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The Movie Mom
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Articles, interviews, recommendations and commentary from Nell Minow, who reviews movies each week for Beliefnet and radio stations across the U.S. and in Canada. The blog also includes interviews with movie stars, directors, and screenwriters, comm
Recent Posts Tagged With 'commentary'
Anti-Islam DVD Circulated By Anonymous Group in Battleground States
I am grateful to Beliefnet blogger Aziz Poonawalla for bringing to my attention the 28 million free DVDs that were delivered with the Sunday newspaper throughout battleground states last month. The mo...
Blind Activists Protest "Blindness"
"Blindness" is the story of unnamed characters in an unnamed community who all suddenly lose their sight with just one exception, a doctor's wife played by Julianne Moore. The newly blind citizens, al...
Hollywood's Inaccurate Portrayal of Religious Practice
E! Online has a column about Hollywood's inaccurate portrayal of religious practice. A reader wrote in to complain about the treatment of Mr. Eko, who pretends to be a priest in "Lost." According to E...
Televised Presidential Debates
There's an op-ed in today's Chicago Tribune is about the value of televised debates. It was written by my dad, Newton Minow, and his frequent co-author, Northwestern professor Craig LaMay. This week i...
Should We Rate Movies for Marketing?
Alissa Quart's column in Slate's Big Money argues that in addition to rating movies and television for language, violence, sex, smoking, and substance abuse, we should rate them for product placement....
Are Some Words Forbidden No Matter What?
Should some words be banned entirely? In a debate reminiscent of the battles over The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a coalition of disability rights groups called for a boycott of Tropic Thunder ove...
The 'Bechdel Rule'
Neda Ulaby's column on NPR starts with a rule established by Alison Bechdel, author of one of my favorite books, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. In Bechdel's comic strip, a character said she'd only go...
Why all the Vampires?
Vampires are really big this year. Breaking Dawn, the fourth volume in Stephanie Meyers' Twilight series was the most eagerly anticipated book since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. And one of th...
Hot Weekend -- Cold Opens
When a studio is fairly certain it will not get a single good review it simply refuses to let the critics get a look before the release date. That's called a "cold open." Usually, movies that open col...
While We're On the Subject of Disabilities
The disability advocates who are picketing "Tropic Thunder" should take a look at "The House Bunny." It is a much more worthwhile target for their complaints. In that movie, the title character become...
August MVPs: Steve Coogan and Danny McBride
This month's Most Valuable Cinematic Player award has to be shared by Steve Coogan and Danny McBride, who each deliver not one but two different magnificently hilarious performances in two August rele...
Sisterhoods and Bromances: Where Are the Love Stories?
We have a lot of tender love stories in movies this year but they have mostly been about friendships. I can't remember a time when there have been so few movies about falling in romantic love. What us...
Remembering the Hays Code -- Movie Censorship from 1930-1968
NPR's Bob Mondello has an excellent essay on the Hays Code, which governed Hollywood films from 1930-1968, when it was replaced by the MPAA rating system. A reaction to some provocative films in the d...
The 'Traitor' Commercial Gives Too Much Away
It infuriates me when trailers and ads give away too much of the movie. This often happens when all the best jokes or special effects are strung together to get you to buy a ticket but once in a while...
Parents Television Council Report on Sex on TV
The Parents Television Council released a new report on the way sex and marriage are portrayed on prime time television this afternoon. Today's prime-time television programming is not merely indiffer...
Ebert's Farewell to The Balcony
Thanks to my friend Bob Elisberg for directing me to Ebert's farewell to the 33-year movie review television show he shared with Gene Siskel and then Richard Roeper. That show, "just two guys talking ...
Mistakes!
I think one reason I became a critic is that I am fascinated by mistakes. I don't mind seeing bad movies (most of the time) because I like to think about what it is that makes them so bad. And... ...
Quotes of the Week: Dark Knight and Mamma Mia
The Dark Knight has inspired some very thoughtful reviews. Anonymous DC critic "J.J." wrote that the film moved him to tears: Perhaps it's because the film has characters I grew to care about, scenes ...
Report on Gender and Movie Criticism
Dr. Martha M. Lauzen, Director of the Center for the Study of Women In Television and Film at San Diego State University, has released a new report on the representation of women among film critics. I...
FCC Commissioner insists on Public Interest in Satellite Radio Merger
FCC Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein, who will be casting the deciding vote in the proposed merger of satellite radio stations Sirius and XM, has been opposed to the merger in the past, but has agre...
How Would Wall∙E Vote?
The chattering classes are already going after that sweet little robot Wall∙E. Some on the right accused the film of being leftist propaganda because of its environmental message. As the New York Ti...
Do Movie Critics Matter?
In 2006, Time asked whether movie critics still mattered. Since then, more than 30 major national critics have retired or been laid off and there has been a lot of commentary about the pros and cons o...
My Visit to Green Gables and Prince Edward Island
As promised, here are two of my pictures from our visit to the home that inspired L.M. Montgomery to write Anne of Green Gables just 100 years ago. Ms. Montgomery never lived here but it belonged to a...
Family of the Week: Will Smith, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Jaden, and Willow
Will Smith likes to joke that he owns the 4th of July, and it is true that he starred in two of the hugest hits to open on the 4th, "Men in Black" and "Independence Day." He's hoping to do... ...
FCC Commissioner Adelstein on Children and Media
FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein gave an important speech last week to the Media Institute titled Stuck in the Mud: Time to Move an Agenda to Protect America's Children. [M]any parents are feeling ...
Man of the Week: JT
This week we have something that does not happen very often -- two huge movies in the same genre opening on the same day: "Get Smart" with Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway and "The Love Guru" with Mike ...
Fox News and the term 'Baby Mama'
I have always disliked the terms "Baby Mama" and "Baby Daddy." Originally they were used only to describe unmarried parents and the implication was that their connection through the baby or children w...
Sleep Disturbance and Media -- a Kaiser Report
"American children get too little sleep, with major adverse implications for their cognitive ability, judgment, behavior and physical health," according to new study from the Kaiser foundation. There ...
Is "The Love Guru" Bigoted?
Mike Myers' upcoming movie, "The Love Guru" has sparked protests from Hindu groups even before its scheduled opening on June 20. Hindus have urged Viacom and its brand Paramount Pictures to post a stu...
Get Ready for Kidzilla
Maybe it's just too much exposure to commercials for Bridezilla, a sort of WWE with smackdowns between maniacal brides and their wedding planners, families, and bridesmaids, but I was horrified to rea...