Katniss 4-Ever

"The success of 'The Hunger Games' series has been itself, in its bottom-line fashion, a rejoinder to another intolerant regime, that of a movie industry that continues to treat women on and off the screen as a distraction, an afterthought and a problem. A few months into its run, the second installment, “Catching Fire,” became the first movie with a lone female lead to top the annual domestic box office in four decades. That’s astonishing because it reveals the historical depths of the industry’s inequities even while it speaks to the audience’s embrace of this series. There are all sorts of reasons that viewers have flocked to these movies, including the studio hard sell, but I like to think the numbers prove that, in rallying to Katniss’s side, they’re also backing the other liberation struggle she has come to represent." -- Manohla Dargis's review of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 in The New York Times

I actually didn't fall in love with the Hunger Games books. The films are also flawed, but Jennifer Lawrence is truly great in them.  She elevates the material and makes me care about Katniss's character more than I expected I could. Here's hoping her role in these films pushes even more movie studios to cast strong female leads.

Going to see Hunger Games this weekend, because it's sometimes worth it to take part in these cultural touchstones as they are happening. (Paying a whole $17!)