Brilliant, She Wrote

The ladies are writing it for themselves. With Brit Marling paving her own way into Hollywood, first with thoughtful Sci Fi tinged drama, Another Earth, and now with the fun, trippy, enigmatic Sound of my Voice, ambitious indie actresses seem to be starting a very commendable trend of writing the parts they want to play.

Outside of Marling, Zoe Kazan (Elia Kazan's grand daughter) wrote, produced and stars in the smart & charming Ruby Sparks, Greta Gerwig co-wrote her career defining part in Frances Ha with boyfriend Noah Baumbach and Sarah Polley seems to have abandoned her promising career as an actress to write and direct  the remarkable stories she wants to tell instead; releasing two remarkable films back-to-back - melancholy relationship dramedy Take This Waltz and the much applauded, deeply personal pseudo-documentary The Stories We Tell.

Over in the world of television, Lena Dunham follows in the footsteps of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, taking the reigns of her own TV show - displaying either remarkable all-round talents or distinct control-freak tendencies, or both - as writer / director / producer / star of Girls. Since her acclaimed (in a Sundance kinda way) debut, writing, directing and starring in Tiny Furniture, Dunham has very much written her own significant success story and shows no sign of slowing down.

Hear hear to the young actresses ignoring, and re-writing, the fuzzy, chauvinist rules of Hollywood.