In all her films, writer and director Nicole Holofcener has demonstrated a knack for crisp, quick-witted dialogue that her ensemble casts clearly relish, and Lovely & Amazing is no different in this respect.

Here, Brenda Blethyn plays a well-off single mother to irascible failed artist Michelle (Catherine Keener, who features in all of Holofcener’s films), self-conscious actress Elizabeth (Emily Mortimer), and recently adopted ten-year-old Annie, who, as the only black member of the family, is struggling to find ways to fit in. 

Insightful, dark and funny, Lovely & Amazing is, as critic Kenneth Turan described, “both marvelously observed and completely individual.” (Notes by Alice Butler.)

This event is part of Beyond the Bechdel Test, our season throughout July focusing on the work of directors who have explored the complex ties between women that are an integral aspect of the films’ narratives, named after the American cartoonist Alison Bechdel who introduced the idea in her 1985 comic strip.