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I was really impressed by the solid characterizations and the comfort Holofcener has with the story and the script, even among the uncomfortable issues it raises. Finally, a feminine anti-hero film that does not attempt to make any statements about Women or Men, but just gives roles to women that are refreshingly human. The characters are often unsympathetic, but that makes it work so much the better. Shooting in HD video is the best choice over regular DV, and it is almost believable to be film. A solid film and worth seeing!

When I first saw Walking and Talking, Nicole Holofcener's previous film, I didn't realize at first what a brilliant piece of work it was. My experience with Lovely and Amazing was exactly the same. It is only later that it becomes clear how expertly the relationships between the characters are illuminated and with what originality she has constructed a story. Lovely and Amazing is an examination of a family of women and their complex relationships with themselves and the men in their lives. The women in Lovely and Amazing are real people. They are frequently horrible to each other and sabotage themselves just like real women. They are also capable, like real women, of moments of intimacy and insight with each other.

I believe Nicole Holofcener is the most talented indie filmmaker out there at the moment. Walking and Talking is one of my all time favorite films, and Lovely and Amazing just confirmed her status in my eyes as an insightful storyteller. Audiences deserve more films that achieve this level of excellence, and I hope Nicole Holofcener has the chance to deliver them.

Stanley Kubrick's line, to me, sums my impression of this movie up completely.

It was real, but it wasn't interesting.

In all fairness, all of the lead actresses in the movie engaged me at one point or another, at least briefly. But the integral thing about their characters was that they were shallow, and remained shallow at the end.

Which is real, there are certainly people in the world who are shallow and remain shallow.

But it isn't especially interesting.

Watchable and inoffensive but hardly likely to arouse intense debate about anything, really. The performances are neat and unshowy, with Catherine Keener reliable as ever as (another) wayward hard-ass, Mulroney playing the roguish fool and Jake Gyllenhaal practising for the role he plays in The Good Girl. But Brenda Blethyn's matriarch isn't given any real depth which has got to go down as a missed opportunity. And since the story is an irrelevance, there aren't enough revelations (in fact, none) amongst the introspective musings and general angst to set this apart from any other female-orientated slice-of-life indie. It all feels a bit like Soderbergh's Full Frontal, only less constipated.

The thing that makes this movie so - I have to say it - lovely & amazing is what it doesn't do: it doesn't attempt in any shape or form to be commercial, it doesn't compromise its integrity or the integrity of its characters in any way, and it doesn't try to be cute or clever or witty or deep. It simply invites us into the characters' lives and lets us share them for a couple of hours. No judgment, no big overblown speeches, no hystrionics. No car crashes, no dead bodies, no funerals. No artifice, no heavy-handedness, no contrivances.

Nicole Holofcener achieved the same effect in Walking & Talking, which had the same 'effortless' feel to it, and the always-wonderful Catherine Keener is in both, as well. The cast also includes Brenda Blethyn, Emily Mortimer and Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko himself!) and everyone is superb, creating beautifully nuanced and subtle characterizations that ring entirely true.

I trust Holofcener (even though I can't pronounce her name yet) - she doesn't seem like she's going to sell out and make anything remotely commercial anytime in the future, her vision is far too pure for that, which makes her lovely & amazing in my book.