Films with a feminist angle

I LOVE pitch perfect!! Especially the first one. Lots of digs at sexism.

One that’s often overlooked is Legally Blonde. It’s literally about a girl’s journey from valuing herself based on boyfriend and “marriageability” to being a kick ass professional. The “enemy” girl turns out to be an ally. And most importantly - in a reverse of film normality, all the neutral roles (could be men or women without affecting the plot) are played by women.

Winter's Bone. A great performance by Jennifer Lawrence and good supporting cast including her friend and the hardbitten women in the "enemy" family. I love the scene where Marideth Sisco sings as well.

"Lady Macbeth - also starting Florence Pugh. Similar set up to Lady Chatterley's Lover but turns very dark."

That was very good, on BBC i-player recently.

"Strong, interesting, 3-dimensional female characters are the focus."

Elizabeth is a strong and interesting characters. Jane is probably the second most important character and is pretty one-dimensional. The other sisters aren't. I suppose some of the other women are interesting characters, but not sympathetic e.g. Lady Catherine, the mother.

"Women constrained by patriarchy and gender stereotypes, taking control of their destinies in different ways and with different degrees of success."

Well, I suppose Lizzie did refuse to marry Mr Collins, but apart from that there's not much 'taking control of destiny'. Obviously, those were the constraints of the time.

"Feminist film doesn't, I think, simply mean women get the best of everything"

No, but it's not just any film about a woman either.

Steel Magnolias is a great film. Its feminist in the way all the central characters are women, the men just incidental and good rounded characters.
I liked a film recently called Little on Sky Movies, its a comedy role reversal of the old Tom Hanks film Big. Quite formulaic but with some good female characters.

Oh, I got the name of the film wrong, it's "On the Basis of Sex". Now I've figured that out, I can see it's available on Amazon Prime. Will also check out the RBG documentary too, thanks!

Joy with Jennifer Lawrence as well. Loved that one!

Also; The Favourite (not sure where it's available)
Midsommar - brilliant eerie film starring Florence Pugh. Wicker Man vibes.
Lady Macbeth - also starting Florence Pugh. Similar set up to Lady Chatterley's Lover but turns very dark.

I love Pride and Prejudice, but don't see how it's particularly feminist (or otherwise).

Strong, interesting, 3-dimensional female characters are the focus.

Women constrained by patriarchy and gender stereotypes, taking control of their destinies in different ways and with different degrees of success.

Feminist film doesn't, I think, simply mean women get the best of everything.

Wonder Woman - a rare superhero film I actually enjoyed, and fun to see a woman starring and being a bit goofy
The Wife - interesting film starring Glenn Close on Netflix
Jane Eyre (any version)
Roma
The Philadelphia Story- Katharine Hepburn is wonderful
Bridesmaids 😁

I’m going to lower the tone even more!

The recent Charlie’s Angels - the women are bad ass and they win
Ditto the latest Terminator

The Wife -- on Netflix

I'm going to lower the tone. Pitch Perfect. All three of them. Now there is some objectification and it's not perfect. But it portrays a group of talented women, who love each other, winning. And through the trilogy, the men become less and less important. The relationship angle, for Anna Kendrick's character at least, disappears.

And in the second one, AK's character means to insult another woman but keeps saying things like, "your sweat smells like cinnamon" and "you are literally flawless" instead. It's a nice twist on women having to be awful to each other.

And I love the pillow fight scene when AK's character comes back and says, "you know this sets women back like 30 years". It shines a light on the lazy tropes that other film makers use.

'I am not an easy man' on Netflix. French role reversal film about a misogynist who wakes up in an alternate dimension in which the patriarchy has been replaced with a matriarchy and he suddenly has to deal with the same casual sexism that he used to dole out.
Bit of a sledgehammer at times, but very good at highlighting how ridiculous sexist expectations are.

"The Accused, Jodie Foster. Not easy to watch at all as it's about a woman's fight to get her rapists prosecuted, but it's very well done and thought-provoking."

There's also a series on Netflix based on a true story: Unbelievable.
Highly recommended.

I love Pride and Prejudice, but don't see how it's particularly feminist (or otherwise).

Big little Lies

I thought about not putting this forward, because it's sometimes very cringy stereotypes in parts, its also very frustrating to watch and as much as I like a who done it, after half way through I googled to find out. I don't know if it got better because I now knew, or the story and characters got better.

Both seasons left a big impression though.
I think I prefer the second season.

Lol sorry Rosie I just meant that the character of Sally in TCH was one of the first final girls, which is kind of a trope now in horror. I LOVE that film.

Shirley Valentine? Not 100% certain it's ' feminist', but she makes her own happiness by going against what is expected of her. And it's another lovely film.

How is Frozen a feminist film? What’s her face dumps her responsibilities on some random male with a pretty face.

Now, The Snow Queen, otoh, is a feminist tale. Gerda sets off to save her brother, helped by a variety of strong females, the Robber Girl, the Lap Woman and the Finn Woman.

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe and the BBC Pride and Prejudice both made a huge - positive! - impact on my teen dd. Fabulous films. Vastly more feminist IMO than Thelma and Louise, where the takeaway message in the end is that women cannot win. I found the ending very depressing.

Bend it like Beckham
Wajida
The Breadwinner
Vera Drake
Educating Rita

Also almost anything by Asghar Farhadi - an Iranian director (man) making films with a distinctly feminist viewpoint. Would specially recommend A Separation, The Past, and The Salesman.