Three films by women directors
I’m 17 days into my 365 challenge for the year and I’ve gotten 17 films watched. I’m right on schedule. I let my wife pick the theme for Thursday night and Friday, which she came up with female directors.
We had planned to make a full day of movies on Friday, doing a marathon but it didn’t happen. We did manage to get 3 films in though, all of which were good but I feel like I am finding a theme within a theme. Lesbianism.
Now, I am all for lesbian pics as I am one… but I do tend to see this more often with female directors. I’m sure I am wrong and this is just what we tend to pick, but I honestly didn’t pick them. And I go into movies blind.
When I (or my wife) chose a film, I don’t look at a synopsis. I look at the name and what the cover art looks like. I judge books by their cover, as I do movies.
Hedda (2025)
Directed by Nia DaCosta
This fourth film by Nia DaCosta, Hedda is a story of revenge dressed up in an elegant package of style and sophistication. Its a thriller without the thrill but the story works.
Hedda Gabler (Tessa Thompson) is stuck between the unrequited love of an old flame and her current “straight” life that seems to be suffocating here. During a formal gathering of friends and her husband’s coworkers, she starts to crack and drags everyone down into a spiral of manipulated chaos.
Sounds great, right?
More than half the time, I was staring at Tessa Thompson thinking about how pretty this woman is. The other part, I was trying to understand the players and why this woman is treating everyone like shit, especially those who seemed to be friends.
It was interesting, intriguing, and a little convoluted.
Bottoms (2023)
Directed by Emma Seligman
Think Little Darlings for Gen Z. In Emma Seligman’s second feature film, she nailed it with Bottoms, a dark comedy about a group of unpopular lesbian girls, who decide to start a self-defense class in order to get close to their dream girls, hook up with them, and lose their virginities.
At first, I really believed I’d hate this film. It was chaotic at best with the cast talking really fast and over each other. The ramble of non-sense at the beginning was overload for a Gen-Xer like myself. But as the film dove into the actual plot, that chaos toned down and I was able to focus on the story and characters.
While much of it was felt like a slapstick comedy from the 80s, it delivered a very real look into high school drama. I was these characters—an outsider, someone who people picked on. Yet, I didn’t have a best friend who was walking in the same shoes.
The film was smart and funny, and a little over the top. But that is what made it shine. It was Mean Girls and Heathers for a new generation.
Pariah (2011)
Directed by Dee Rees
While no stranger to directing, Dee Rees’s first feature film is “Pariah” and it is brilliant and sad film about a young woman, who is navigating her sexuality in world and family that is homophobic beyond belief.
At 17, Alike is smart and creative and also a lesbian. Both of her parents are in denial, as well as against it. They do everything in their power to feminize her because they think it will change her boy-ish mannerisms.
“She’s becoming a man, right before your eyes.” —says the mother to the father.
There’s a million (okay, maybe not a million) “coming out” stories in film but Rees’s take on it brings marginalized characters to the forefront without turning them into some stereotypical poster child for blacks from the hood. It felt real. The characters were honest. And the scene where our lead character is trying on a (white) strap-on for the first time is priceless—yet completely real.
Overall, it was a good day for film in my book.
