5 Feminist Movies To Watch On Netflix This Weekend

Trigger Warning: Mentions of sexual harassment and rape

There are many movies that celebrate girl power and feminism. Ranging from quintessential teenage dramedies to biographical dramas, these movies inspire, motivate, and can even educate the masses on important topics like gender rights, equality, and equity. Having women actors as leads, these movies stand out among the plethora of male-centric stories, where they are either heroes or saviours, and the women are mere accessories or props to enhance the performance of characters played by men.

What better way to spend your weekend right after we bid adieu to the powerful Goddess Durga, than binging some feminist films on Netflix. Here we have five films that are worth watching:

Little Women (2019)

Adapted from the novel of the same name, written by Louisa May Alcott, Little Women is an American coming-of-age period drama film written and directed by Greta Gerwig.

The stellar star cast which includes Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen, Laura Dern, Meryl Streep, and Timothée Chalamet, is one of the reasons that makes the movie so great.

Having strong female characters that have dynamic personalities outside their romantic interests, Little Women is a masterpiece which not only satisfies the original book’s fans, but also is inventive enough to have become a massive part of modern popular culture.

The movie is led by strong heroines, the March Sisters consisting of Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy.

Ronan’s Jo is an aspiring writer who wants her stories to be published and is found anonymously submitting stories for meagre payments. Her character is a typical ‘tomboy’ who does not abide by gender roles. She is portrayed as the odd-one-out as her ambitions don’t incline with societal expectations.

Meg is the total opposite, having dreams of a blissful marriage and home life. By juxtaposing the different personal stories of the sisters with each other, Gerwig is able to capture the socio-cultural and political realities of the women of that time. In a world where women are objects of desire or pity, the movie breaks away from this trend, and is progressive for the period and context it takes place in.

Being a commercial success at the box office as well, the movie garnered six Academy Award nominations, and won for Best Costume Design. It also earned two Golden Globe nominations.

Moxie (2021)

Moxie is an American comedy-drama film directed by Amy Poehler, adapted from the novel of the same name by Jennifer Mathieu. The story revolves around Vivian (played by Hadley Robinson), a 16-year-old girl who secretly publishes a feminist zine and circulates it by stacking it up on the hand-dryers in their high school’s washrooms. The zine leads to the formation of a club, and eventually a movement.

It also narrates the story of Vivian, an only child of a single mother (played by Poehler). Poehler’s Lisa is symptomatic of the broader narrative of how feminist movements were different across ages, with Lisa’s feminism of the 90s not being ‘intersectional enough’.

Moxie’s club includes students of colour, a girl with a disability, and a transgender person–a memorable character in the movie. They unite on issues of sexism, school policies that discriminate on their clothes, and bullying. It also talks about graver issues of sexual harassment and rape.

Booksmart (2019)

Booksmart is the directorial debut of Olivia Wilde, and stars Beanie Feldstein (Molly) and Kaitlyn Denver (Amy) as two students who are going to graduate high school. The story narrates their journey of being accomplished students who want to break the rules as the last day of classes approaches.

Molly is the high school president who is disliked by her peers. On the eve of graduation, Molly is struck by the fear of missing out, so the best buddies head out on a journey into the night for their quest to have fun, from one party to the next.

Wilde’s directorial capability is top-notch with being able to hit all the comic and emotional beats. Her film aims to correct all the regressive tropes that teenage movies of the past have used. It also has two heroines who believe in inclusivity and are frank about sex–despite not having experienced it. Moreover, Amy is a lesbian who came out in tenth grade and is yet to kiss a girl, and the film is never dismissive of her queerness.

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No One Killed Jessica (2011)

The Bollywood thriller, directed by Raj Kumar Gupta depicts the real-life murder of model Jessica Lal and the legal proceedings that lasted for years afterwards. The movie highlights corruption that is inherently linked with patriarchy.

The film’s protagonists, Vidya Balan, who plays Lal’s sister, Sabrina and Rani Mukerji, who plays Meera the television journalist who witnessed the murder herself, are a delight to watch.

Initially Sabrina struggles to get justice for her sister till Meera decides to step up as none of the other witnesses are willing to corroborate.

In the end, it’s an unapologetic story about sisterhood, both by choice and circumstances, and women’s rights.

For her performance in the film, Mukerji went on to win a Filmfare Award for Supporting Actress.

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Soni (2018)

Soni is an underrated film directed by Ivan Ayr. It shows the professional and private lives of two women police officers, Soni (played by Geetika Vidya Ohlyan) and her superintendent Kalpana Ummat (played by Saloni Batra) who are tracing their lives through the structures of patriarchy at their work and on a daily basis.

It is inspired by the Jyoti Singh case, commonly referred to as the Nirbhaya case, where a 22-year-old woman was brutally raped and tortured in a private bus. Ayr presents a rather dystopian Delhi, a little similar to how it can be in real-life, especially for women.

The film depicts the struggles of being a woman police officer striving to grab power in a world run by men. Soni’s character shows so-called masculine characteristics of rage and anger, which do not go well with the higher echelons of power. Kalpana is berated by her husband, a commissioner, for being empathetic. This intermingling of feminine and masculine traits is interesting to watch.

The camaraderie that the two women share is special. Both face personal struggles in their homes, but make for a strong team professionally. The movie is telling of the times where there is rampant misogyny around us and women are rising up together to fight against the draconian forces.

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