Category — Mini-Reviews

In the second season episode of House, “Hunting”, Cameron has an HIV-positive patient Kalvin cough blood into her mouth and eyes. Understandably, she’s upset. Chase asks her if she wants to go for a drink and she snaps at him that a drink is not going to make the threat of HIV go away.

Later, she invites Chase over and he comes, thinking she’s decided on that drink after all. Except in the meantime, Kalvin has told her to ‘lighten up’ … READ MORE

Army Wives is TV show on the US Lifetime network – I’ve been told it’s a network with a lousy track record when it comes to feminist-friendly characters and storylines – about the lives of the women (and token male) married to soldiers in the US Army. The fact it didn’t air in Australia until 18 months later as a nonratings period filler should have told me all I needed to know about the show.

The pilot opens with Trevor … READ MORE

Ah, once again I seem to have fallen into some vortex o’ doom somewhere. Between work and a shameful addiction to bad holiday movies (seriously, they’re almost all about “sad lonely women needs a man for Christmas” - that kind of bad), I’ve really not kept tabs on much lately. And let’s face it - there’s been a lot of real news to keep a person occupied, too.

Like what designer is going to create Michelle Obama’s inauguration dress - … READ MORE

Warning, possible rape triggers

The Duchess is the story of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, a vibrant aristocrat who influenced much of the social and political changes of eighteenth-century England. Georgiana (Keira Knightly) marries the Duke of Devonshire (Ralph Fiennes), who initially treats her royally. But when she fails to give him the son he wants – just two daughters – he unreasonably blames her and sends her to a series of crackpot fertility treatments. Here, she meets Elizabeth ‘Bess’ Foster, … READ MORE

This hit the screens a couple of weeks ago in Britain, and I understand it just has just come out in the US. It has the distinction of being the first James Bond film I was actually excited to see (I was interested in seeing Casino Royale because I knew it was a reboot and they planned several changes in tone; but it wasn’t until after, when I knew what they had done with it that real excitement could … READ MORE

Heartbreakers is the story of a mother-daughter conwoman team, Max and Page Connors (Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love-Hewitt respectively).It initially interested me because the idea of conwomen sounded interesting; it’s always the men who get to pull of elaborate schemes, a la Matchstick Men, The Italian Job and the Oceans series.

I was incredibly disappointed with it. Why? Because Max and Page’s conning is almost exclusively restricted to seduce-and-destroy tactics. In the opening scenario, Max has inveigled Dean (Ray Liotta) into … READ MORE

Hello, everyone! It’s been quiet lately, or I’ve slept through any entertainment kerfuffles.

I hesitate to bring this up for fear of launching a tug-of-war. Politics is not entertainment for me, but for many it’s something they can’t turn away from. Here in the States, the political arena is gearing up fast and furious. It’s a time I really can’t stand - regardless of party affiliation, I end up feeling like if I vote, I’m voting for the candidiate I think … READ MORE

Hello HL readers! I’m here to scour entertainment news on a somewhat regular basis. Not everything entertainment related has a feminist slant, so I can’t guarantee a weekly or even semi-monthly column. In other words, we’ll see how this goes.

Let’s get started, shall we?

About eight months ago, I brought up Jennifer Love Hewitt’s war of words with tabloids for snapping unflattering pictures and calling her fat. This is, sadly, not an uncommon occurrence in today’s entertainment world.

Now … READ MORE

Joss Whedon’s latest project, developed during the writers’ strike, was an internet-based musical starring Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day, aired in three acts over the past week. Spoilers for all three acts follow, if you haven’t seen it.

Movies featuring anthropomorphic non-human characters are nearly always rich with questions about “gender” roles, since the assignment of gender onto such characters - especially inanimate ones - is entirely based on the writers’ imaginations, and the features selected to gender something “male” or “female” often reflect assumptions, stereotypes, and conventional gender roles. Pixar’s latest, Wall-E, is a love story between two robots working in an environment following the evacuation and abandonment of Earth under piles and piles of trash, and … READ MORE