If in doubt about what film to watch on a Friday night, like us, you probably always head to film review site Rotten Tomatoes.

But other than an average rating audience sore, and the 'fresh' and 'rotten' review, the website doesn't really give you much help in deciding whether it's worth wasting two hours on an 'okay-ish' or 'must-see' film.

That's why filmmaker Miranda Bailey has created CherryPicks, a review site consisting of reviews by critics who identify as female, with a four-level rating system.

During an appearance at South by Southwest this week, Bailey announced the impeding launch of the website.

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Explaining her decision to create the website, the filmmaker admitted she felt compelled to champion female critics' voices because she realised that film criticism is often 'skewed toward one point of view'.

'Even though everyone's an individual and everyone has different points of view, and all men don't think alike and all women don't think alike, in terms of representation of their opinions, there just weren't enough women,' she told Vulture.

'What I wanted to do with CherryPicks is have a place where I could go or where women could go and go, "Well, what do my fellow women think about this film? What do my fellow women think about this concert? What do they think about this video game?" because we have a bit more, I think, nuanced way of thinking about media and thinking about art.'

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Instead of reviews that give a 'black and white' criticism of films, the director – who is the brains behind films such as Swissy Army Man and The Diary Of A Teenage Girl – says she wants CherryPicks to 'do a bowl of cherries, which is like, "You can't miss it," to the pits, which is like, "Don't bother."'

The website will also help users decide whether a film is worth for say a date night or sleepover with your BFF.

'There are also one cherry and two cherries, which are kind of in between — like, "That movie was great to see, but don't bother going [to the theatre] to see it," or like, "Oh, it's awesome if you have strep throat and you're watching Bridget Jones's Diary [kinds of movies]," or whatever.

After all, a film like 13 Going On 30 might not be Oscar worthy, but damn it's worth watching if only for an attempt at recreating the Thriller dance scene.

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Not one to condemn Rotten Tomatoes, Bailey says that the point of CherryPicks is to 'encourage more journalists that are younger women to get into journalism and into the job of critical thinking when it comes to media'.

Acknowledging a tweet in reaction to the news who implore her to trans women, WOC and women with disabilities as criticism, Bailey points out:

'I found that tweet a little strange because I'm like, "Did we say anywhere we were only doing white women?" But, no, of course. That's one of the main goals. We're going to be a site for people who identify as women. Where men can go to the site as well, but in terms of aggregating reviews, it'll be from people who identify as women.

However, others have voiced their love of the idea:

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In the press release, Bailey outlines that CherryPicks will also offer data services to studios to improve female representation behind the camera and in female stories.

'I hope that with CherryPicks and with women talking about movies, not just female movies, but just movies in general — we're going to be doing just as much as Rotten Tomatoes is doing — hopefully, people will be able to see that there's more consumers out there that are open to products that have to do with female stories and female leads and that kind of thing. Female rock and roll, female heavy metal, female video games, stuff like that.

Bailey hopes to launch CherryPicks in autumn and we couldn't be more excited.

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Katie O'Malley
Site Director

Katie O'Malley is the Site Director on ELLE UK. On a daily basis you’ll find Katie managing all digital workflow, editing site, video and newsletter content, liaising with commercial and sales teams on new partnerships and deals (eg Nike, Tiffany & Co., Cartier etc), implementing new digital strategies and compiling in-depth data traffic, SEO and ecomm reports. In addition to appearing on the radio and on TV, as well as interviewing everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Rishi Sunak PM, Katie enjoys writing about lifestyle, culture, wellness, fitness, fashion, and more.