Movies. We know them and we love them. Naturally, I thought I would write a post about some of my favorite movies, but, as I began to write, I realized that there were two main patterns of the movies I wanted to share with all of you. First, these movies articulated the complexity and beauty of girlhood/womanhood so well they are engrained in my mind for the rest of the time. And second, well, they’re all directed by one woman, Greta Gerwig.
Hi Barbie!
Is her name not ringing a bell? If not, here’s your chance to never forget it. Greta Gerwig directed and co-wrote the breakout 2023 Barbie movie starring Margo Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie & Ken. It achieved $1.4 billion at the box office and is the 14th highest-grossing film of all time, and she still got snubbed for a Best Director Oscar nomination (make that make sense). Gerwig’s Barbie along with Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer helped breathe life back into the theaters when attendance was looking bleak.
A pattern you’ll realize throughout Greta Gerwig’s movies is the way she so masterfully displays the feminine experience, its differences and similarities, each time in each story she helps create. In every film I list today there is a pivotal monologue or conversation that involves the female protagonist delving into the exhaustive feminine experience, and what women should want out of life versus what the character is receiving out of life in the moment. It’s inevitably complicated and easily makes all my friends ugly cry every time.
You see, and this is just my theory, women don’t love Barbie because she has blonde hair, the perfect wardrobe or even the “perfect” life.
We love Barbie and all of Gerwig’s films really, for the gut-wrenching awareness we feel when we listen to these characters who have just spent the majority of the movie getting us to like them, just to end up with the same problems and issues we experience in the real world. Movies tell us a story, and most of the time, they’re an escape for people, but when America Ferrera’s monologue begins in Barbie, the tears just begin spilling out of my face, while my mother grabs my hand, and that in itself is an innately feminine experience. I highly recommend giving it a watch if you haven’t already.
“You have to lead, but you can’t squash other people’s ideas. You’re supposed to love being a mother, but don’t talk about your kids all the damn time. You have to be a career woman, but also always be looking out for other people. You have to answer for men’s bad behavior, which is insane, but if you point that out, you’re accused of complaining.”
America Ferrera, Barbie.
My name is ladybird
Ladybird ripped my heart out when I watched it for the first time. This 2017 Greta Gerwig film is her solo directorial debut, and she was nominated at the Oscars for Best Director. The movie follows Christine or Ladybird, played by Saoirse Ronan (remember her) as she navigates throughout the remainder of senior year before she goes off to college. The movie surrounds her relationship with her mother Marion, played by Laurie Metcalf, in addition to trying to find out who she is and what she wants.
So, why is Ladybird second on my list of Gerwig movies to watch when looking for moving themes of girlhood and the feminine experience? Well, one of the things I felt was most powerful about this movie is who Ladybird was. From the very beginning, she was insistent on being called Ladybird as that’s what she wanted, and she gave herself that name. Ladybird is a very headstrong character who struggles with the relationships around her. The movie focuses on the relationship with her mother Marion and how tumultuous and simultaneously loving feminine relationships can be. It’s centered around women, an aspect which is unlike most of Hollywood’s movies, and it also destroys the ideal of the male gaze. The character of Christine/Ladybird isn’t there to serve the male gaze, instead we as the audience see things through her point of view, as she is not the center of male desire and throughout the movie serves as a criticization to male-dominant societal norms. Ladybird’s relationship with her dominant mother creates this feminine gaze instead, into an experience that many women empathize with, and viewers found unique overall. Her mother Marion and Ladybird just rip each other apart to the point where their relationship is in shambles, and through that, the movie teaches you something about the complexity of feminine relationships.
Marion: “I want you to be the very best version of yourself.”
Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Ladybird
Ladybird: “What if this is the best version?”
Little Women
Gerwig’s Little Women, based on Louisa May Alcott’s 1869 book, was released in 2019 scoring six total Oscar nominations. The film follows four girls, Jo, Meg, Amy, and Beth, played by Saoirse Ronan (told you to remember!), Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, and Eliza Scanlen, as they navigate through girlhood into adulthood. Honorable mention for Laurie, played by Timothee Chalamet as Laurie becomes a catalyst for further exploration of the characters, especially Jo and Amy, allowing them to find out what they really want and who they really want to be.
This movies deals with the ideals of girlhood, embracing sisterly love, arguments, and growing up. Set in the 1860’s, Little Women’s story revolves around society’s strict ideas and expectations of women and what it means to be a woman. As the women grow up, they are forced to face their fates and reckon with what is expected of them now that they are older. At a certain breaking point, Jo, the main character who desires to make her own way in the world and be a writer comes to a heartbreaking realization that, much like America Ferrera’s monologue in Barbie, brings movie watchers to sob. Again, Little Women reveals a strong and powerful take on the feminine experience, examining this time, the ability to earn and make money to support oneself or family, struggles within societal expectations on women, and troubles within the stereotypical roles for women. There are too many quotable moments in the movie, but by the end, you’ll be happier you watched it.
“Women, they have minds, and they have souls as well as just hearts, and they’ve got ambition, and they’ve got talent as well as just beauty, and I’m so sick of people saying that love is just all a woman is fit for. I’m so sick of it!”
Saoirse Ronan, Little Women
Movies I’LL Watch Forever
I hope through these suggestions you’ll find a new favorite movie. One you can sit down and watch with your mother or your sister, one that you can hug your girlfriends to or hold you grandma’s hand. Every single time I’ve watched one of Greta Gerwig’s films, I left feeling empowered and also sad, but safe at the same time, knowing that all the women in those theatre seats next to me also felt something due to the shared feminine experience we as women have.
ShoutOut! James Madison University 