As we’ve established by now, I am doing the Thursday Movie Picks feature. This series is hosted by Wandering through the Shelves and offers you a weekly prompt to post some movie recommendations/talking points according to the theme. Usually, you are supposed to post about 3-5 examples, which I find a very manageable amount.
Today’s theme is movies directed by female directors! In general, I adore that as an idea, because why not celebrate the women who make amazing content? I was just struggling to decide whether to give in to the idea that women make great romance movies (cause they do) or to focus on other genres as well. I hope I made a decent mix of things, but also … I like certain genres more and watch more along the lines of romance, comedy or family drama. And, I really focused on recent releases, because I like new things.
The Broken Hearts Gallery – Natalie Krinsky
There’s so many bad romantic comedies every year that I cherish the good ones like nothing else. This may have replaced Set It Up as my favourite RomCom and that means a lot!
The Half of It – Alice Wu
This movie was so good! The cinematography is top notch and the meaning behind the imagery and its symbolism is worthy of an entire thesis if you ask me.
Late Night/The High Note – Nisha Ganatra
You get a two for one here! Both of these movies focus on strong women in their respective fields of work. It’s about lifting up a future generation and has sweet romance notes without being the focus at all. I enjoyed them both a lot.
Little Women – Greta Gerwig
I just love this movie. I will always love this movie. I know I only mentioned it a couple posts ago, but I could probably find a way to mention Little Women in every single post if I tried.
The Party’s Just Beginning – Karen Gillan
This was Karen Gillan’s first feature length directing effort and a very personal story set in Scotland. It’s definitely to be watched with caution, because it leaves you in a very sad state of mind. Trigger warnings for suicide and depression are necessary, but it was still an amazing movie.
The Old Guard – Gina Prince-Bythewood
Gine Prince-Bythewood is not new to the scene, having directed gems such as Love & Basketball or Beyond the Lights (which I can also 100% recommend). But it’s still more on the rare side that women get to direct action movies, so, I wanted to mention The Old Guard. While I will agree that it’s a character-driven movie on the slow-paced side, which also feels a bit like a prequel set-up for a franchise, I really, really enjoyed it.
Life and Other Disasters 
I watched Late Night a couple of months ago and loved it! I’ve not seen many of the films on your list, but Clueless (Amy Heckerling) would probably be on mine.
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If you liked Late Night, then The High Note should be a good complimentary watch to it 😀
Clueless is an absolute classic!!
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I have been meaning to make a conscious effort to watch more movies with female directors so this list is perfect. I agree that there can be a lot of bad rom coms and I find myself being more picky with them every year so I will have to try out The Broken Hearts Gallery. The last one I truly loved was Always Be My Maybe 😊
The cinematography in the half of it was stunning, I remember what it first started thinking oh my 🤣
Still need to watch the rest of the movies on this list, definitely Little Women, I feeling like I’m missing out when so many people have watched it!! 😂
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There are so many amazing female directors out there, but I feel like they never get the same media attention as men do.
Always be my maybe was great! I think Netflix, aside from those obviously hallmark-esque movies they recently added to their slate, does some pretty decent romance movies. Aside from Always Be My Maybe, I really loved Set It Up and in terms of relationship but not so much romcom style, I also quite liked Someone Great.
Little Women is just great. I’ve seen so many iterations of that story and this one remains a solid favourite.
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I know, it is a shame !!
Yay I’m glad you enjoyed it too. I honestly need to watch more Netflix movies. I have seen Set It Up though and I did enjoy it too. I will have to check out Someone Great !!
Haha, that’s great. I can’t wait !!
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I LOVED “The Half of It” and it did not get nearly the amount of credit and hype that it deserved. So glad to see it recommended by others!! It was such a fantastic indie movie.
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The Half of It was so pretty and such a great story too! I raved about it on end on twitter haha I was glad to see many of my friends enjoy it as well.
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Those are some amazing recommendations! I only watched Little Women so far, but I saw SO much content about Old Guard on tumblr, it’s definitely on the top of my to watch list!
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The Old Guard is not your usual action movie, because it’s quite character driven and slow, but I enjoyed it a lot. I think people wanted more about the lore, but since it was clearly meant to be the beginning of a franchise, I understood why they sort of did it the way they did.
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I don’t normally pay attention to who’s directing, but if I have to pick one I know is directed by a woman, I’ll go with Wonder Woman. The fight scene at no-man’s-land and in the small town gets me every time.
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Patty Jenkins is awesome and I am so glad she gets to direct the Rogue Squad in the Star Wars universe now. I’d recommend paying a bit more attention to who is directing and supporting the people who’s vision you enjoy. Women get a lot less chances in that field and especially when it comes to certain genres. So, showing up for them when they do get a go at it is key.
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Very true. I’ll keep that in mind.
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Great choice!
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Thanks!
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One movie by a female director I watched and enjoyed recently was ‘The Farewell’ by Lulu Wang
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That’s a movie on my watchlist! I only heard great things about and happy to hear you’d feature it 🙂
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Love this! Thanks for sharing!
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Always happy to 😀
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