It’s Midday at the Movies, and joining Tom in the studio for our monthly look at new films and film industry trends are our favorite movie mavens: Jed Dietz, founding director of the Maryland Film Festival, and Ann Hornaday, film critic for the Washington Post.
A recent study finds that nearly 78% of movie reviews last year were written by white men. How does the paucity of diverse perspectives affect the kinds of movies that get made, and which ones become hits? If more women wrote film criticism, would movies be different?
Might it speed the currently slow progress in securing more roles for women in front of and behind the movie cameras?
Ann and Jed comment on the issue of film critics' diversity, and also offer their takes on some of the new films out in local theaters this weekend, from director Boots Riley's Sorry to Bother You (at the Charles) and David and Nathan Zellner's Damsel(at the Parkway) to Pixar's long awaited CGI action sequel, Incredibles 2(at the Senator).
And as always, they take your questions and comments on the movies that matter to you.
A note about the free summer movie event Tom mentions in the show: Robert Zemeckis' 1988 live-action/animated classic "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" is being screened at 9pm at the Hughes Family Outdoor Theater in Federal Hill Park, part of the American Visionary Art Museum's "Flicks from the Hill" series. For more info, click here.
