Gerlie's Top Ten Must-Watch Films in celebration of the Women's Month

    I was invited to give a little talk in relation to the Women's Month Celebration. I was done with my short message when I couldn't get off my mind the film On the Basis of Sex. I wish I can be given another opportunity to give a small talk on women because that would be about my recommended films. Well, why wait? I'm sharing to you here now, my list. 

 The Joy Luck Club (1993) based on a novel

The Joy Luck Club was getting the cultural conversation started 25 years prior to the recent Crazy Rich Asian. A contemporary drama that starred all Asian women in its principal roles, this film explores the relationships between and among four mothers and their daughters. I saw the film only recently but I read the book by Amy Tan when I was still in college. There is much lesson on politics among women to reflect on even on the family setting alone.

 

The Color Purple (1985) based on a novel

Alice Walker's epic novel is made into film by director Steven Spielberg and the results are excellent. The film deals with the maturity and independence of a mistreated black woman from the years 1909 to 1947. The audience gets to experience all of her triumphs and tragedies through the film's running time. Looking forward to reading the book soon.

 

Little Women (1994) based on a novel

Feminism isn’t all “women can do anything men can do” but it’s women can do whatever they want to do. And for the protagonist sisters this film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s novel, that means a writer, a musician, a housewife and a free spirit.

 

Frida (2004) a biopic

Her portrait, with that thick unibrow and un-waxed upper lip of this Mexican woman, has become an iconic symbol of feminism. This biopic takes us behind the canvas to reveal the artist, the activist, the revolutionary. And knowing now that lead actress Selma Hayek’s off-screen Me-too experience, this film proves an even greater victory.

 

Erin Brockovich (2000) a biopic

She is an unemployed single mother, desperate to find a job, and her losing streak extends to a failed lawsuit against a doctor in a car accident she was in. With no alternative, she successfully browbeats her lawyer to give her a job in compensation for the loss. While no one takes her seriously, with her trashy clothes and earthy manners, that soon changes when she begins to investigate a suspicious real estate case involving the Pacific Gas & Electric Company. She discovers that the company is trying quietly to buy land that was contaminated by hexavalent chromium, a deadly toxic waste that the company is improperly and illegally dumping and, in turn, poisoning the residents in the area. As she investigates, Erin finds herself leading point in a series of events that would involve her law firm in one of the biggest class action lawsuits in American history against a multi-billion dollar corporation.

Some will say this biopic of a single mother objectifies its lead with scanty costumes. We’d say that’s precisely why this film makes our list: because women can wear whatever the hell they want and get things done.

 

Legally Blonde (2001) a comedy film

Elle Woods, a fashionable sorority queen, is dumped by her boyfriend. She decides to follow him to law school and while she is there, she figures out that there is more to her than just looks. Another film on self-discovery.

 

Moana (2016) a cartoon film

This Polynesian voyager princess in search of a demigod who will restore the heart he stole from a goddess is a near-perfect Disney film with a solid Lin-Manuel Miranda soundtrack. It’s a fairy tale, yes, but the happily ever after here has nothing to do with a prince and everything to do with self-discovery.

 

Radioactive (2019) a biopic

Despite having discovered both polonium and radium, Marie Curie could not get funding for her research because she was a woman. After marrying Pierre Curie and discovering radioactivity, Marie Curie continued to live in the shadows as her husband. This is a biographical drama that chronicles the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of a woman who eventually got the credit she deserved for developing life-saving innovations, from a mobile unit that was used to X-ray men during the war to the creation of radiotherapy.

 

Hidden Figures (2016) a biopic

While the male brains at NASA were hard at work racing against Russia to put a rocket man in space before their Soviet adversary, there were three brilliant African-American women crunching the numbers and doing the math that would actually get him there: Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson. And now, thanks to this Oscar-nominated film, these American heroes will never ever be hidden.

 

On the basis of Sex (2018) a biopic

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the then US Supreme Court Justice, has long fought for women's rights, but what some people don't know is that one of Ginsberg's earliest cases actually sought to prove discrimination against a man. The new On the Basis of Sex trailer puts that very case — Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld — front and center.

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