When it comes to a woman’s touch, Hollywood apparently doesn’t want it behind the camera.
But in 2007, with five of the most critically lauded movies of the year written by women, and three of those writers also directing their films, there has been at least slight indication that may be changing.
It’s about time. Over the past decade, out of 50 Oscar nominations for best director, only one has gone to a woman: Sofia Coppola for 2003’s “Lost in Translation.”
To say the Hollywood equal-opportunity equation is way, way out of step with reality is to state the obvious.
And to say things are improving in any major way would be either blind optimism or an outright lie. But things are looking better.
As awards season rolls out, it’s likely that “Waitress” will be ignored. But Adrienne Shelley, who wrote and directed that film as well as co-starred in it, could have been one of the great success stories of film in 2007 had she not been murdered by an alleged stalker.
“Waitress” is the story of a pregnant woman (Keri Russell) in a dead-end marriage who finds expression through baking pies.
It shares those qualities with three other complex films written by women that do seem to have shots at awards recognition this season: “Juno,” “Lars and the Real Girl” and “The Savages.”
“Lars,” released in October, was written by Nancy Oliver. It’s the story of a horribly shy young man (Ryan Gosling) who believes a plastic blow-up doll is alive and his own true love. People in the remote community where he lives go along with his delusion in the hope it will bring him out of his shell.
“Juno” is another tale of unwanted pregnancy, this time involving a teen girl (Ellen Page) who decides to give her baby up for adoption.
Again, the characters are somewhat offbeat, humor flows where you’d least expect it and the ensemble cast sparkles.
“The Savages,” written and directed by Tamara Jenkins (“The Slums of Beverly Hills”), a dark yet often funny piece about a middle-aged brother and sister (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney) who have to put their Alzheimer’s ailing father (Philip Bosco) in a nursing home.
It seems a likely awards contender, as does “Away From Her,” the debut drama from Canadian actress and now writer-director Sarah Polley, whose tale of an Alzheimer’s patient (Julie Christie) who finds unlikely love among equals drew major praise when it was released earlier this year.
If the quality of these films is any indication, a change may be coming in the status quo. And it’s about time.