Films which just fill you with feminist happiness

[legoplayingmumsunite]

To counterbalance the 'films which just annoy you', and to give GarlicReverses some good recommendations. Since she asked for action movies and political intrigue here are my starters:

Nothing But the Truth
The Hunger Games
FoxFire
Lore

[BeeBawBabbity]

True Grit, I watched it again recently and was reminded of the wonderful gumption of 14 year old Mattie Ross. A great female character. (Although the film/book probably wouldnt pass the Bechdel test. Shame).

[Anonynonny]

I watched Burn After Reading the other night, was weeping with mirth about it. It's a Coen brothers film with George Clooney and Brad Pitt looking as unattractive as it is possible for them to look. The women in the film are all more competent, determined and focused than the men and they don't get killed, unlike a couple of the male characters. So unusual and it struck me so forcibly how shocking it was to see the male characters killed in a way that it wouldn't have been shocking to see the women killed, usually they're just not important enough to matter about being shot. Made me realise how inured I am to seeing VAW in films, how casually it's done. It felt really shocking when the same thing happens to the men.

[Mignonette]

What about Fargo? Another Coen Brothers masterpiece.

I also think Moonlight Kingdom has a cool female young lead.

[Anonynonny]

YY the woman in Fargo was also in Burn after Reading Mignonette. Frances something

[Mignonette]

Frances Dormand - she is married to the other Coen brother!

[LokiTheCynicalCat]

Tv shows - Borgen and Spiral both feature very strong female leads.

In Borgen especially I like how the lead roles of both Birgitte and Katrine have families and high-profile careers and occasionally struggle with how they are perceived while trying to balance those. In Spiral (Engrenages) I like that the female policewoman and the red-haired lawyer are both unashamedly sexual people and this does not detract from their careers or the perception of their professional abilities, which I rather cynically think it would in real life. Their colleagues still respect them in the morning...

[legoplayingmumsunite]

I love Borgen and how it deals with the women's private lives. I like that no-one ever says 'Oh just go home and be a little wife now', it's just accepted that it's important to them to work.

Another TV I'm loving at the moment is The Good Wife, lots of interesting female characters and I especially like the variety of the recurring characters (like the different judges or opposing lawyers). And Christina Baranski's character is fabulous.

[Anonynonny]

oh yes and the Bridge

and the Killing. Scandi dramas.

[Gremlinsateit]

I read an article when Thelma and Louise came out, which said that originally they escaped to Mexico, but the focus groups wouldn't let them get away without being punished.

I love Working Girl. I know there are some dodgy themes but I love the transformation from assistant to boss which comes because she is so good at her job, and the ending with Harrison Ford packing her lunch for her to take to her own office.

[caramelwaffle]

Legally Blonde

[caramelwaffle]

Legally Blonde

[AskBasil]

I didn't like Working Girl, mainly because it seemed to me to be a film where women are as usual pitted against each other for the purposes of chasing Male Approval. It seemed to set Sigourney Weaver up as the bad woman - beautiful, successful, slim, efficient - while Melanie Griffiths is the good woman - a little bit less competent, a bit less ruthlessly ambitious, a bit more of a weight problem, a bit more dependent on men's good opinion and therefore more attractive to all of us.

It's a long time since I've seen it though, so it could be hindsight talking.

[NeedAdviceNameChanger]

Not sure if it's been suggested but The Call with Halle Berry. Its quite a new film.

[HelenHen]

I heard somewhere that Jodie foster only reads scripts written for men as there are no decent roles for women... So some of her films!

Kick ass?

Sarah conor was pretty kick ass when I was a kid in terminator 2 but hardly a feminist movie lol.

[HelenHen]

Yep to winters bone

Jackie Brown ffs... Love Pam Greer in that!

Death proof? Hmm quite a Tarantino theme

The secret life of bees?

The girl with the Dragon tattoo... Although some may disagree!

[Mignonette]

Real Women Have Curves is a great film with a strong Latina role model in America Ferrara who desires an education and has to fight against her Mothers internalised beliefs about the female roles.

Waitress also has a good message in that she ends up a single parent with her own business although she does need the bequest of an edlerly (male) customer to enact this.

Silkwood has a strong female role model in Meryl Streep - yes she is placed in the context of her relationships to a certain degree but it does show her educating herself, becoming empowered through activism and making men very annoyed about this.

[QueenoftheVerse]

One of my favourite movies of all time is Boys on the Side. amazing movie and hardly anyone has seen it!

[legoplayingmumsunite]

Real Women Have Curves is a great film with a strong Latina role model in America Ferrara who desires an education and has to fight against her Mothers internalised beliefs about the female roles.

And that reminds me of the classic Educating Rita.

[Mignonette]

Oh yes Lego education as both way out and way in.

[HelenHen]

Oooohh: Chocolat and Heathers

[MorrisZapp]

I watched both True Grit and Winters Bone in the last week. Both are brilliant films from a feminist perspective, but more than that, they're both brilliant films full stop. Which is much more important.

Thelma and Louise was a huge part of my life when I was in my twenties. It even informed my dress sense! I loved and continue to love that film so much. My mum is a radical feminist who says none of it bears analysis and that Harvey Keitel gets to be the hero, and that men in the audience get to congratulate themselves for not being rapists. But I don't agree at all.

To me that film was about two of the best acting performances I've ever seen in my life, against a backdrop that seemed gritty, true and sexy. It made me feel more confident in myself, so in terms of outcome surely that's the true measure.

[ThatBloodyWoman]

Yy to Silkwood

[Selks]

Morris, if you liked Winter's Bone do watch Frozen River, you'll love it. It's an awesome film.