Rants, Rita, and Realities – A Grace Full Life
So Rita brought up excellent point about the movie list I shared in the last podcast post, namely that it was heavily dominated by men. So, while on one of our morning walks this week, I came up with my own, with a little help from my husband Mike.
By the way, these aren’t life-changing movies; rather they will change your perspective on life.
We watched the movie Captain Fantastic last weekend, and there is a particular scene where two families are sitting at a dinner table, and it was in that scene that I saw how watching this movie could change one’s perspective. Old Kari would have only seen one family’s point of view, but new Kari saw both. It was eye opening. If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll know exactly what scene I’m talking about.
So here is the beginning of my list of female-based perspective-changing movies. I say “beginning” because I believe we can always add to or remove from the list. I enjoy a good debate, and since this is the final podcast I’ll be recording in 2021, let’s have a good back and forth.
By the way, this is the first time I’ve written out my podcast as a blog post and then read it aloud like a script. I’m thinking of doing that in the future so that readers who don’t like listening to podcasts may still read everything I’m saying. I just read an article today that claimed one method to fight the winter blues is to go for long walks while listening to podcasts. I mean, if they tell you that’s what you should do, who am I to argue? 🙂
Here is my list of movies that will change your perspective on life from a female point of view.
*I’ve included links to their respective movie trailers.
Thoughts?
*Additions after comments:
Steel Magnolias (thank you, Ally Bean)
Fried Green Tomatoes (again, thank you, Ally Bean)
On the Basis of Sex (thank you, LA)
Gone with the Wind (thank you, LA)
Pride and Prejudice (again, thank you, LA)
Blue Crush (thank you, Elizabeth)
Orlando (thank you, Matt)
Bound (thank you, Matt)
Heavenly Creatures (thank you again, Matt)
Emma (thank you, Nicole)
Sense and Sensibility (thank you, again Nicole)
Searching for Debra Winger (thank you, Rita)
Lady Bird (thank you, Rita)
I, Tonya (thank you, Rita)
Booksmart (thank you, Rita)
Mona Lisa Smile (thank you, Rita)
Runaway Bride (thank you, Rita)
The Hours (thank you, Rita)
Desperately Seeking Susan (thank you, Rita)
Alien (thank you, Maddie)
Free Britney (thank you, Maddie)
This is Paris (I just added this)
Geena Davis is one of my favorite actors. She appears in two of the movies listed above, but she is also a fierce advocate for the inclusion of women in film. If you haven’t seen the documentary, This Changes Everything, I highly recommend it. In fact, watch the documentary before seeing any of the films.
I also providing some TikTok audio (*you have to listen to the podcast to hear it) because it’s the final podcast of 2021 and I had a number of them saved in my phone over the past six months. I’m just using this as a kind of spiritual audio dump. It’s just a bunch of inspiring words that I believe we all need as we approach 2022.
I will include the names of the accounts in the post so you may follow them if you have a TikTok account.
@vanessaandheriphone
@jacobbeas333
@abrahampiper
@soilanasapp
@vanessandheriphone
@hollyonarock
Thank you for listening to me each week; I appreciate all of you.
A Grace Full Life 
I have to put in On the basis of sex, about RBG….also I can’t but add gone with the wind, which I know is out of favor, but it’s a kick ass woman story, and pride and prejudice,
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OMG, I want to watch On the Basis of Sex! We saw RBG on Hulu, but I’d never seen a film based on her life. DEFINITELY should be on the list. All of your suggestions are excellent and I will add them. 🙂
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On the basis is so good!!
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I will definitely watch it!
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I have watched all but two of the movies on your list. I absolutely love them. One of my favorite women’s movie is the original Blue Crush.
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Is Blue Crush the movie with Kate Bosworth?
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Yes. I watched it over and over with my daughter.
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I will have to watch it!
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Which two didn’t you see ?
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You know about the Bechdel test, right? I apply it movies I watch just on principle.
How about Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias to add to your list?
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Yes! I first heard about it in This Changes Everything. I can’t believe I didn’t include those two movies, which are also two of my favorites. I’m updating my post with your suggestions. 🙂
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I have watched and really enjoyed almost all of these movies!
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I’m glad you agree!
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How about Orlando, Bound & Heavenly Creatures to name a few
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None of these are familiar to me! The only issue now is deciding where to watch. Although, I believe Amazon will be the answer….
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They are all indie films, Orlando is based on the work of Virginia Wolf, Bound is a lesbian heist film, heavenly creatures is Kate Winslet first film of an imaginative friendship/relationship between two teenage girls who plot to murder one of their mother’s. Based on a true story.
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I will look for them over Christmas break. Thanks again, Matt!
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It’s good to see that some of the folks on the lists are also directed by women.
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Yes! 🙂
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Not folks *films
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🙂
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Little Women is one of my favourite movies and books! I must have read that book fifty times when I was a kid, no exaggeration. I love the movie from the nineties but the new one is fabulous as well. “New” being two years ago. Pride and Prejudice is also one of my fave books but have never found a movie that I’ve loved as much as the books. Sense and Sensibility has a great movie version though, and so does Emma – it’s fairly new (“new”) as well. I’ve never actually seen Bridges of Madison County all the way through, only parts here and there, but I’ve read the book. The book is only okay.
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Because of your recommendation, I watched Little Women!
I’ve never seen Emma or Sense and Sensibility. I will definitely add them to the list.
Please try and watch The Bridges of Madison County. Meryl Streep is so good in the role. I cried so hard the first time I saw it (with other people). Then I re-watched it by myself so I could cry harder and uglier. 🙂
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Loving the “deep breaths” portion of helping oneself.
Linds and I watched Thelma And Louise over Thanksgiving vacation; I’d not seen it since it came out and boy, oh boy had I forgotten some things. We were both in tears at the end.
A League Of Their Own has always been super special in our house since Lolo played softball all of her childhood.
I’m guessing we’re not supposed to like Gone With The Wind anymore, but it’s one of my favorite movies. Actually, it’s one of my favorite books AND movies.
Crazy Rich Asians was an amazing story.
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It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it. I need to re-watch it.
Gone with the Wind is outdated I’m sure, but I included it on LA’s suggestion because of Scarlett’s perspective. I’ve never read the book, but I’ve seen the movie and I loved it.
Crazy Rich Asians is one of our favorite movies as a family. We all watch it together. 🙂
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I have seen and enjoyed most of these. Oh how I love Fried Green Tomatoes. I’ve been Trying to come up with a movie for Curly to watch for her birthday tonight with her friends and that might be a good one for them. Since Mini is getting tested for covid as I write this, then that little gathering might not happen. Ugh.
We also have watched League of Their Own SO MANY times as a family. We borrow some of the phrases for our basketball players . . . THERE’S NO CRYING IN BASKETBALL.
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Oh, I hope Mini is okay! I’m sending positive energy your way.
Fried Green Tomatoes is SUCH a good movie. Ella saw it for the first time with me this year, and she loved it.
Mike says that line to our girls all the time. He loves that movie. 🙂
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It’s not a movie, but I highly recommend the series Maid on Netflix.
My challenge to people who don’t like winter is to go for a walk in it every day above zero – for at least 15 minutes. The last person I challenged said it completely changed her feelings on winter. (Pretty sure it’s my favorite season.) I don’t do podcasts (I’ve tried and tried, I think I just have to accept they aren’t my jam) but I don’t have a doubt that walking outdoors is good for someone’s mental health.
I love the idea of perspective challenges in movies/shows. It’s good for us.
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We’ve been watching Maid! It’s so good.
I agree with you about going for walks in the winter. Last winter, that shifted my perspective. It’s also good for your immune system, something I only discovered this year.
I’m not a fan of podcasts either! You can interpret that however you want. 😉
It IS good for us!
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I LOVE this list! (Except, I won’t be watching GWTW.) One you might like that I just saw is on You Tube: Searching for Debra Winger. A 2002 documentary that made me laugh and see movies (and myself as a woman in our world) differently. I was at just the right age for it when I saw it.
Some more recent ones you might add: Lady Bird (the scene where she drops her daughter at the airport for college just gutted me); I, Tonya; Booksmart (funny). An old one that impacted me when I saw it was Broadcast News with Holly Hunter. Much as I cringe to admit it, Runaway Bride resonated. Mona Lisa Smile. The Hours. Desperately Seeking Susan (though I admit I haven’t seen it since the 80s).
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Ooh, Searching for Debra Winger. That looks interesting!
I loved the movie Lady Bird, and I’m not sure why I didn’t think to include it. Same with I,Tonya.
Booksmart, Runaway Bride, Mona Lisa Smile, The Hours, and DSS are still on my list to see. Looks like I have a lot of movie watching to do! I feel like Ella will enjoy these too.
Thank you for all of these suggestions!
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The Emma Thompson version of Sense & Sensibility is my heart. Watched it so many times growing up. Still watching it as a grown-up. I see & appreciate something new each time. The color palette. The scene with the Atlas in the Library. The mother’s quiet worry. Their limited means, how they make do but then hastily change & perform a tableau to keep up appearances. The *importance* of appearances.
Also how rad is it that Emma Thompson wrote the script – kept what mattered and even improved/enhanced bits?!? TALENT!
But about your topic… movies that change perspective. I’m not a big fan of scary or monster but Alien (1979) fits your writ for me. I saw it when I was a kid (thx babysitter!) & in addition to terrifying me and giving me 2 great quotes (which I will misquote here: “Game over man!” & “they mostly come out at night…. mostly”), what was startling was Ripley. She’s a girl! What? Also she is like a particularly bad ass mom who has had it up to here! Seriously, as a kid I was floored to see what a Mom could accomplish in a space movie.
Oh – a more recent Shift Your Perspective movie was about the Free Brittney Spears thingy. I can’t even spell the poor woman’s name and I basically know nothing about her or her music (not my thing) but I watched some doc on Netflix about her. I wish I could remember the name bc Serious. Effing. Effs. The legal backdrop that is at the root of Sense & Sensibility (a film set hundreds of years ago) & the legal backdrop to Conservatorships that are happening *now*…. Ugh.
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EMMA THOMPSON WROTE THE SCRIPT?? See, this is what I mean about Hollywood being a boys club. Why am I only learning about this now? I feel like this wasn’t front page news.
Yes! Sigourney Weaver is a kick ass kind of female. So Alien DEFINITELY would fit this list.
I saw Free Britney and it was fantastic. I would also add the Paris Hilton documentary, as much as I hate her Netflix show. She needs to figure out who she wants to be. But her documentary is a good perspective-changing film.
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Oooo, I’ll have to watch the Paris Hilton doc. I don’t pay much attention to her but she has lasted way way longer than many other reality stars-DJ-lifestyle-famousjustbecause people so she must have… some “there” there if you know what I mean. (Also, major yays to you for giving me a new documentary to watch! Totally adoring that genre these days.)
I love your description for Sigourney Weaver. Kick ass indeed. I do not like scary movies but Alien kicked ass. Thank goodness they cast her as Ripley.
YES Emma Thompson wrote it! I just (nervously, sweatily) double checked and everything! Isn’t she amazing?
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I didn’t watch Paris’ reality show, but the documentary is both interesting and heartbreaking. I LOVE documentaries, if you haven’t already noticed. 🙂
Emma Thompson is incredible. I adore her.
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