Meet: WIGS

Although WIGS is a new venture by two male filmmakers, Jon Avnet and Rodrigo Garcia, the focus is on women.  It is an online film organization with content on YouTube, featuring short films and long series with a strong focus on female lead characters.  Many of the noted actresses have starred in big budget films, but also have a healthy independent film career as well:

Virginia Madsen (Sideways, The Number 23, Ghosts of Mississippi)
Dakota Fanning (The Runaways, Coraline, Hounddog)
Jennifer Beals (Lie to Me, The L Word, Roger Dodger)
Maura Tierney (Rescue Me, Diggers, Scotland, Pa.)
Jena Malone (Into the Wild, The Ballad of Jack and Rose, Donnie Darko)
Rosanna Arquette (Silverado, Baby It's You, Desperately Seeking Susan)
Catherine O'Hara (A Mighty Wind, Beetlejuice, Home Alone)

Your Sister's Sister

The story begins a year after Jack's brother has died. Jack (Mark Duplass) hears his friends revering his brother at a gathering but angrily insists they didn't really know him as he knew the whole picture and said he was a bully too. His best friend Iris (Emily Blunt), who was the brother's ex girlfriend, says he needs some space so tells him to go up her family cabin to be alone, which he does.

 There he meets her sister Hannah (Rosemarie Dewitt) who also decided to go there to be alone, to nurse the pain of a breakup. That evening they commiserate, mostly about her, and end up having drunk sex, even though Hannah is a lesbian.

The next day Iris decides to visit on a whim and the threesome spend the weekend together in the cabin and many sibling emotions, good and bad, come to the surface.

Snow White and the Huntsman

This version of Snow White follows on the heels of the comedic but slight version starring Julia Roberts earlier this spring. In this version, the storyline follows a little bit more of the original source story and remains a dark fairy tale, but doesn't quite live up to its premise.

Kristen Stewart plays Snow White, whose father remarries when he is enchanted, magically or otherwise, by the beautiful Ravenna (Charlize Theron). Ravenna kills him and takes over the kingdom, and banishes Snow White to a dungeon where she is kept for a decade. Meanwhile, Ravenna continues to kill virgins to suck their souls and eats the hearts of birds, both to keep herself forever youthful. She is abetted by her brother Finn (Sam Spruell) who is more a minion than a beloved sibling. She is also advised by her magical mirror that when Snow White comes of age, she will be more beautiful than Ravenna, which convinces Ravenna that now is the time to take Snow White's heart to keep her eternally young. Thus when Snow White escapes her prison, Ravenna sends the Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) after her.

He follows her into what is know as the Dark Forest, but Snow White's goodness protects her from the insiduous magic there.  Later, she and the Huntsman are befriended by some dwarf miners (there are eight of them), and she is able to draw out a magical elk in the fairy's forest, something that has not happened before. It is Snow White's goodness which is strong enough to defeat the queen. Snow White rallies her father's old friend the duke, who is the father of her childhood friend William, to support her cause.

Past seven days

Did you see my comparison of Snow White and the Huntsman and Mirror, Mirror?  Two very different movies.  I didn't get to Moonrise Kingdom, it was all sold out!  (A good sign!)

The Chinese Feast
Snow White and the Huntsman
Strings
Venice
Your Sister's Sister

Snow White and the Huntsman vs. Mirror, Mirror

I thought I'd compare two recent movies about Snow White, one which is still on current screens.