? To fit with modern beliefs? Because the storyteller always believed the "new" backstory existed but wa...