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osprey_archerI decided to devote my inaugural list of movies about female friendship to movies where the friendship is a sidebar in the story rather than the main plot, on the grounds that this would make the list easier to write because I would have less to write about and therefore maybe I would be less prolix.
...Gentle readers, this was not the case. I am afraid that I am perpetually verbose and I am sorry.
Black Swan: This movie is not for everyone. The body horror aspect can be squicky - I definitely watched a lot of the movie through my fingers - Nina’s descent into delusion is intense and draining, and there is criticism that the movie is misogynistic, although ultimately I don’t agree. It’s a movie that is set in the misogynistic milieu of a fantastically dysfunctional ballet company, but in my opinion - your mileage may vary, obviously - it doesn’t endorse the misogyny, or suggest that this dysfunction is inevitable in any environment with a preponderance of women.
And Lily, who comes from a different dance company, is a large reason why. She’s not yet enmeshed in this toxic environment: she’s honest and kind and genuinely tries to befriend Nina - even as Nina’s director, Thomas, primes Nina to see Lily as her sexy, sexy rival. Nina hates Lily but also kind of wants to bang her.
Like, really wants to bang her a lot.
It’s unclear if Lily, in her non-hallucinatory form, returns that desire, which is why I’m including this as a friendship subplot. What is clear is that non-hallucinatory Lily is the only person in the movie who likes Nina without ulterior motives - unlike Thomas, who wants to get in Nina’s pants, or Nina’s mother, who seems to be trying to live out dreams of ballet stardom vicariously through her daughter - but also harbors some resentment as her daughter’s greater talent.
Lily just plain likes Nina, even if Nina is difficult. There’s a beautiful scene where she drops by Nina’s dressing room during the big performance and tells Nina shyly that her dancing is wonderful. And Nina has been in this toxic competitive environment for so long that this just breaks her. Artists genuinely admiring and supporting each other? It’s unimaginable to her. And the fact that Lily tries and doesn’t give up even though Nina is difficult, indeed is rapidly disintegrating (although of course Lily doesn’t know the full extent of it), is what makes their friendship so beautiful to me.
Hanna: While on the run from sinister government forces, Hanna - a young girl shoe father has been training her as an assassin/spy for her whole life - falls in with a British family with a daughter about her age. They’re actually pretty dysfunctional and disconnected from each other, but Hanna's whole life has been so weird and lonely that she finds them enchanting.
She is, in particular, enchanted by the daughter Sophie. What I find fascinating about this is that Sophie and her little brother fit pretty well into a certain stereotyped niche thatasakiyume and I were talking about not too long ago: annoying older sister who is obsessed with make-up and boys and always painting her nails, annoying little brother who runs around with something disgusting cupped in his hands. (I don't recall if they literally do these things in the movie, but they fit the character type.)
But still Sophie is the only person who has ever been really nice to Hanna, in her self-absorbed fourteen-year-old way (who was not self-absorbed at fourteen? At that age I'm not sure I realized there was anyone else on the planet). She has all these traits that are stereotypically negative because they're considered "girly" in the wrong way, and there's no reveal where it turns out that she knows kung fu! or whatever - she has no skills that would offset the perceived negativity of nail-painting - but her friendship to Hanna means she's ultimately a positive character. I think that's rather beautiful.
New Waterford Girl: I was on the fence about including this one on this list because you could probably make a good argument that the friendship is more than a subplot - but I do think the main thrust of the movie is simply a coming of age story: bright and ambitious young Moonie is desperate to leave her rural Nova Scotian hometown for New York (where she has won a scholarship), and eventually cooks up a plot that allows her to do so.
But as part of this process, Moonie befriends, or perhaps I should say “is befriended by,” lively out-of-towner Lou - a new girl in this town where new people are rare. Moonie has been such a misfit toy all her life that she’s not quite sure what to do with this girl her own age who inexplicably wants to hang out with her, especially given that they’re so different on the surface: Moonie is a moody budding artist who keeps the world at bay through sarcasm and irony, while Lou is an outgoing amateur boxer who laughs easily.
But they’re both oddballs, in the end, and so they do become friends. There’s a particularly funny scene where Lou drives them both down the main drag in town, loudly ogling the boys as they go, only to come to the end of the street and ask, “Where do we go next?” - I’m paraphrasing - and Moonie, who has been attempting to crawl beneath the dashboard, says, “We have to go back the way we came.”
I particularly like the unexpected contrast in this scene: Moonie, who likes to think she’s above caring what these people think, is mortified, while Lou, who would like to fit in, just thinks the whole thing is funny.
Piter FM: Piter FM is a Russian romantic comedy/love letter to St. Petersburg (the Piter of the title is the city’s affectionate nickname). Masha, a popular radio DJ, loses her cell phone, which is found by a buddying young architect named Maksim, and when Masha calls her own number to try to arrange to have her cell phone returned, somehow they end up having long wistful talks about the meaning of life and love and the city instead.
It’s a super cute movie and I highly recommend it for all those reasons - and also because of Masha’s adorable friendship with her coworker, Lera, a blonde with a buzz cut and a pet turtle. There’s one scene in particular that sticks in my mind, where Masha’s having a rough day at work, and Lera holds out both hands to her, and then they gallop away down the hallway as if they’re doing the Virginia reel. Just so much joy in that one shot.
The Princess and the Frog: I love Lottie and Tiana’s friendship in this movie, in part because it surprised me: in the first scene I thought the movie was setting Lottie up as a sort of ugly stepsister, the spoiled dumb blonde who will do anything to get a man.
And it turns out that a lot of that description is more or less true: she is spoiled, and blonde, and her main goal in life is to find her prince - who should be a literal prince if possible! - and uses her sex appeal to do it (the scene where she inflates her bosom before rushing off to meet Naveen at her ball always makes me laugh), and all of these things usually signal Bad Person in movies. (Well, except for blondeness. Blondeness can go either way.)
Lottie is all those things, but she’s also a good friend who truly supports Tiana. She hires Tiana to make beignets for her ball to help Tiana get the money for her restaurant (and also because Tiana makes the best beignets: she supports Tiana’s dream not merely out of blind friendship but because she knows Tiana has what it takes to make it happen), she offers emotional support when Tiana is sad (in the classically Lottie style of lending her a ball gown), and when she realizes that the prince she wanted for herself is in love with Tiana, she gallantly renounces all claim to him and tries to save him from his amphibian fate.
Winter's Bone: This is one of my favorite movies ever and I can’t bear to watch it too often because it’s so emotionally devastating. Sixteen-year-old Ree Dolly’s father has just disappeared - right after he put up the family land for his bond to get out of jail. If Ree can’t find him and bring him to his court date, or prove that he’s dead, they’re going to lose the land - and then Ree and her little brother and sister and catatonically depressed mother are going to be out in the street.
Faced with this storm of trouble, one of the first things Ree does is go to her friend Gail for help - only Gail’s husband won’t let her borrow the truck. “Man, it’s so sad to hear you say he won’t let you do something and then you don’t do it,” Ree tells her.
But later on, Gail arrives at Ree’s house, and it’s like a shaft of sunlight breaking through dark clouds. Everything else is going against Ree, but Gail’s loyalty has won out: she’s said “Damn the consequences,” and shown up for her friend.
I'm sure there are movies I've even forgotten or haven't seen yet that have wonderful female friendship subplots. In fact, I think these lists will be even more useful if people comment & make the case for movies that might fit that category. (Try to limit it to maybe two or three per comment? I know we all like to ramble on around here.)
It's actually cheered me up working on these lists and realizing that, even though female friendships are pretty rare in movies in the aggregate, I could actually list quite a few movies with good female friendships - many of them without anyone dying of cancer, even! - even though it did require some digging.
I'm thinking of trying to do a list a week till I run out of lists. Next week will be either Foreign Films (should have saved Piter FM, maybe!) or Friendship in the American South, a.k.a. "I'm pretty sure Steel Magnolias gave birth to it's own tiny subgenre."
...Gentle readers, this was not the case. I am afraid that I am perpetually verbose and I am sorry.
Black Swan: This movie is not for everyone. The body horror aspect can be squicky - I definitely watched a lot of the movie through my fingers - Nina’s descent into delusion is intense and draining, and there is criticism that the movie is misogynistic, although ultimately I don’t agree. It’s a movie that is set in the misogynistic milieu of a fantastically dysfunctional ballet company, but in my opinion - your mileage may vary, obviously - it doesn’t endorse the misogyny, or suggest that this dysfunction is inevitable in any environment with a preponderance of women.
And Lily, who comes from a different dance company, is a large reason why. She’s not yet enmeshed in this toxic environment: she’s honest and kind and genuinely tries to befriend Nina - even as Nina’s director, Thomas, primes Nina to see Lily as her sexy, sexy rival. Nina hates Lily but also kind of wants to bang her.
Like, really wants to bang her a lot.
It’s unclear if Lily, in her non-hallucinatory form, returns that desire, which is why I’m including this as a friendship subplot. What is clear is that non-hallucinatory Lily is the only person in the movie who likes Nina without ulterior motives - unlike Thomas, who wants to get in Nina’s pants, or Nina’s mother, who seems to be trying to live out dreams of ballet stardom vicariously through her daughter - but also harbors some resentment as her daughter’s greater talent.
Lily just plain likes Nina, even if Nina is difficult. There’s a beautiful scene where she drops by Nina’s dressing room during the big performance and tells Nina shyly that her dancing is wonderful. And Nina has been in this toxic competitive environment for so long that this just breaks her. Artists genuinely admiring and supporting each other? It’s unimaginable to her. And the fact that Lily tries and doesn’t give up even though Nina is difficult, indeed is rapidly disintegrating (although of course Lily doesn’t know the full extent of it), is what makes their friendship so beautiful to me.
Hanna: While on the run from sinister government forces, Hanna - a young girl shoe father has been training her as an assassin/spy for her whole life - falls in with a British family with a daughter about her age. They’re actually pretty dysfunctional and disconnected from each other, but Hanna's whole life has been so weird and lonely that she finds them enchanting.
She is, in particular, enchanted by the daughter Sophie. What I find fascinating about this is that Sophie and her little brother fit pretty well into a certain stereotyped niche that
asakiyume and I were talking about not too long ago: annoying older sister who is obsessed with make-up and boys and always painting her nails, annoying little brother who runs around with something disgusting cupped in his hands. (I don't recall if they literally do these things in the movie, but they fit the character type.) But still Sophie is the only person who has ever been really nice to Hanna, in her self-absorbed fourteen-year-old way (who was not self-absorbed at fourteen? At that age I'm not sure I realized there was anyone else on the planet). She has all these traits that are stereotypically negative because they're considered "girly" in the wrong way, and there's no reveal where it turns out that she knows kung fu! or whatever - she has no skills that would offset the perceived negativity of nail-painting - but her friendship to Hanna means she's ultimately a positive character. I think that's rather beautiful.
New Waterford Girl: I was on the fence about including this one on this list because you could probably make a good argument that the friendship is more than a subplot - but I do think the main thrust of the movie is simply a coming of age story: bright and ambitious young Moonie is desperate to leave her rural Nova Scotian hometown for New York (where she has won a scholarship), and eventually cooks up a plot that allows her to do so.
But as part of this process, Moonie befriends, or perhaps I should say “is befriended by,” lively out-of-towner Lou - a new girl in this town where new people are rare. Moonie has been such a misfit toy all her life that she’s not quite sure what to do with this girl her own age who inexplicably wants to hang out with her, especially given that they’re so different on the surface: Moonie is a moody budding artist who keeps the world at bay through sarcasm and irony, while Lou is an outgoing amateur boxer who laughs easily.
But they’re both oddballs, in the end, and so they do become friends. There’s a particularly funny scene where Lou drives them both down the main drag in town, loudly ogling the boys as they go, only to come to the end of the street and ask, “Where do we go next?” - I’m paraphrasing - and Moonie, who has been attempting to crawl beneath the dashboard, says, “We have to go back the way we came.”
I particularly like the unexpected contrast in this scene: Moonie, who likes to think she’s above caring what these people think, is mortified, while Lou, who would like to fit in, just thinks the whole thing is funny.
Piter FM: Piter FM is a Russian romantic comedy/love letter to St. Petersburg (the Piter of the title is the city’s affectionate nickname). Masha, a popular radio DJ, loses her cell phone, which is found by a buddying young architect named Maksim, and when Masha calls her own number to try to arrange to have her cell phone returned, somehow they end up having long wistful talks about the meaning of life and love and the city instead.
It’s a super cute movie and I highly recommend it for all those reasons - and also because of Masha’s adorable friendship with her coworker, Lera, a blonde with a buzz cut and a pet turtle. There’s one scene in particular that sticks in my mind, where Masha’s having a rough day at work, and Lera holds out both hands to her, and then they gallop away down the hallway as if they’re doing the Virginia reel. Just so much joy in that one shot.
The Princess and the Frog: I love Lottie and Tiana’s friendship in this movie, in part because it surprised me: in the first scene I thought the movie was setting Lottie up as a sort of ugly stepsister, the spoiled dumb blonde who will do anything to get a man.
And it turns out that a lot of that description is more or less true: she is spoiled, and blonde, and her main goal in life is to find her prince - who should be a literal prince if possible! - and uses her sex appeal to do it (the scene where she inflates her bosom before rushing off to meet Naveen at her ball always makes me laugh), and all of these things usually signal Bad Person in movies. (Well, except for blondeness. Blondeness can go either way.)
Lottie is all those things, but she’s also a good friend who truly supports Tiana. She hires Tiana to make beignets for her ball to help Tiana get the money for her restaurant (and also because Tiana makes the best beignets: she supports Tiana’s dream not merely out of blind friendship but because she knows Tiana has what it takes to make it happen), she offers emotional support when Tiana is sad (in the classically Lottie style of lending her a ball gown), and when she realizes that the prince she wanted for herself is in love with Tiana, she gallantly renounces all claim to him and tries to save him from his amphibian fate.
Winter's Bone: This is one of my favorite movies ever and I can’t bear to watch it too often because it’s so emotionally devastating. Sixteen-year-old Ree Dolly’s father has just disappeared - right after he put up the family land for his bond to get out of jail. If Ree can’t find him and bring him to his court date, or prove that he’s dead, they’re going to lose the land - and then Ree and her little brother and sister and catatonically depressed mother are going to be out in the street.
Faced with this storm of trouble, one of the first things Ree does is go to her friend Gail for help - only Gail’s husband won’t let her borrow the truck. “Man, it’s so sad to hear you say he won’t let you do something and then you don’t do it,” Ree tells her.
But later on, Gail arrives at Ree’s house, and it’s like a shaft of sunlight breaking through dark clouds. Everything else is going against Ree, but Gail’s loyalty has won out: she’s said “Damn the consequences,” and shown up for her friend.
I'm sure there are movies I've even forgotten or haven't seen yet that have wonderful female friendship subplots. In fact, I think these lists will be even more useful if people comment & make the case for movies that might fit that category. (Try to limit it to maybe two or three per comment? I know we all like to ramble on around here.)
It's actually cheered me up working on these lists and realizing that, even though female friendships are pretty rare in movies in the aggregate, I could actually list quite a few movies with good female friendships - many of them without anyone dying of cancer, even! - even though it did require some digging.
I'm thinking of trying to do a list a week till I run out of lists. Next week will be either Foreign Films (should have saved Piter FM, maybe!) or Friendship in the American South, a.k.a. "I'm pretty sure Steel Magnolias gave birth to it's own tiny subgenre."
no subject
Date: 2017-11-24 11:27 pm (UTC)And I totally agree about Lottie and Tiana! I was surprised and touched that Lottie, even though she was selfish, was also loving and helpful.
no subject
Date: 2017-11-25 02:19 am (UTC)I like Naveen a lot, but at the end of the day I think Tiana & Lottie's friendship is just my favorite thing in The Princess and the Frog. There are so many things that could and maybe should drive them apart and the fact that they manage to be friends despite that is really touching to me. (I do wish we'd gotten to see a bit more of Tiana's other friends, but at some point you've just got to say "It's a movie and it has a limited running time, so it can't do everything.")