The representation of women in feature filmmaking has made big advances in the past 20 years. The rise of the Internet and the overall democratization of film has benefitted the cause of women writers and directors as well. Writer-director Nicole Holofcener crafts ensemble comedy-dramas; in 2019, she was nominated for a co-writing Oscar for Can You Forgive Me? Her light comedy approach may initially have been modeled on the films of Woody Allen, as her stepfather Charles H. Joffe was one of Allen's longtime producers. Holofcener's ease with expressive, glib dialogue is a big part of the appeal of Lovely & Amazing (2001), an ensemble film in which chronic insecurity is an inherited trait passed from mother to daughters. None seem to have faith in their essential self-worth. Jane (Brenda Blethlyn) undergoes liposuction and develops an unrealistic crush on her doctor. Daughter Michelle (Catherine Keener) used art craft to escape a dull marriage but now finds herself unwisely dating a teenager (Jake Gyllenhaal). Nervous actress Elizabeth (Emily Mortimer) relates best to dogs and becomes desperate for the approval of a handsome film actor (Dermot Mulroney). And Jane's adopted daughter Annie wants to straighten her hair, but is coached in 'Blackness' by the wise Lorraine (Aunjanue Ellis).Before this comedy, Holofcener was already an accomplished TV director with episodes of Sex and the City and has since split her busy career between TV work and occasional features. She writes about people and situations she knows; she herself has an adopted Black brother. Critics lauded Lovely & Amazing's sometimes rowdy natural humor and insights into how women think, and a featured nude scene in which the insecure Elizabeth asks a lover to criticize her body was singled out for praise.

By Glenn Erickson