Who Runs The World? Girls!
In honor of Women’s History Month, I thought I’d come up with a list of my favorite movies directed by, written by, or starring women. Why not books, you say? I’m an equal opportunity lover of all things artistic. Plus, I talk about books A LOT so I’m switching it up here.
These are in no particular order:
Directed By:
Big, Penny Marshall
A League of Their Own, Penny Marshall
Brave, Brenda Chapman
Sleepless in Seattle, Nora Ephron
Clueless, Amy Heckerling
Boys Don’t Cry, Kimberly Peirce
You’ve Got Mail, Nora Ephron
Prince of Egypt, Brenda Chapman
Bridget Jones’s Diary, Sharon Maguire
Bent it Like Beckham, Gurinder Chadha
The Matrix, Wachowski Siblings
Zero Dark Thirty, Katherine Bigelow
Selma, Ava DuVernay
Written By:
Clueless, Amy Heckerling
Erin Brockovich, Susannah Grant
Interview With A Vampire, Anne Rice
Mean Girls, Tina Fey
Thelma and Louise, Callie Khouri
When Harry Met Sally, Nora Ephron
Letters From Iwo Jima, Iris Yamashita
Shutter Island, Laeta Kalogridis
Mrs. Doubtfire, Leslie Dixon
Legally Blonde, Karen McCullah & Kristen Smith
Juno, Diablo Cody
Starring:
Bridesmaids, Melissa McCarthy, Kristin Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Ellie Kemper
Bend it Like Beckham, Kiera Knightly, Parminder Nagra
The Help, Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Allison Janney
Precious, Gabourey Sidibe
Girl, Interrupted, Wynona Rider, Angelina Jolie, Brittany Murphy
Black Swan, Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis
Easy A, Emma Stone
Imagine Me and You, Piper Perabo, Lena Headey
Legally Blonde, Reese Witherspoon
Winter’s Bone, Jennifer Lawrence
GI Jane, Demi Moore
The Color Purple, Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg
Kill Bill (1 and 2), Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu
Pitch Perfect, Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Anna Camp, Brittany Snow, Elizabeth Banks
The Devil Wears Prada, Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep
Mean Girls, Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried, Lacey Chabert, Lizzy Caplan
Carol, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara
The Hunger Games, Jennifer Lawrence
Mad Max: Fury Road, Charlize Theron, Zoe Kravitz, Rosie Huntington-Whitle
Charlie’s Angels, Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu
Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Daisy Ridley
Some of these (a lot, actually) overlap categories, but I didn’t include them in each section. I placed them in the category for which I most like the representation, or at least, I tried to because for some I like in overlapping categories as well. I could have included WAY more accomplished women on this list but I tried to be selective.
There are so many talented ladies out there developing incredible stories for the big screen or portraying women in such varied and heartfelt ways. But this list needs to get bigger! There need to be more films written by, directed by, and starring women. Since these are only my favorites, if you have any suggestions, feel free to leave a comment!
All About That Leap
Kind of random stuff here, but I thought it would be fun to post today since we only live this day every four years. I guess today’s got me thinking about where I was the last time today came around and the leap of faith it took to get to where I am now.
It was 2012, I was new to twitter, new to actively pursuing my writer’s journey, fresh out of school, and filled with optimism. I had this crazy notion that publishing was easy and there wasn’t anything else I had to learn about writing. It would all be a piece of cake.
Oh little Rachel, so young, so pure.
I thought twitter would help me find who to query in the industry and nothing more. Actually, I begrudgingly signed up. I was convinced twitter was a big waste of time and it was far better to lurk around soaking up information rather than participating. And it did help with soaking up info, for sure, but beyond gathering new knowledge, twitter introduced me to something magical: writing contests. And that’s where the leap comes in.
From the sidelines, I watched Cupid’s Blind Date contest that February and thought, “Huh. This could be really cool.” I also thought, “There’s no way I could share my writing with the entire internet. Or at least the part of the internet reading these posts. No way.” Just the thought of entering something like that made me panic.
And so as Cupid’s contest ended, another began. The Writer’s Voice. For a while I hemmed and hawed about entering, but for frack’s sake, it was a leap year! It was time to take a leap of faith! I’m pretty positive I didn’t actually think that, but for the sake of this post, let’s say I did. Honestly, I took a huge risk applying. I put my writing into the world in a way that forced me to be brave, build a thick skin, and continue to develop my craft. This was my sad entry, if you care to check it out. Hint: don’t. Please.
What happened after that contest, you ask? Well, nothing, to be quite frank. And also everything.
My entry went no where, but I started bonding with other writers over the stress of the contest, I started getting actual people to read this old blog here, I started seeing the difference between entries that were well polished and my work that was…well…not. Taking the leap to enter the Writer’s Voice contest started a whole new chapter in my life. I had no idea at the time how influential it would be, but it really changed everything from there on out.
I met almost all my CPs and betas through that contest, a lot of which have become my closest friends. I was able to find resources and outlets to continue learning about writing (because surprise! you’re never done learning) and that ultimately made me comfortable in writing something new and different. Not long after, that something new and different connected me with a lot of agents and some editors, too. Getting such positive feedback on my first publishable novel was what led me to writing another, and another. It’s what led me to entering Pitch Wars with the novel I got signed.
Creating a community on twitter from that first class of Writer’s Voice people and slowly building off it with so many awesome others also helped me become more open about the silly things I did, or nerdy stuff I liked, or even sharing my truest self with others. I found a place that let me show all of that without fear or worry of what other people might think which little by little helped me do that more with everyone in my life.
Four years ago I took a huge leap of faith. I’d say the leap is something people take for granted and don’t embrace enough. Mostly because it sounds easy, but it’s quite terrifying and sometimes can be the hardest thing you do. But if you don’t take that leap, you’ll never know. And personally, not knowing is scarier so, I took the leap and entered that contest. I can say with 100% certainty, I had no idea how it would effect my life, but it set me on a positive course that was different from anything I ever expected out of twitter or writing contests or being a writer in general.
As this new leap year comes around, I’m proud of that choice and looking forward to the leaps to come. So if I have any advice to you, it’s laugh in the face of danger/anxiety/the unknown and take the leap.
Flash Fiction: Forever
I stopped counting years after I turned 121. I’m not sure why that number. I had been very careful to remember all the other big days – different milestones they meant, the people who came and went during each successive celebration, but the big one-two-one seemed so unimportant to me. So insignificant.
Just as I planned to begin my day like so many before, I lost concentration. Distracted and derailed by who knows what. I wasn’t sure where it came from, but it tickled my brain in the most unpleasant way. An itch you can’t scratch. I turned in circles, trying to make it disappear but it wouldn’t. It lingered there, whatever it was, and conquered any tiny remnant of the old fashioned word “birthday”.
People said I should be excited by this new year, but I wasn’t interested in celebrating anymore. Balloons were always the same, cake was never as sweet as it used to taste, and frankly I had enough stuff to tide me over for the next hundred years. Everyone had the big hundredth birthday bash or the ever-increasing two-hundredth birthday ceremony, but the second life, as we called it, those second hundred years, were less reliable than the first half but twice as reckless. Even still, it was just another day. A broken record of a song I had grown tired of years ago.
In a frenzy to find the source of my discontent, I searched my house like a blissful robber, turning over furniture, pulling out drawers. I inspected the attic and the basement just the same, peeling back layers of dust until the air became thick with the past. Something compelled me to keep going, just like always. Something forced me into each passing second, maybe the same thing that locked my face in youth. That relentless pull to the future, never knowing what might come, but knowing it inevitably would.
Thing was, no one could stop me from aging. No one could stop me from living, either. You’d think after a hundred and twenty-one years I would have seen it all, done it all, and I had, but only the things people thought were meant for a normal life. What did that mean anyway? I kept going, kept pushing, kept waking up and falling asleep, kept eating, kept dreaming, I went non-stop because on this train there was no final destination. My journey was a never-ending loop.
For once I wanted to slow down, look around, breath the crisp air, and truly get to know the people and places I called home. The phantom noise or maybe smell gripped me as I stood in my disheveled kitchen. Was it the drone of bees or the squeal of a car breaking too fast? Was is the laughter of children or the smell of fresh bread? I realized had experienced this sensation before, I had searched for it in the eyes of others, but I couldn’t seem to find the source.
I turned over cushions and bedspreads, upended everything I owned. The one thing left was the hallway mirror, glistening with a shimmer of sunlight. But even when I searched behind it, even when I felt along the wall for any sign of disturbance, I came up empty. I fixed my eyes on my own puzzled gaze staring back in the mirror. What was I looking for?
Oscar Rant 2016
Over the last few days I’ve let the Oscar nominations settle and collected my thoughts together in a fashion that can only be described as one of my most rambley-rants ever. Might as well jump right in:
First and foremost #OscarsSOWhite
Hello, people who might as well be the same individuals aging over their lifetimes! You all look so….so….white today. Is this 2016? Maybe not…I thought it was.
Look, they all deserve to be nominated, well, I’m assuming since I haven’t seen every single movie but I’ve seen enough to know there are people on this list who I believe SHOULD be on this list. Cate Blanchett, Eddie Redmayne, Leo, sure but he should’ve been nominated for Gangs of New York and Catch Me If You Can way back in the day, but I digress. There are others who should be on this list, too, who aren’t and not surprisingly, they aren’t white. *coughs* Idris Elba and Michael B Jordan *coughs*
It frustrates me because this means getting from that list of “Should be Nominated” to “Actually Nominated” obviously has a “must be white” clause attached to it. This isn’t news, though. If this was the first time in recent memory this happened with the Oscars, I’d brush it off and give another chance for next year’s crowd. But it’s not the first time and this is now two years in a row of utter bullshit.
It’s this kind of nonsense that keeps the list of Latin@ and Asian actors/directors to the tiniest list imaginable. Seriously…go ahead and name a few. A few is all you’ll get. I’m exhausted with seeing white people given all the roles and even more so white people in roles that should be for PoC (ex. Emma Stone in Aloha). There are plenty of talented actors waiting for their chance to shine who totally could make it if the roles meant for them weren’t given to whites all the time. But again…this is nothing new.
Another gripe I have is with the fact that genre fic movies are very rarely considered for Best Picture or Best Director. They get pushed to special effects or sound mixing categories as if the content of the movie itself is somehow unworthy because it’s speculative in nature. I’m very pleased to see Mad Max and The Martian on the list of nominees because those films were incredible but come on. They have 10 slots these days for Best Picture and Star Wars didn’t get in with 2 slots unused? Yet, The Big Short gets the nom which is a total white guy wank fest. Maybe I’m biased there, but it feels like an insult to speculative movies and I’m a little hurt.
I’m generally disillusioned with Hollywood anyway. They keep making sequels and spin offs and prequels and reboots and I’m so sick of it. There are so many incredible stories out there to be told and they can’t seem to stretch their imagination to the fact that stories outside of the usual straight, white, cis-man might sell. OH LET’S JUST REMIND YOU ABOUT A LITTLE THING CALLED STAR WARS THE FORCE AWAKENS. OR MAD MAX. OR THE BLACK WIDOW MOVIE EVERYONE WOULD WATCH THE SHIT OUT OF. Every type of story sells. Every type of story has an audience.
I am seriously going down a rabbit hole here but I’m also so done with how they showcase the stories of people of color and people within the lgbt community. If you haven’t noticed the pattern yet, this is it: people of color are shown in sports movies, cultural based comedies, period pieces, and somehow being saved by white people. Queer folk are in coming out movies, or movies where they are killed. So there’s that, too. All of these types of movies have their merit…in ways…but when they’re the only depictions of these groups it ends up creating this harmful stereotype that it’s the only place they belong. That those are the only movies they can be in and thus the only character an actor can be nominated for.
Side-note: I’m enjoying all the LGBT love lately in movies, but…like…how about having queer actors play those parts. Kthanks.
Other side-note: The reboots I am in favor of have been putting more women in leading roles which is excellent. New Ghostbusters, New Ocean’s 11. Yes, please! What about an all PoC cast for something! Or a group of rainbow friends!
Back to my ramble, if Hollywood produced more diverse movies, no one would think they were “unusual” or “pandering” or meant for “certain” people. They would just be movies–for everyone. And then there wouldn’t be irrational worry about how they will perform at the theater because people are going to watch a good movie, not count how many straight dudes they can pick out of a line up. And nominations for the Oscars will be for who gave the best performance, not for being able to flash the white card.
Yes, I’m an optimist…idealist…whatever you want to call it. And yeah, there will always be racist, homophobic, transphobic haters. But…
This is likely not the most eloquent collection of my thoughts, or the best way to express them, but I’m tired of it all. Honestly, I hope Chris Rock tears the crap out of the Academy during his monologue. They deserve it. Maybe that’ll help the Academy to remember to nominated the people who deserve it, too.
/end rant
\back to your regularly scheduled book program
Pitch Wars Mentee 2014
Awards
