From Hustlers to Bombshell, these films centre on the way women work together in various settings instead of portraying an independent woman out to make it on her own.
If we look back at the history of film, it has taught us that a woman will go to any extent to get what she wants; and in fact, a lone-wolf woman worming her way into power has been the basis of popular fiction. Anne Baxter in All About Eve, Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction, Demi Moore in Disclosure, Rebecca De Mornay in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Emma Stone in The Favourite and Jennifer Jason Leigh in Single White Female are just a few examples which show that there’s nothing as dangerous as a woman who sets her mind to something – even if dangerous.
Though viewers are so used to watching storylines pitting woman against woman, in post #MeToo era things are changing and it is quite pleasant to see so many films in 2019 including Hustlers, Midsommar, Booksmart, Bombshell, Little Women and Portrait of a Lady on Fire highlighting the importance of unity among women – each story ending in a way that is truly uplifting.
“Lorene Scafaria understood this full well when writing Hustlers, which begins with a hungry ingenue (Constance Wu) coveting the profitable charisma of an industry veteran (Jennifer Lopez). Based on the paradigms of other stripper films like Showgirls, you expect them to shred each other apart. But they soon become closer than sisters, Lopez’s Ramona enveloping Wu’s Destiny into her world much like she cocoons her in her gigantic fox fur coat upon their introduction. Their mutual trust and admiration fuel their scheme to extort Wall Street dudes in order to keep themselves afloat during the Great Recession,” noted The Hollywood Reporter.
Apart from this, Jay Roach’s Bombshell that shows Fox News chairman Roger Ailes (John Lithgow) has used sexual harassment to systematically divide and conquer the spitfire anchorwomen who lead his network. He realizes too late that his machinations have compelled their collective fury against him.
Coming to period films Portrait of a Lady on Fire and Little Women, both the movies focus on how female artists flourish in societies that force them to sacrifice their talent for marriage.
Another example is Olivia Wilde’s coming-of-age comedy Booksmart. While you presume the typical rich, mean girls are going to make life hell for co-dependent overachievers, essayed by Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever, it turns out that these judgmental nerds have been making life hell for the rest of their classmates throughout high school, and they end up emotionally connecting with each of their female foes on the eve of graduation.
– With information from The Hollywood Reporter
