All the girl power movies to pencil into your summer calendar

If you love a good movie theater date with your girlfriends, you’re in luck: this summer, the theater will be totally jam-packed with lady power.

Luckily, Hollywood has finally realized we’re ready for more multi-dimensional female characters and has given us a totally fab summer movie spread. If you step into the theater this summer—a season typically known for its male-dominated movies—you’ll be seeing strong, independent women with guts, with talent, with true character. There will be ten movies led by women, some of them even written by women.

So let’s start getting psyched to buy those tickets, fill those seats, and show our big-screen ladies how much we love them.

Hot Pursuit

Release date: May 8, 2015

Starring: Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara

Directed by: Anne Fletcher

This buddy-comedy not only seems hysterical—I mean, an inexperienced cop protecting the widow of a drug dealer sounds like an even better premise than 21 Jump Street, IMO—but the perfect duo of Reese and Sofia is something that will make us flock to the theaters. Plus, it’s directed by a woman, Anne Fletcher, which is something we can totally get behind.

Pitch Perfect 2

Release date: May 15, 2015

Starring: Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Hailee Steinfeld

Director: Elizabeth Banks

They’re back, pitches. After the incredible success of its hilarious prequel, we have high hopes for Pitch Perfect 2, which, as we already know, will be jam-packed with all sorts of strong, amazing women who can sing like there’s no tomorrow. Also, it’s directed by the hysterical Elizabeth Banks. Swoon.

Tomorrowland

Release date: May 22, 2015

Starring: Britt Robertson, George Clooney, Hugh Laurie

Disney’s back, and it looks promising: a science-minded teen girl and a boy genius team up to unearth the secrets of a mysterious place somewhere in time and space that they both can remember. A mystery sci-fi Disney film sounds fabulous, but can we just talk for a sec about how excited we are that Disney made its lead protagonist a teen girl?

Unfortunately, we’ll have to keep our eyes peeled with this one. As Vulture wonders, “if [Tomorrowland] bombs, [will] the studio blame not co-star George Clooney nor director Brad Bird but the lead character’s gender?” Well, here’s hoping THAT doesn’t happen.

Aloha

Release date: May 29, 2015

Starring: Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Bradley Cooper

Bradley Cooper falls in love not just with a one-dimensional woman, but a “hard-charging Air Force watchdog assigned to him” (aka, Emma). BAMF.

Plus, obviously, anything with Emma Stone in it is worth watching, because, um, Emma Stone.

Spy

Release date: June 5, 2015

Starring: Rose Byrne, Morena Baccarin, Melissa McCarthy, Jason Statham

An undercover CIA agent saves the world. We’re super pumped about Rose Byrne and Morena Baccarin, but what excites us most about this one: this is the third time Melissa McCarthy and director Paul Feig have teamed up . . . and one of those times resulted in the fabulous Bridesmaids. Um, sign us up.

Inside Out

Release date: June 19, 2015

Starring: Diane Lane, Mindy Kaling, Amy Poehler

OK, this is the one I’m probably the most excited about. Firstly, TAKE A LOOK AT THAT POWER CAST. And not just for any movie: a Disney Pixar movie. Also, it’s about a middle school girl’s insecurities after moving into a new home, and most of the cast plays the part of her emotions: Disgust (our girl Mindy), Joy (Amy, of course), and Fear (Bill Hader?! AHHH WE’RE SO EXCITED), to name a few.

A strong female cast with an emphasis on mental health? Way to GO, Pixar.

The Bronze

Release date: July 10, 2015

Starring: Melissa Rauch, Gary Cole, Haley Lu Richardson

Unfortunately there’s no trailer for this one, but this is set to be a hilarious one: a former gymnastics star with a fondness for cursing must compete for her local celeb status when a new athletic star starts making waves. But also, we love that Melissa Rauch, the star of the film, helped to write this one as well.

Trainwreck

Release date: July 17, 2015

Starring: Amy Schumer, Bill Hader, Brie Larson

This is a comedy, and a bit of a rom-com, since it is indeed about romance—but in the best way. The hilarious Amy Schumer is starring, and she plays a career-driven woman who has a fear of commitment. . . but may end up facing her fears.

As Vulture notes, “Whatever becomes of Amy Schumer’s Trainwreck. . . will make aftershocks not just for Schumer but other female-fronted comedies.” This could make a major impact in the film industry in the best way, and we sure hope it does. Fingers crossed!

Paper Towns

Release date: July 24, 2015

Starring: Cara Delevingne, Nat Wolff, Halston Sage

Major John Green fans (myself included) have been SUPER pumped about this adaptation of one of Green’s most beloved books, Paper Towns, in which a teen and his friends embark to find Margo Roth Spigelman (Delevingne), who has gone missing.

We have always been massive fans of John Green for the way he portrays women. As he explained to Refinery29, it’s important to have “characters like Lacey and Margo, whom these boys think they know because they’re able to pigeonhole them. Both those women upend the boys’ expectations of them and prove to be a lot more complicated than I thought.”

Ricki and the Flash

Release date: August 7, 2015

Starring: Meryl Streep

Guys, Meryl’s done it again. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. No trailer for this one either, but in this film about a guitar player coming home to make peace with her family, we get to see Meryl strut her stuff, and we hope we see her rock that guitar like nobody’s business. And if anybody does lady power right, it’s Meryl.

Image via IMDb, gif via

Filed Under