Greta Gerwig

BARBIE AND TAYLOR SWIFT ARE BREAKING RECORDS RIGHT AND LEFT

The summer of 2023 has revealed the power of women. Females are dominating the movie world AND the music world. Greta Gerwig’s Barbie had the biggest opening weekend of all time for a film that was not a sequal. The third weekend is expected to bring in a worldwide total of a billion dollars! At the same time, Taylor Swift concerts and albums are smashing records. She’s the first living artist in 60 years to chart 4 albums in the top 10 at once on the Billboard chart. In ONE day she sold over two million tour tickets and held the top 10 spots on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for her Midnights album. Keep in mind, Beyonce’s tour is also raking in the bucks. It’s high time the power of women both as performers and consumers is recognized…

Barbie PhotoCredit: Warner Bros

Taylor Photo Credit: BACKGRID-USA

 

 

THE BEST THING ABOUT BARBIE

Warner Bros publicity department must be dominated by women because they did ALL the right things when it came to promoting Barbie. The film has broken all records with one of the biggest weekends in history! So what if they misled the SAG/AFTRA union (see https://janetcharltonshollywood.com/?s=fran+drescher) – it was WORTH it! The best thing about Barbie is not only did it celebrate the importance of women, but it was directed by the extremely likable FEMALE Greta Gerwig. Barbie is the TOP opening film of 2023 and has NOTHING to do with male superheroes! Right now we’re thinking that more than a few of those male CEO’s at Warner Bros should be replaced by females…

Photo Credit: BACKGRID-USA

GRETA GERWIG’S “LITTLE WOMEN” IS A FILM YOU HAVEN’T SEEN BEFORE

We always loved Greta Gerwig as an actress- now we love her as a director too! Greta took Louisa May Alcott’s book Little Women and, along with Sarah Polley, dared to write the next chapter in the lives of the beloved March sisters, and it WORKS! A peek into the lives of four American sisters who lived during and after the civil war is fascinating and the best kind of history lesson. Despite the insurmountable challenges for women, who were LESS than second class citizens in those days, the story is fun, and the sisters are as lovable and relatable as ever. Whatever made Charlie’s Angels director Elizabeth Banks think women would want to see ANOTHER version of that objectifying TV series – especially written by MEN?

GRETA GERWIG: THIS IS WHAT BAD MAKEUP CAN DO TO A PRETTY GIRL

Indie actress Greta Gerwig (Maggie’s Plan) is an cute and natural looking woman who seems younger than her 33 years. When she turns up at red carpet events she usually looks off-beat and interesting, but not particularly glamorous. Maybe a crazed makeup artist got his hands on her face, or she decided to experiment with new eye shadow. Bad idea. She looks YEARS older and her messy hair and unflattering droopy dress don’t help her at all. Greta deserves better.

Photo Credit: AKM-GSI

MAGGIE’S PLAN: THAT PRECIOUS COMBINATION OF SMART AND FUNNY

Funny and intelligent are, unfortunately, not words you generally hear describing a movie. (Unless it’s a Woody Allen movie, anyway.) Rebecca Miller’s brilliant film Maggie’s Plan serves up both smart dialog and humor in a delicious manner. Greta Gerwig stars as an achingly real and likeable thirty-something New Yorker who yearns for a baby but has no marriage prospects. Before she can complete her fertilization plans, she meets and falls for a self-centered married professor turned author, played by Ethan Hawke. The resulting love triangle causes many unexpected things to happen and many lessons to be learned. Her best friends, played by Bill Hader and Maya Rudolph, try to advise her. When is the last time you saw a comedy that didn’t EMBARRASS you? If you’re wondering why there aren’t more films like this – it’s because women aren’t given the filmmaking chances they deserve…

Photo: Sony

ANNETTE BENING AS YOU’VE NEVER SEEN HER

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Annette Bening must be the breadwinner in her family because we never see her husband Warren Beatty onscreen any more. She LOOKS like she’s ready to tune up a car or report for factory work in the overalls she’s wearing above. Actually she’s filming a new movie “20th Century Women” and it looks like a real winner. Mike Mills, who wrote and directed the sensitive and funny “Beginners” with Ewan McGregor, wrote and is directing this story about “women he knew growing up.” It’s the story of three diverse women exploring new freedoms and the beginning of the punk era in 1979 California, and it stars Annette, Greta Gerwig and Elle Fanning. We LOVE movies about women.

Photo Credit: Pacific Coast News

MEG RYAN GETS THE JOB DONE IN SENSIBLE SHOES

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Meg Ryan looks more like a no nonsense New Yorker than a movie star when she’s running her errands. She loves living in the city and is probably relieved that her new job on the spin-off series “How I Met Your Dad” can be accomplished right where she is. She is the unseen narrator who happens to be the older version of Greta Gerwig’s character. (The role is like Bob Saget’s in “How I Met Your Mother.”) Meg is also directing a film next year called “Ithaca” and her 22 year old son son Jack is starring.

Photo Credit: Pacific Coast News