Despite a quirky alt-rock soundtrack and the presence of Juno‘s winsome wiseass, Ellen Page, Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut, Whip It, isn’t really the twee romantic comedy many of the TV ads make it out to be. Instead, it’s the story of a young woman defining herself through an interest in something beyond boys and shopping (i.e., roller derby) and the friendships and rivalries she develops with other like-minded ladies.
Many of the TV ads for the movie downplay the non-romantic aspects of the story, fearing perhaps that female audiences can’t be trusted with stories outside the traditional dude-centric chick-flick template. Now, I realize I am a dude, meaning I’m hardly an authority on what women want at the multiplex — and yet I do find it curious that I can think of dozens (if not hundreds) of films about groups of guys bonding in situations (like combat, cattle drives, casino heists, etc.) where romance is secondary (if not completely irrelevant) to the main plot, whereas films about females bonding over anything but romantic travails are few and far between.
And so, the following list excludes any gynocentric titles about groups of women who spend most of their screen time focused on sex, romance and/or heartbreak (i.e., Little Darlings, The First Wives Club, Waiting to Exhale, Sex and the City, The Women, etc., etc., etc.). The list also excludes stories with just two women bonding and/or driving off a cliff, family-bonding films with mothers/daughters/sisters/kooky aunts dancing around to Motown and/or succumbing to scarlet fever, and, for reasons of journalistic credibility, Spice World.
5. Hell On Wheels (2007)
Like Whip It, Hell on Wheels is about fun-lovin’ ladies bonding and bruising in the Austin, Texas roller derby community… but unlike Barrymore’s generally feel-good PG-13 romp, Bob Ray’s excellent documentary about the real-life women behind the sport’s revival hits harder and digs deeper into the complexities of female friendships, feuds and business relationships. Intending to launch an empowering, all-girl enterprise, the founders of the Texas Rollergirls league soon discover it takes more than sisterhood to overcome money squabbles, devastating injuries, and a textbook Marxist rift between labor and management that eventually leads to mutiny in the ranks and the formation of a rival faction, the TXRD Lonestar Rollergirls. Funny, tense, exciting and inspiring, Ray’s documentary is the rare crowd-pleaser that manages to celebrate feminism while simultaneously providing plenty of short-skirt action for the fellahs.
4. The Craft (1996)
True, there’s a bit of boy trouble in The Craft, but the real story centers on the bond between Robin Tunney’s suicidal new kid in town, Sarah, and the coven of self-actualized teen Wicca enthusiasts she joins shortly after moving to Los Angeles (including Neve Campbell, Rachel True, and goth all-star Fairuza Balk, doin’ that voodoo that she do so well). Romance quickly takes a backseat to invocations of the spirit Manon, mystical makeovers, and supernatural revenge against various penis-wielding oppressors before Sarah comes to realize that, while empowerment may all be well and good, absolute power has a tendency to corrupt both genders equally.
3. Faster, Pussycat, Kill! Kill! (1965)
Men aren’t the only ones who enjoy driving fast and kicking ass, and though Russ Meyer’s exploitation classic about psychotic go-go dancers on a crime spree may fetishize the physical attributes of co-stars Lori Williams, Haji, and the irreplaceable Tura Satana as much as any modern-day Maxim spread, it also (subversively, especially in 1965) depicts strong female characters living on their own terms, taking what they want, and generally pwning anyone foolish enough to get in their way, with no apologies. Sure, the characters are violent, amoral outlaws… but why should The Wild Bunch, the Warriors and the Inglourious Basterds have all the fun?
2. A League of Their Own (1992)
Yes, it lacks the hipster cred of some of the other movies on this list, but (in addition to actually being directed by a real live woman), Penny Marshall’s true-ish period piece about the World War II-era All-American Girls Professional Baseball League not only features one of the largest female ensembles in recent mainstream cinema, but also tells a story where the athletic accomplishments and personal relationships of the female protagonists are far more important than whether or not Geena Davis eventually hooks up with Tom Hanks.
1. Foxes (1980)
When I asked my wife to name her favorite female-bonding movie of all time, she picked Foxes in two seconds flat, and who am I to argue? Long before Carrie Bradshaw’s first gossip brunch, Jodie Foster’s San Fernando Valley Gal, Jeanie, was anchoring her own BFF foursome, including disco-mad Deirdre, frumpy Madge, and wild child Annie, played by Cherie Currie (herself soon to be played by Dakota Fanning [!!!] in the upcoming biopic about L.A.’s hard-rocking all-grrrl band The Runaways). Once again, friendship trumps all in this feathered-hair time capsule, as Jeanie and her pals deal with drugs, distant and abusive parents, sleazy Hollywood thugs, and their own self-destructive demons in a poignant coming-of-age story on par with any number of XY-chromosome versions from Breaking Away to Boyz In The Hood.
Honorable Mention: Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains; Girl, Interrupted; The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants