New Yorker Film Critic Anthony Lane Has Female Trouble

The Time Out New York cover portraying the ladies of Sex and the City with duct tape over their maws isn't the only media coverage of the fabulous foursome that has the whiff of sexism about it. Newsweek critic Ramin Setoodeh discusses the near-violent dislike for Sex in the City that many men, particularly male movie critics, have shown. "Movie critics, an overwhelmingly male demographic, gave it such a nasty tongue lashing you would have thought they were talking about an ex-girlfriend," Setoodeh says. And no male critic was nastier than the New Yorker's Anthony Lane. Best Week Ever calls the caricature seen above left (which accompanied Lane's review) "almost masochistic in its grotesqueness." Setoodeh at Newsweek points out Lane's problematic phrasing when he describes Carrie and the girls as "hormonal hobbits, and all obsessed with a ring." But what galled me was Lane's description of Kim Cattrall's body, and it reminded me of his unfortunate criticism of Tina Fey's figure in his review of Baby Mama. [Jezebel]

30 Rock's Tina Fey Is An Intuitive, Acquisitive, Self-Deceiver

Even though there was a Feyvelanche of Tina interviews when Baby Mama came out last month, did we really learn anything about her? Sure, her face was on the cover of Marie Claire, but the interview inside was a farce (example, "Amy Poehler: Is your name Karen Felcher? Tina Fey: Um, no, although I can see why you're confused, because that is my porn name."). We decided to sic graphologist Sheila Kurtz on Tina's handwritten American Express ad to analyze her penmanship and tell us about the real woman underneath all that sharply-perfected snark. Apparently, our Tina is sensitive to criticism, intuitive, analytical, practical, not impulsive and just a leeetle self-deceiving. A full analysis of Tina's psyche is after the jump. [Jezebel]

Baby Mama's Success A Victory For Smart, Funny, Barren Women

Sadly, it's time to resign yourself to the fact that you are no longer in the "coolest place on Earth" (i.e. the desert, watching Prince cover Radiohead), and have returned to one of the lesser-cool places on Earth: your office cubicle. We won't even sugarcoat this: Here's the weekend grosses, straight up. More »

'H&K' Vs. Poehler/Fey, Defending Bette Midler, and Other New Movie Dilemmas

Deciphering your moviegoing options for the third week running, Defamer Attractions returns today with a look at the final weekend before the studios spill summer in our lap. Today we gauge Tina Fey's chances for box office superiority, corral the highest-profile dog since 88 Minutes (that was only last week? Really?), recommend a certain Oscar-winning actress's directing debut and scan the new arrivals shelf for DVD's of notice. As always, our opinions are our own, but they're also right. You can thank us later! More »

Baby Mama Will Tell Us What To Think About Women

So Tina Fey's new movie Baby Mama comes out today! It's a very important movie because it will once and for all decide if she is the funniest woman in America or absolutely no one. Yes indeed. And in doing so, Tina Fey will finally determine for all of us if, in fact, women are funny. You see this isn't just a comedy with a woman in it. It's a comedy starring a woman! A woman with her own TV show! And her costar is a woman too! Not since Gloria Steinem wrote and directed the Cameron Diaz vehicle The Sweetest Thing has there been such an important comedy film for and about womyn (that was written and directed by a man). This is the most important 96 minutes of Ms. Fey's career, but also in the history of our gender war. It's important that we go into the theater informed, so we may properly participate in this historic debate. After the jump find a small digest of the film's reviews. More »

Does The Female "Buddy" Movie Exist?

A reader pointed us to a blog called xkcd, where the poster asks, "Quick, name a few recent popular movies where the two top-billed stars are female." Does your mind go blank? Hollywood loves a buddy movie, but when it comes to women, they're usually love interests, or looking for love interests. Especially recently. Of course, indie films and horror or sci-fi flicks often get away with having a woman as the lead (and not in love), but indie ≠ Hollywood. And directors get away with having a woman as the hero in a horror or sci-fi movie because it's not real. It's a fantasy when Milla Jovovich kicks zombie ass or Uma Thurman slashes ninjas with a samurai sword. In any case, the guy from xkcd tallied up the male/male pairings, the male/female pairings, the female/male parings and female/female pairings of a few years' worth of movies, using IMDB to pinpoint the 20 biggest titles of each year. Here's what he found: [Jezebel]

The Coming Tina Fey Backlash

Everyone loves Tina Fey, and she hopes it stays that way. Her new film Baby Mama opens the Tribeca Film Festival tonight, and in an interview with Reuters today she admits, "You would be foolish to think, 'Oh everyone has really discovered that I am truly, truly wonderful.'" Her anticipation of her own backlash, aside, when a star argues that she is "not entirely selling out," you know the fear of the 'lash is in her heart. Baby Mama's opening weekend faces steep competition from stoner comedy Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay, and with her NBC show 30 Rock moving into a new time slot, Fey's distinctive appeal needs to last a bit longer. Here are the troubling signals that Tina's edgy humor and general cuteness may be waning. More »

Marketing 'Baby Mama': Universal Tries The Kitchen Sink Approach

Ever since Mean Girls became a runaway success back in 2004, Tina Fey has been riding a wave of near universal acclaim. Her ability to ride that tasty wave of popularity for the last four years without succumbing to any nasty wipeouts has arguably turned her into the Laird Hamilton of the Writers-Turned-Performers circuit. But when Baby Mama hits theaters this weekend, all of that cred that she has built up will be put to the test. Not only has Variety's Todd McCarthy gone on record calling it "exceedingly predictable", but Videogum has been trumpeting the notion that "Tina Fey-Tigue" is about to set in for the last week and some change. Recognizing that this film doesn't exactly fit the mold of traditional studio comedies (namely, in that it stars two female protagonists), Universal has been throwing a bunch of dollars at Baby Mama television advertising over the last few weeks, alternately positioning the film as a Tina Fey Vehicle, a film In Which Amy Poehler Steals The Show and, gasp, as something that even sports-loving, beer guzzling men will dig (specifically, by scoring the spots with The Cars' dude-friendly power pop anthem "Just What I Needed"). More »

Tina Fey: Comedienne, Cover Girl And "Great Role Model" For Women

The much-beloved Tina Fey returns to prime time tonight with a brand new episode of 30 Rock, the first since the writers' strike ended. Not only that, but her new movie, Baby Mama hits theaters on April 25, and she's Entertainment Weekly's cover girl on the issue hitting stands tomorrow (she also graces the cover of the May issue of Marie Claire). The accompanying article, by Kristen Baldwin, is five pages long, so we picked out all the juicy quotes and placed them after the jump for your perusal. [Jezebel]