Lovely & Amazing

Jane and her three daughters. The mother decides to have cosmetic surgery. The eldest, Michelle, is married, unemployed and trying to sell handmade trinkets; Elizabeth acts and is constantly judged about her body; the youngest, Annie, was adopted and, as the family's only Black member, is dealing with her own appearance. The subject is not family but how much women are made to think about their own bodies. All four characters are in front of a mirror and all four are carrying somebody else's gaze. The form is small and domestic: kitchen, car, waiting room. Nicole Holofcener builds the scenes as comedy, but the joke never turns against the character. The most cited scene belongs to Emily Mortimer: the long passage in which her character stands naked and asks her partner to criticise her body point by point. It was written out of an experience the actress herself described, and it runs in one take without a cut. Catherine Keener plays Michelle, Brenda Blethyn the mother and Raven Goodwin plays Annie. Jake Gyllenhaal appears in a small role. Who it is for: viewers who like character-driven American independent comedy. Who it is not for: anyone wanting plot; the film proceeds in episodes and never fully ties off any of its strands.