Larry Oliver Film Reviews

  Greta Gerwig ( Lady Bird , Little Women ) is the first woman Hollywood film director to make three hit movies in a row since Penny Marshall between 1986 and 1992 ( Jumpin’ Jack Flash , Big , A League of Their Own ). Moreover, she’s a writer-director. That’s unheard of. The reported opening US box-office gross for Barbie , a film about a girl’s toy used for female empowerment, isn’t just phenomenal by the standards of woman directors - $70 million earned in one day - but by Hollywood norms. Greta Gerwig outperformed Tom Cruise at this summer’s box office. How crazy is that? If this does not make Hollywood’s biggest star want to work with a female director for the first time in his career, I don’t know what will? Actually, I can guess – it might be some nutty religion that tells him not to take orders from a woman. Barbie benefits from its association with intellectual property. Foremost, it’s a doll enjoyed and accessorised by young girls with moderately well-off parents around...

Pictured : Students at the Talent Campus practice 'conscious eating' in a scene from Jessica Hausner 's 2023 film, ' Club Zero '. (Still: Coop 99 ) Over the period 1 November 2023 and 31 October 2024, I watched and reflected upon a further fifty-two fiction films directed by women. 28 of these films had American finance. Six could be classed as British films. Three were French, a surprisingly low number given the number of French auteurs currently working. Two had Indian subjects, if not finance. Two were Belgian, another two Canadian (one in French, the other English). The remaining nine films were from Australia, Austria, Brazil, China, Denmark, Germany, Morocco, Netherlands and Spain. Of the fifty-two, three movies officially grossed more than $100 million (either superhero sequels or spin-offs, namely Venom: The Last Dance , The Marvels and Madame Web ). One ( Yolo ) unofficially grossed this sum; Box Office Mojo does not offer reliable figures on Chinese movie...