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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.”
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