neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Lovely & Amazing
	Nicole Holofcener Catherine Keener, Brenda Blethyn, Emily Mortimer, Dermot Mulroney, Jake Gyllenhaal, Raven Goodwin 2001		Sisterhood is powerful, but sisterly love is powerfully dysfunctional in this spiny scrutiny of a mother and her three daughters trying to live with their various flaws. It doesn't have flashy big-name actresses like "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood," but the well-acted "Lovely & Amazing" is a more interesting, honest take on female bonding and family dynamics. Elizabeth (Emily Mortimer) is an actress looking for her big break; her sister Michelle (Catherine Keener) is trying, unsuccessfully, to make money as an artist. Their concurrent career and romance problems create havoc at the same time that their mom (Brenda Blethyn) battles low self-esteem with liposuction and suffers complications. Mom's hospitalization puts too-nurturing Elizabeth and judgmental Michelle in charge of youngest sister Annie (Raven Goodwin), who's pudgy, precocious, adopted, black and starting to feel isolated from her white family. Everyone is vulnerable. Nothing's easy. With Dermot Mulroney and Jake Gyllenhaal.