Rotten Tomatoes
Movies Tv shows RT App News Showtimes
Critics list

Jennifer Merin

Tomatometer-approved critic
Biography:

Jennifer Merin is President of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists and is the Editor-in-Chief of and frequent contributor to AWFJ.org, for which she also writes the http://awfj.org/cinema-citizen. She's covered film and culture for the Associated Press, NY Press, About.com, Women's eNews, The Wrap, USA Today, L.A. Times, Christian Science Monitor, US, Ms., Daily News, NY Post, SoHo News and others. A Tisch SOA grad, she's acted Off-Broadway, in regional theaters and Tokyo, where she belonged to the famed Tenjo Sajiki company and acted in films. Her onscreen debut was in Elia Kazan's Splendour in the Grass (1981) and most recent appearance was in Boaz Yakin's Aviva (2020). She's taught at U of Wisconsin and U of Rhode Island, and conducted workshops in NYC jails and, under USIA auspices, lectured in Iceland, Iran, Colombia, Germany, France, UK, Hungary, Mexico, Japan, Romania, Poland, Sweden, Denmark and other countries. She has reported and reviewed for ABC, NBC and CBS Radio and Westwood One. She has served as juror at IDFA, Edinburgh International Film Festival, Whistler Film Festival, Oxford Film Festival, DOXA, Sheffield Doc/Fest, St Louis International Film Festival, Louisiana Film Prize and others. She is a member of CCA, serving on various awards nominating committees. Her syndicated culturally-oriented travel column began in 1984 and is still going strong.

Location:

New York

Reviews

Movies TV Shows
Spacewoman (2024) EDIT “Hannah Berryman's documentary is a well-deserved tribute ro astronaut Eileen Collins who shattered the glass ceiling of space exploration by being the first woman to command a mission into space.” – AWFJ.org Mar 10, 2026 Full Review H Is for Hawk (2025) 80% EDIT “A profoundly moving and utterly engaging cinematic metaphoric meditation on mourning and the transitory nature of life and nature, itself. ” – AWFJ.org Mar 6, 2026 Full Review Natchez (2025) 97% EDIT “Takes viewers on tours of Natchez, the city. Lead by diverse guides, the tours tell the story of the city's shameful history of slavery. Slavery may no longer exist, but nuanced and extreme bigotry still do.” – AWFJ.org Mar 6, 2026 Full Review Invisible Warriors (2026) EDIT “ Invisible Warriors: Africa American in World War II is an important documentary that brings to awareness another chapter in the U.S.’s heinous history of racial and gender disrimination.” – AWFJ.org Mar 6, 2026 Full Review Beam Me Up, Sulu (2025) EDIT “Beam Me Up, Sulu is a clear and compelling consideration of the importance and impact of storytelling in global culture — and politics. ” – AWFJ.org Mar 6, 2026 Full Review We Strangers (2024) 89% EDIT “Filmmaker Anu Valia’s first feature, We Strangers is a subversive, darkly funny and bitter narrative commentary on socio-economic racial profiling.” – AWFJ.org Aug 27, 2025 Full Review Anxiety Club (2024) EDIT “While showering viewers with mood-lifting laughs, Wendy Lobel's docu ANXIETY CLUB provides a relevant, relatable, easy access platform for reflection upon anxiety — a painfully prevalent condition in our current circumstances. AWFJ's Movie of the Week” – AWFJ.org Aug 10, 2025 Full Review Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight (2024) 91% EDIT “In actor-turned-director Embeth Davidtz's gripping and poignant first feature an 8 yr old White girl and her family flee their beloved ancestral farm to escape racial violence during the Bush War that ended colonial Rhodesia and began democratic Zimbabwe.” – AWFJ.org Aug 6, 2025 Full Review The Tundra Within Me (2023) 88% EDIT “This cinematic adventure into the culture, traditions and feminism of the Sami culture is thoroughly engaging and richly rewarding.” – AWFJ.org May 31, 2025 Full Review The Ugly Stepsister (2025) 96% EDIT “Picked as AWFJ's Movie of the Week, Emelie Blichfeldt’s beautifully-crafted period-set update of the Cinderella story entertains you with engaging performances, gorgeous production values and lots of surprises — including some unexpected twisted humor.” – AWFJ.org Apr 15, 2025 Full Review All Happy Families (2023) 86% EDIT “All Happy Families is director/co-writer Haroula Rose’s highly amusing foray into dysfunctional family dynamics. With all of the film’s endearing characters’ quirks and through all of the plot’s engaging twists, everything is wrong — until it’s right.” – AWFJ.org Oct 9, 2024 Full Review Girls Will Be Girls (2024) 100% EDIT “Shuchi Talati's coming of age drama has good story aplenty and the performances are excellent  -- and, although the film is Indian in origin and reflects Indian culture, <em>Girls will be Girls</em> is universally relatable.” – AWFJ.org Sep 6, 2024 Full Review Twice Colonized (2023) 100% EDIT “Chronicles the life and activism of Aaju Peter, a revered Inuit feminist lawyer who's fought for equal rights in Canada, Denmark and Greenland. She's charismatic and her story is fascinating. Director Lin Alluna does a wonderful job of telling it. ” – AWFJ.org Aug 18, 2024 Full Review Widow Clicquot (2023) 80% EDIT “Aa stirring truth-based drama about the woman who defied French vintner patriarchy and survived calamities to create one of the world’s finest champagnes: Veuve Clicquot. They said she couldn’t do it. She proved them wrong. We are so grateful she did.” – AWFJ.org Aug 18, 2024 Full Review The Fabulous Four (2024) 28% EDIT “A comedy about BFFs, female needs, objectives, perspectives and aging. Directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse, it stars a quartet of iconic actresses -- Bette Midler. Susan Sarandon, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Megan Mullally -- and they are, indeed, fabulous.” – AWFJ.org Aug 18, 2024 Full Review Sugarcane (2024) 100% EDIT “Sugarcane is a hard-hitting documentary about the abuse of Indigenous children at St Joseph’s Residential Mission School in British Columbia. The children suffered isolation, brutal beatings, sexual abuse. The trauma has lasted until today.” – AWFJ.org Aug 18, 2024 Full Review Mountains (2023) 97% EDIT “Director/co-writer Monica Sorelle's moody, beautifully realized drama, is about daily life and strife, community culture and intergenerational relationships and pursuit of the American dream in Miami's Little Haiti.” – AWFJ.org Aug 18, 2024 Full Review Paradise Is Burning (2023) 100% EDIT “The film reminds us that even first world countries — like Sweden — that proudly credit themselves as economically privileged and socially conscious welfare democracies, have underprivileged citizens who struggle to keep from falling between the cracks.” – AWFJ.org Aug 18, 2024 Full Review Late Bloomers (2023) 82% EDIT “LATE BLOOMERS is a soulful film that gives way to compassionate consideration of heart-heavy subjects like loneliness, abandonment, self esteem and the agonies of aging. The story has enough quirky embellishments to be thoroughly engaging throughout.” – AWFJ.org Jun 21, 2024 Full Review The Commandant's Shadow (2024) 92% EDIT “This revelatory Holocaust documentary investigates life after Auschwitz, focusing on how Commandant Rudolph Hoss' son, daughter and grandson come to terms with knowing their beloved forebear murdered more humans than any other human in history. Must see!” – AWFJ.org May 26, 2024 Full Review Shayda (2023) 97% EDIT “Noora Niassari’s semi-autobiographical drama about a woman who is trying to free herself and her six year old daughter from the tyranny and violence of an abusive husband is intensely affecting. It will remain with you long after the credits have rolled.” – AWFJ.org Feb 26, 2024 Full Review Invisible Beauty (2023) 100% EDIT “An engaging documentary by and about Bethann Hardison, the Black model, agency owner and activist who challenged racist practices in the fashion industry and changed ‘the look’ of runway shows, magazine spreads and other platforms for fashion marketing.” – AWFJ.org Nov 22, 2023 Full Review Beyond Utopia (2023) 100% EDIT “Madeleine Gavin’s gripping documentary chronicles North Koreans risking their lives to escape their repressive country. It it is very hard to watch, but it is essential viewing.” – AWFJ.org Nov 22, 2023 Full Review Smoke Sauna Sisterhood (2023) 96% EDIT “An intimate feminist documentary from Anna Hints with women who cleanse their bodies, minds and spirits in a traditional Estonian sauna, a sacred place where women give birth, prepare the dead for burial and relieve stress in their lives.” – AWFJ.org Nov 22, 2023 Full Review Nyad (2023) 86% EDIT “The truth based narrative shows Diana Nyad’s 110 mile swim so effectively that you feel like you’re in the water with her and get a visceral sense of her exhaustion and her will to persist. Annette Benning is brilliant as Nyad.” – AWFJ.org Oct 15, 2023 Full Review
No Reviews Yet
Load More