Tara McNamara

As a film journalist and critic, Tara McNamara loves watching movies, but more than that, she loves spurring audiences to think about movies. In print and on screen, she focuses on motivating people to reflect on how media messages affect their own actions and opinions. To that end, she has appeared as the Fandango Film Mom, co-hosted the digital series “Mom’s Movie Minute;” and had recurring segments “Reel Moms” on Today and “Parents Guide” on The Insider. Currently, she’s on staff as a film critic for Common Sense Media. Tara also writes several articles a year for Variety, a relationship that began in 2007 when she served as their entertainment news anchor on Sirius XM. Tara’s film journalism career began in 2004 when she and her then 9-year-old son Cole created KidsPickFlicks, a website where kids of all ages could send in their own movie reviews, providing a kids-eye view of movies offered by no other site.