Sophie Gilbert on What’s Wrong With Female Movie Journalists

I really appreciate Sophie Gilbert for writing in The Atlantic about something that has bugged me for a long time, the tired cliche of the movie portrayals of female journalists as completely unprofessional, and especially as always sleeping with their sources and subjects.  I complained about this in my review of the Amy Schumer romantic comedy, “Trainwreck.”

Gilbert begins with Amy Adams in “Sharp Objects,” based on a novel by former real-life journalist Gillian Flynn, who should know better.  “At the end of the most recent episode of Sharp Objects, “Falling,” Camille slept with someone who’s 18 years old, a murder suspect, and one of her primary sources.”  Gilbert discusses “House of Cards” and “The Gilmore Girls” and  she goes back to films like “Absence of Malice” with Sally Field and “Thank You for Smoking” with Katie Holmes.

You wouldn’t ever see Rosalind Russell behave so unprofessionally.

And, as Gilbert explains, male journalists in movies don’t either. It’s time to find some other storyline for female characters.