Reel Women

In the last year, Scarlett Johansson has voiced a sentient operating system in Spike Jonze's 'Her' and played an alien striving to understand humanity in Jonathan Glazer's jarring 'Under the Skin.' This week, she tackles a different kind of sci-fi with 'Lucy,' a film that carries some of the same thematic DNA as her previous roles, though it isn't quite as intellectual -- nor is it as brainy as its titular character. But thanks to Johansson, the film prevails, giving us a wild and delightfully weird entry in the Scarlett Johansson Sci-Fi Collection.

This week, Marvel made a pretty major announcement on 'The View': Thor will no longer be a man. Thor will be a woman. Of course, the change is likely only temporary, but along with announcing that the Falcon will be replacing Steve Rogers as Captain America, the company is making some pretty diverse and exciting changes that set some interesting precedents -- precedents that could influence the way we perceive and accept these characters on screen, as well.

Must women leave Earth in order to have a more fulfilling and interesting existence? In a new interview with Zoe Saldana, the star of Marvel's upcoming intergalactic superhero flick 'Guardians of the Galaxy,' said that she feels that there are better roles for actresses in space...

Roman Polanski created a manic adaptation of 'Venus in Fur' in translating David Ives' acclaimed stage play to French and casting wife Emmanuelle Seigner alongside Mathieu Amalric. It's a verbose production that does more than merely meditate on gender dynamics; it explicitly and gleefully deconstructs them, if you can keep up with tantalizingly swift banter between its two stars.

Audiences will flock to theaters this weekend to see 'Edge of Tomorrow,' the latest sci-fi action flick featuring Tom Cruise in his natural environment: running from things, shouting, touting some guns, and fighting off a serious alien threat. But what viewers will be wonderfully surprised to discover is that Cruise isn't the real action star of his own film. Instead, it's Emily Blunt, best known for previous supporting roles in 'The Devil Wears Prada' and 'Looper,' and someone you'd least suspect.

Mike Judge’s new HBO series ‘Silicon Valley’ is a clever, insightful, and at times satirical look at the tech industry in the heart of Silicon Valley, following a group of young upstarts as they endeavor to launch a new platform that will (hopefully) revolutionize data consumption. And while the show has one smart and assertive recurring female character, its dominantly male perspective became alarmingly clear following last week’s episode...

'Divergent' star Shailene Woodley has been doing the rounds to promote her latest role in 'The Fault in Our Stars,' another adaptation of a hit Young Adult novel, and as has become custom when interviewing young actresses, Woodley's been asked about her views on feminism. Woodley, who's basically the flower child version of Jennifer Lawrence, has elicited some harsh reactions with her refusal to e

The ‘Star Wars: Episode 7’ cast was announced this week, and the line-up contains exciting names like Adam Driver, John Boyega, Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, and the legendary Max Von Sydow, further cementing (or in some cases, finally rousing) our interest in J.J. Abrams’ new installment. But, there was something curious among the list of newcomers -- there was only one female on the roster: Dai

Based on a short story by Alice Munro, ‘Hateship Loveship’ stars Kristen Wiig as the sheltered and homely caretaker Johanna who comes to work for a new family, only to have the teenage daughter fabricate a romance between her and the girl’s recovering addict father, played by Guy Pearce. Unfortunately, the film is woefully contrived and Wiig’s tame performance feels like just another underwhelming

Director Jonathan Glazer's 'Under the Skin' stars Scarlett Johansson as an apathetic alien named Laura, who uses her earthly female body to seduce men and lead them to their death. The film is an oft abstract and unnerving experience (especially in the wonderfully bizarre first hour), and when Laura makes a surprising decision, 'Under the Skin' shifts from examining ideas of subjective and intangi