Women at the Box Office This Weekend

Happy almost Labor Day. While Hollywood is dumping films these last two weekends before everyone gets back on track for fall (one, The House Bunny, is about a woman getting kicked out of the Playboy mansion because she is too old, please!), some of the rest of us are focused on the upcoming political conventions and the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

To commemorate that anniversary, opening this weekend in NY and LA, is Trouble the Water, a documentary that won the best documentary feature award at Sundance this year. I haven't seen it, but I am desperate to, and will be there this weekend. Anyone want to join me? Email me.

Here's the description: This astonishingly powerful documentary takes you inside Hurricane Katrina in a way never before seen on screen. Incorporating remarkable home video footage shot by Kimberly Rivers Roberts-an aspiring rap artist trapped with her husband in the 9th Ward-Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine producers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal weave this insider's view of Katrina with a devastating portrait of the hurricane's aftermath. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, TROUBLE THE WATER is a redemptive tale of self-described street hustlers who become heroes-two unforgettable people who survive the storm and then seize a chance for a new beginning.

Check out the trailer here: Trouble the Water. The film will be rolling out across the country in the coming weeks.

On a completely different note, for those of you with kids stuck between camp and school, The Longshots might be a good way to spend some time. Don't get me wrong, this is not a great sports movie, or even a great girls sports movie (my favorite is still Bend it Like Beckham), but it's the interesting true story about the first girl to play quarterback in the Pop Warner football league. Keke Palmer is adorable as Jasmine a shy, sad girl more into reading than socializing. Her single mom works long hours, and she winds up hanging out with her down on his luck uncle Curtis played by Ice Cube, a former football star. Turns out Jasmine is like her uncle and has a knack for football. She tries out for the town football team and winds up the starting quarterback and takes the team, and the depressed former mill town, on a great ride all the way to the Pop Warner Super Bowl.

I'm a sucker for feel good sports movies so I enjoyed it. It's pretty sappy and corny. But I have to say that I thought it showed just how far we have come for girls in sports because it didn't dwell too long on whether a girl could play. That was almost an afterthought. The guys on her team gave her some hazing but I liked the fact that the film didn't get stuck on that issue.

Other Women-Centric Films in Theatres
Frozen River is rolling out across the country. Find out where it is playing in your neighborhood here
American Teen
Mamma Mia!
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
Sex and the City
The Last Mistress (limited)
A Girl Cut in Two (limited)