woman on woman movies

Best Movies With All-Female Or Mostly Female person Ensembles

Paramount Pictures

January 2022 marks the release of "The 355," an action thriller featuring an ensemble of female spies led by Jessica Chastain. As such, we wanted to commend other great films with all-female or more often than not female ensembles. These movies celebrate not simply private women but they highlight relationships between females. And though far likewise many films still center on the male experience, these are a collection of films that testify a focus on women can produce high-quality movie house.

In fact, information technology turns out that audiences are looking for just that when information technology comes to their movie-going experience. "The level of conversation is catching on, and people are becoming more aware of the imbalance that's happening on screen and behind the camera and starting to question why," explained "The Female Gaze" writer Alicia Malone, to CNBC. "People are at present demanding more than, which is exciting," she added. On that notation, all of the films on our list are fantastic examples of female-fronted picture palace. These movies all feature casts with predominantly women in leading roles and emphasize the feminine experience in their stories. Here are the best movies with all-female or by and large female ensembles.

Pitch Perfect

Universal Pictures

What's ameliorate than a movie that promotes female person bonding and the cultivation of strong friendships? A movie that does it with vocal, obviously. The 2012 film "Pitch Perfect" focused on the Barden Bellas, a struggling university acapella grouping looking to rebuild their epitome afterwards an embarrassing championship performance the prior year. Remaining members Aubrey Posen (Anna Camp) and Chloe Beale (Brittany Snow) are forced to accept on a whole new crew of girls, which includes Beca Mitchell (Anna Kendrick), a moody freshman with a bright head for mashups and a scene-stealing Insubordinate Wilson every bit Patricia "Fat Amy" Hobart.

There is nothing earth-shattering most "Pitch Perfect," just it is entertaining, comical, and sweet. Though there are a few male characters — played by the likes of Skyler Astin, Ben Platt, and Adam Devine, respectively — the focus is squarely on the Bellas. "Every bit spirited and irresistible as the college a cappella craze information technology celebrates, 'Pitch Perfect' is a cheeky delight," alleged Variety in their review. In fact, the original "Pitch Perfect" was such a large striking that it spawned two sequels — ane in 2015 and one in 2017. There is also a "Pitch Perfect" Boob tube adaptation on the way from Peacock (via The Hollywood Reporter), though no discussion yet on whether the show volition be centered on a female singing group.

A League of Their Own

Columbia Pictures

In that location accept been enough of fantastic sports films, but few of those have centered on female athletes. And that is but i reason why the 1992 picture "A League of Their Own" is noteworthy, as the archetype film is then much more than just a sports picture. It is also a female friendship one-act, a family drama, and a story filled with richly accurate historical elements. "A League of Their Ain" is a fictionalized narrative based upon the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL), which operated during World War II. Events are depicted through the eyes of Dottie Hinson (Geena Davis), who, at the start of the picture show, has arrived at a 1988 exhibit at the Baseball Hall of Fame. We then flashback to 1943, where we see how the AAGLBL developed and how the women on the squad created strong friendships in a time of crisis.

In addition to Dolly, the squad also included Dottie's bratty younger sister Kit Keller (Lori Petty), wisecracking Doris Murphy (Rosie O'Donnell), and sexpot Mae Mordabito (Madonna). Many other female characters rounded out the bandage, with Tom Hanks (every bit managing director Jimmy Dugan), Jon Lovitz (as baseball game lookout Ernie Capadino), and Garry Marshall (as squad owner Walter Harvey) as the sole male actors of significance. "What'due south fresh are the personalities of the players, the gradual unfolding of their coach, and the way this early chapter of women'southward liberation fit into the hidebound traditions of professional baseball," wrote Roger Ebert in his Chicago Sun-Times review.

The Women

Loew

We could not accept a list of female-ensemble films without giving a nod to 1939's "The Women," one of the earliest examples of a female-led, female-written film. Based on a play of the same name, "The Women" is about Manhattan socialites, their lives, and the lives of those around them. Information technology is set both in New York City, too as Reno, where many of the women go to larn divorces. With all of the gossip, infidelities, and divorces, "The Women" is basically "The Real Housewives" if the Housewives had existed in the 1930s.

The entire cast — more than 130 speaking characters — is female person, led by stellar actresses Norma Shearer (as Mary Haines), Joan Crawford (as Crystal Allen), and Rosalind Russell (as Sylvia Fowler). "We don't know when nosotros've ever seen such a terrible collection of women," wrote The New York Times in their 1939 review. "They're really appallingly good, and so is their picture."

Widows

20th Century Fox

Based upon a 1983 British tv series, the 2018 movie "Widows" is a great case of a female-fronted cinematic win. The motion-picture show is about 4 women who are bonded by the debts of their dead husbands and who must enter into criminal offence themselves to be able to repair their married man's mistakes. Viola Davis plays Veronica Rawlings, the widow of the gang'due south leader and the adult female who is being threatened by crime boss Jamal Manning (Brian Tyree Henry). With a programme developed by her deceased married man, she enlists young man criminal offence widows Linda (Michelle Rodriguez) and Alice (Elizabeth Debicki), as well equally her babysitter Belle (Cynthia Erivio), to help in her heist.

All-female person law-breaking thrillers are much rarer than comedies, and then at that place'southward not a ton of competition in the surface area, just we withal maintain that this is one of the better law-breaking movies featuring women as the main characters (take the lesser quality "The Kitchen," for case, which came out a year after). "In the era of gender-reversal reboots and girl-power IP, the Steve McQueen heist is an exhilarating film that merely happens to star women. We could use many more than of those," wrote The Ringer. We could not agree more than.

Trivial Women

Sony Pictures

Realistically, nosotros could have included whatever number of the seven film adaptations of "Little Women" on this list, but we went for Greta Gerwig's 2019 version, which is not only the most recent but is also mayhap the best. And as the title of the coming-of-age drama suggests, it'south a tale almost, well, women — namely the four March sisters. Led by fiercely contained and free-thinking writer Jo (Saoirse Ronan), the four sisters navigate life and dearest in 17th century England. Men are side characters in this story — which is really about Jo and her sisters Meg, Amy, and Beth – and love is not the chief plot point.

Gerwig'south "Little Women" was nominated for a slew of awards, including vi Oscars. And while it only won ane University Honour (for costumes), don't let that fool you into sleeping on its greatness. The actresses are incredible, and there is a reason this story has hung around for more than a century and a half. Plus, Gerwig's version is told in a nonlinear style, changing upwards what others have done with the material. "Purists might blanche at the strenuously modern brand of feminism the movie imposes here, and the generally contemporary air that swirls over all its carriages and top hats," wrote Entertainment Weekly's reviewer. "If Gerwig'south woke Women-hood verges on anachronism, though, information technology also feels fully loyal to the spirit of Alcott, a woman always well alee of her time."

Bridesmaids

Universal Pictures

We are going to brand a big annunciation here, but "Bridesmaids" may be one of the funniest all-female person comedies of all fourth dimension. The 2011 film –- which was notably also written by two women, Annie Mumolo and Kristin Wiig –- assembled a cast of gifted comedic actresses and allow them run free with the ofttimes-ridiculous fabric. From helpmate-to-be Lillian Donovan (Maya Rudolph) pooping in her hymeneals dress in the middle of the street, to maid-of-award Annie Walker (Kristen Wiig) sneaking into first class while under the influence, "Bridesmaids" is total of express mirth-out-loud moments and even a few heartwarming ones.

In addition to Lillian and Annie, the female ensemble here includes Helen Harris (Rose Byrne), who is Annie's competition for Lillian'southward best friend throne, and her other bridesmaids Rita (Wendi McLendon-Covey), Becca (Ellie Kemper), and Megan (Melissa McCarthy). McCarthy, in particular, wowed audiences with her turn as tough-talking, big-hearted Megan, but the magic of the picture was really the dynamic betwixt the entire crew.

Though many male critics attempted to compare the movie to the all-male person fronted alternatives like "The Hangover" (come across: CNN'due south review here), we like what critic Amy Biancolli wrote all-time. "Let's effort to give [the term] 'chick flick' the kicking; from now on, I won't apply it if you won't," said Biancolli in her San Francisco Chronicle review. "And let no one use information technology to Bridesmaids, a film of great hilarity, humanity, idiosyncrasy and grade-A, eyebrow-singeing raunch."

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

Warner Bros. Pictures

Rarely do young adult films take the cultural impact of "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants," which people notwithstanding talk about more than 15 years after its 2005 release. The coming-of-age film is a poignant, enjoyable story about four best friends and a magical pair of pants that mysteriously fits all of their very different body types. The teens share the pants, aircraft them back and along, every bit they spend the summer apart for the starting time fourth dimension. Each daughter has unlike lessons to acquire and struggles to overcome — which they do, with the support of a special pair of jeans and a special group of friends.

One of the girls, Carmen Lowell (America Ferrera), must find her place in a composite family she barely knows, while another, Bridget Vreeland (Blake Lively), struggles with low after sleeping with a coach at soccer camp. A tertiary "sis," Lena Kaligaris (Alexis Bledel), finds love with a forbidden man in Greece, and the final one, Tibby Tomko-Rollins (Amber Tamblyn) learns compassion when she befriends a dying young daughter she meets at her department store chore.

There are males in the movie, sure, merely none of them affair much; information technology is all nigh the fashion the girls come up together to help each other navigate their bug (and a picayune about those jeans). "It sounds similar a touchy-feely Gap commercial, merely this fantastical premise jars with a refreshingly realistic look at girls making the catchy transition to womanhood," wrote the BBC in their review of the moving-picture show.

Girls Trip

Universal Pictures

When it comes to fun female buddy comedies with all sorts of out-there shenanigans, "Girls Trip" is upward in that location at the peak of the list with "Bridesmaids," "Booksmart," and "The Heat," amongst other favorites. And if for nothing else, nosotros will forever be grateful to the team backside "Girls Trip," considering it put Tiffany Haddish onto the mainstream's radar. But Haddish aside, there is a ton to love hither in this ensemble comedy fronted by iv hilarious Black women. "For the nigh part, "Girls Trip" balances sincere sentiment and bouncy comedy with honesty and skill, and for people who like their comedy a little nasty, this i'southward a blast," wrote the San Francisco Relate's longtime picture show critic Mick LaSalle.

Regina Hall stars as Ryan Pierce, a bestselling writer who, feeling like she has drifted with her friends, invites them along on a trip to a musical festival where she will be delivering a keynote spoken communication. Her friends include loudmouth gossip reporter Sasha Franklin (Queen Latifah), neurotic divorced mom and nurse Lisa Cooper (Jada Pinkett Smith), and happy, unpredictable party girl Dina (Haddish). There are fights and clashes along the mode, but the women emerge at the end of the film with a newly rekindled and fully flourished friendship. "The bond between the four women – and occasional lack thereof – demands repeat viewing much more the desultory shocks of gross-out (and grapefruit) sense of humour," wrote IndieWire in their review.

The Joy Luck Club

Buena Vista Pictures

"The Joy Luck Guild" is unique in that, not only is information technology an intergenerational tale featuring all female characters, but it is also a rare picture show centering on the Asian American immigrant experience. The 1993 drama, based upon a novel of the same name, focuses on 4 Chinese immigrant mothers living in San Francisco, each ane with a Chinese-American developed girl of her ain. The older women bond over mahjong and nutrient, but the best part of the film is in the relationships between mothers and daughters. These are fraught with tension over the conflict of two competing cultures and an inability to fully see i another.

"Agents of S.H.I.Due east.L.D." extra Ming-Na Wen led the stellar cast equally June Woo, one of the daughters, only the power of the pic goes across any private actress. Critics were largely supportive of the film, and the National Board of Review named information technology a top 10 film for 1993. "This heartrending and transcendent adaptation of Amy Tan's bestseller about a quartet of Chinese American daughters and their immigrant mothers is the ultimate movie about most anybody's first love: Mom," wrote the Philadelphia Inquirer's reviewer. As legendary critic Cistron Siskel said in his Chicago Tribune critique of the moving picture, "The picture show undoubtedly will speak to mothers and daughters of any nationality."

Precious

Lions Gate Films

"Precious" is unlike from most of the films on our list, equally the primal relationship is one devoid of any underlying beloved and respect, which makes information technology somewhat difficult to watch. Yet, it is an incredibly important film with a potent voice, incredible performances, and a devastating story arc. And though there are a few men in the film — hi, Lenny Kravitz as a sexy nurse — it really relies on the mostly-female ensemble to keep the wheels greased. In his 2003 review, Rolling Stone's expert reviewer Peter Travers declared, "'Precious' is an emotional powerhouse, a triumph of bruising humor and bracing hope that deserves its identify among the twelvemonth'south best films." The film was nominated for six University Awards, winning 2.

Based on a novel past author Sapphire, "Precious" is the story of Claireece "Precious" Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), a teenage daughter living in a family unit in poverty and a home filled with all sorts of abuse. Her father raped and impregnated her twice, her mother verbally and physically abuses her, and despite beingness sixteen, Precious cannot read nor write at the beginning of the moving-picture show. With no beloved from her mother Mary Lee Johnston (Mo'Nique), Precious must discover scraps of support elsewhere — notably from a loving instructor, Blu Rain (Paula Patten), her all-female classmates, and a social worker named Ms. Weiss (Mariah Carey).

Steel Magnolias

Tri-Star Pictures

No doubt about it, "Steel Magnolias" is the schlockiest film on our listing of movies with female person-led ensembles. Information technology is by no ways a "absurd" movie — it wasn't back when it came out in 1989, and information technology certainly is not now. But there is a reason this story has resonated with people for over three decades, since it started as a play in 1987. Information technology is a tale near friendship, family, love, grief, corruption, grace, social support, so much more. Though "Steel Magnolias" is melodramatic and over-the-top, the female actors volition make you feel deep feelings, and that's a sign of its greatness.

The ensemble is led by Sally Field every bit M'Lynn Eatenton, a social worker and overbearing female parent to three, including Shelby (Julia Roberts), who suffers from type-i diabetes. The women spend much of their time at the beauty salon, being serviced past gossipy beautician Truvy Jones (Dolly Parton) and her new apprentice, shy Annelle Dupuy-DeSoto (Daryl Hannah). All-time friends Clairee Belcher (Olympia Dukakis) and Ouiser Boudreaux (Shirley MacLaine) round out the master cast. For better or worse, these women have roots that connect them on a deep level. "I doubt if whatever 6 real women could be funny and sarcastic so consistently (every line is an epigram), but I love the mode these women talk," said Roger Ebert in his Chicago Dominicus-Times review.

Ocean's Eight

Warner Bros. Pictures

Much like its predecessors, "Ocean's Eleven," "Ocean's Twelve," and "Body of water'south Xiii," "Body of water's Viii" is a fun, flirty heist movie. But unlike those earlier films, "Ocean's Viii" relied on an all-female ensemble, with fantastic results. The film ranked in about $300 million worldwide, per Box Role Mojo. Clearly, the franchise's bankability was non reliant on the gender of its stars, nor did there need to be an especially strong connection to the original trilogy. Sandra Bullock's Debbie Ocean — sister to Danny Ocean (George Clooney) was the link to the original ensemble.

Upon her release from prison, Debbie launches into a plan for a new heist. She is joined in her scheming past a grouping of fascinating women, including her onetime partner Lou Miller (Cate Blanchett), jewelry designer Amita (Mindy Kaling), hacker Nine Ball (Rihanna), and street pickpocket Constance (Awkwafina). The rest of the 8 is made up of a spoiled actress (Anne Hathaway as Daphne Kluger), a shunned fashion designer (Helena Bonham Carter as Rose Weil), and a total-fourth dimension mom and office-time fencer (Sara Paulson as Tammy). "The elementary pleasure of seeing such fashionable, charismatic actresses bounciness off one some other with naughty glee is enough for this film to fulfill its purpose," wrote The New Statesman in their review.

Mean Girls

Paramount Pictures

At that place are a few males in 2004'south "Mean Girls" – school heartthrob Aaron Samuels (Jonathan Bennett), gay best friend Damian Leigh (Daniel Franzese), principal Ron Duvall (Tim Meadows) — but the film is very much about the way that boyish females interact with, talk almost, and treat i another. The classic teen film centers on Cady (Lindsay Lohan), a teenager who has recently moved to the United States from Africa and who must learn the customs of American high school. There to usher her into the fold are the mean girls — otherwise known as "the plastics" – Regina George (Rachel McAdams), Karen Smith (Amanda Seyfried), and Gretchen Wieners (Lacey Chabert).

"Hateful Girls" offers a scathing commentary about teenage girls and social aggression, as well as loftier school social hierarchies more by and large. It'south also incredibly funny, with solid performances and plenty of a "lesson" to annals but not feel too heavy-handed. The Telegraph wrote that "Hateful Girls" "fizzes with peculiarly feminine evil, of the kind that comes dripping through a pillowy smirk garnished with baby-pink lipgloss," while the SFGate said that it was "a smart little comedy that tries, within the limits of the teen-flick grade, to say some real things virtually high school girls and the struggle for popularity."

The Help

Walt Disney Studios

"The Help" is not a perfect moving-picture show – USA Today, Fourth dimension, and others take critiqued its inauthentic portrayal of race relations and racism, for example — just it is an enjoyable film with standout performances from a mostly-female person cast including Viola Davis, Jessica Chastain, Emma Stone, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Octavia Spencer, who won an Oscar for her performance. The movie, which focuses on Black maids and their white employers in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi, is based upon a popular novel of the same name.

And yes, "The Assist" features a white woman, Skeeter Phelan (Stone), at the center of the narrative, but the relationships betwixt the women — Skeeter and Aibileen Clark (Davis), Aibileen and Minny Jackson (Spencer), Minny and Celia Rae Foote (Chastain) — are dynamic and circuitous. Problems bated, "The Help" was a well-received film that earned four Academy Award nominations when it came out in 2011. Critical and audience responses were generally favorable to the female person-fronted film. As Entertainment Weekly'southward film critic wrote in his review, "The moving-picture show isn't perfect; information technology sometimes shows its stitching. But more often than not information technology'due south a stirring salute to subjugated women who hold their heads loftier."

Sister Human action

Buena Vista Pictures

"Sis Act" is perhaps one of the well-nigh fun movies Whoopi Goldberg has ever made — and it is certainly a female person-focused picture show, given that nearly every primary graphic symbol is a woman of faith. In the 1992 moving picture, Goldberg plays Deloris Van Cartier, a Reno, Nevada, singer who witnesses a murder and is subsequently placed in witness protection. Her new identity is that of a nun — Sister Mary Clarence — and her hideaway is a San Francisco convent.

Deloris turns the convent on its head, helping the nuns to find their voices (literally and figuratively) as the head of the choir. In turn, the nuns touch on Deloris with their unwavering kindness and loyalty. Though this is very much Goldberg's moving picture, the unabridged ensemble — from Maggie Smith as the Reverend Female parent to Kathy Najimy as flatulent Sis Mary Patrick to Wendy Makkena as shy Sister Mary Robert — shines. "The script ... has two or three inspired ane-liners (enough to distract you from the clanky machinery of the plot), but it'south Whoopi and the girls who keep this confection tasty," said Newsweek.

9 to 5

20th Century Trick

Few Hollywood friendships make the states equally airheaded equally the one between Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. Throw in their old pal Dolly Parton, and it simply doesn't become meliorate. And so, naturally, their 1980 classic movie "9 to 5" had to exist on our list of top female-fronted films. The moving picture is about iii female employees who take revenge on their sexist, egotistical dominate (played past Dabney Coleman). Fonda plays former housewife and new worker Judy Bernly, while Tomlin'south Violet Newstead is a seasoned worker who is consistently overlooked and treated as less than her male peers. And Parton'due south Doralee Rhodes is perhaps the most put-upon — a secretary who is subject to sexual harassment and vicious workplace rumors.

The film was Parton's first, and she proved that she could concur her own amongst acting heavyweights Fonda and Tomlin. And it is the chemistry betwixt the three women that makes this dark comedy work so well. The Los Angeles Times said, "In short, its stars are more than satisfying than their material, as practiced as it so often is," and the Irish Times declared the women "ane of cinema's nearly badass trios."

Source: https://www.looper.com/718083/best-movies-with-all-female-or-mostly-female-ensembles/

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