Films with a feminist angle

[rosiepony]

Hi everyone, I’m looking for films with a feminist angle to watch during this lockdown.

I watched Silence of The Lambs last night with my DD for the first time in ages. I was reminded how brilliant it is, how it centres Jodie’s role and shines a critical light on all the male characters although they’re exaggerated for entertainment. I also had new reflections on Buffalo Bill and his ‘woman suit’ although I won’t go into that for fear of being banned! Quite timely given what’s going on though!

Anyway, I’d be grateful for any recommendations. Thanks.

I loved The Craft as well which I think was from a similar time period. I'd categorise that as part feminist part mean girls!

I liked Tank Girl too!

The Australian film Shame is very good. About young men getting away with rape in small town Australia, and a woman fighting it.

Ralph Breaks the Internet has some amazingly strong female characters in it. Watched it tonight.

Oh yes @Wearywithteens The Heat is great fun.

I love Melissa McCarthy, she’s a rare talent. She stars in the film I mentioned above “Can You Ever Forgive Me”, but it’s very different to her usual thing.

Caramel, it is a Lebanese film about a woman who runs a beauty salon. She is in a relationship with a shitty married guy, but sees the light in the end. There are other characters but it’s been a while since I saw it. One is terrified of getting old, one is a lesbian finding it difficult to come out, one spends all her time caring for her sister.

Right which one of you mofos suggested The Descent?

Me and DD have just finished it and it was horrific! Our poor cat with our screaming. I did love the strong characters and particularly that brilliant Irish actor who was in the Magdalen Sisters.

DD has now bought Working Girl from Amazon to lighten the mood before bed. Sort of feminist but in many ways not.

Thanks to everyone for the contributions to this thread, I’m particularly excited about the international films suggested and will debrief after watching!

Oh I love Working Girl but it’s a guilty pleasure for a feminist. Melanie Griffith vacuuming while topless is just the tip of the iceberg.

Still though, “six thousand dollars? It’s not even leather!”

I don't think self made on netflix is a feminist movie. The basis of the true story of was taken away and switched to suit netflix. The educated women madam joined was not after she had started the hair products but it was when she was still a wash woman. They taught her business. These were women who were already travelling the country. She did not give those women a voice among men. In that show, those women deserved there recognition as feminist. They helped her progress from washing clothes.

Both leading women were made to fight in the netflix show but in real life they were both millionaires in their own right who dersved a better film or tv show to what was offered by netflix. It I'd believed that the women cjwalker hot ideas of hair products from became a millionaire first and not what was portrayed.

The colourism portrayed is part of misogynior and they carried it through the whole show. They adapted the life story and changed everything about it. It makes me wonder why netflix allowed or agreed to such a thing. Why change the most important parts of the storyline when most people don't know who madam cj Walker is. They have heard of her but not how she became who she is or her legacy for being the blue print for selling products like Avon.

Its definitely not feminist tv show.

2 Indian films with subtitles . MOM is revenge movie with strong female lead avenging dreadful rape of stepdaughter
SHON Is about two policewomen and their roles within the justice system . Low key but interesting insight.
Both on Netflix ( international)

Omg! Ignore that post. Typing with my phone and that was a wreck. Where did my spell check and paragraph go?

Disobedience on Netflix. with lesbians

Don’t worry creativecringe, I loved your passionate contribution and this whole thread!

Thanks angryresister. DD is a lesbian so we shall watch that for sure.
God, I must go to sleep now.
Sending love and good vibes to you all.

Thanks for your background info on Self Made, creativecringe. I didn't know that and enjoyed the film on face value.

Now, Unorthodox! That is something worth watching! One of the best things I've seen recently. What a performance! Based on a true story: young woman escapes her strict Orthodox marriage and life and starts over in Berlin. The Berlin part is fictional.

Surely what makes a film 'feminist' is simply having a strong, fully developed, female central character who forges her own path in whatever environment, or set of circumstances, she lives.

There are lots of great European and other foreign language films available....so sub-titled films should not be ruled out.

Mustang a 2015 Turkish coming of age film.
Five orphan girls are seen innocently playing with boys on a beach, their scandalized conservative guardians confine them while forced marriages are arranged.

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is a real experience.......An American-Iranian cast.......a contemporary vampire movie with a great sound track. In Persian with sub-titles

Also, American Honey - featuring a strong female lead in the character of Star - who runs away from her circumstances with a crew of young magazine sellers......who travel the US. Great soundtrack.

Both the above by female directors...

as is Winter's Bone, featuring Jennifer Lawrence as a 16year old girl struggling to survive in the hills of Missouri; left with responsibility for her two younger siblings and her mentally ill mother.

Another vote for Hidden Figures. Shocking look at sexism and racism in the NASA space program in 60’s America, but ultimately a great feelgood film.
The brilliant black female mathematician portrayed in the film, Katherine Johnson, just died this year at the age of 98.

Mustang a 2015 Turkish coming of age film

Yes, I've seen that......and there are quite a few good films coming out of Turkey and Iran, and the middle east generally, these days.....

Mention already of "20th Century Women," which has a stupendous cast of Anette Benning, Greta Gerwig and Elle Fanning playing the three generations of eponimous women. They are all beyond brilliant.

The problem is the relationship between Fanning and Benning's son, the whole Dawson's Creek scenario even more ridiculous in this case. Simply not possible.

What does ring true is the period detail. So sick of films made about the 70s by people too young to remember but who are certain they know what it was like. It's not about the clothes and the hairstyles, it's the attitudes, and this film really takes you there, whether you remember 1979 or not.

Six stars out of five.

Just finished After Life, by and with Ricky Gervais, both series.
It's not by any means a feminist film or with a feminist angle -- BUT I love how women are represented in it. It has a human angle, and except for a few big asshole characters, it's great.

AND!!!!

Series 2, episode 6, the last episode, a whole long scene about transgenderism 50 year old man identifying as 8 yr old schoolgirl, wife's opinion, daughter's opinion, whole discussion about the transgender thing absolutely brilliant! Possible to watch just that scene, starting at 12:30, you don't have to watch through the whole thing. It IS worth watching, though.

Sounds brilliant Lamahaha. Horray!

I only just saw that there's a whole thread on that series and scene.