52 Films By Women: My Brilliant Career (1979)

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By Andrea Thompson

Some people just seem to be born dreamers, practically bursting out of the womb with not just plans, but the grit and determination to see them through. How else to explain Sybylla (Judy Davis) in “My Brilliant Career,” who has such remarkable self-possession, skill, and confidence, that anything less than a long, and yes, brilliant career that fulfills her writing ambitions feels like a tragedy?

Gillian Armstrong's most famous film will probably remain her 1994 version of “Little Women,” but her 1979 feature debut “My Brilliant Career” remains my personal favorite. Not only is it beautifully directed, capturing the unique beauty and lushness of 1897 rural Australia, Judy Davis is such a compellingly charismatic force of nature as she immerses herself into this role with relish, it seems entirely beside the point that she's clearly another adult playing a teenager.

Nevermind. Judy Davis does such justice to Sybylla, who has a complexity I've rarely seen in female characters. Or in male ones, for that matter, but it is especially noteworthy how well Sybylla avoids so many of the traps this type of character falls into, most of which are very gendered. She feels quite familiar at first, dreaming of a life in the world of the arts, the odd one out in her impoverished family's shanty in the middle of an Australian wilderness so bleak its name is Possum Gully. In spite of her passion, Sybylla feels helpless to change her situation, since her time is mostly spent working and sleeping. Then there's the complication of her mother wanting to get her a position as a servant, since they can no longer afford to keep her at home.

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It's a situation which speaks volumes about how so many voices, even those as vibrant and passionate as Sybylla's, are silenced. Such a fate could've easily befallen her had her wealthy grandmother not intervened and invited her to her luxurious home in a verdant countryside that is the antithesis of her family's drought-afflicted farm. Such a setting, which isn't just full of material comforts, but the freedom from harsh, neverending labor, to have time to discover herself.

Such freedom to think isn't always comfortable, and the beautiful thing about “My Brilliant Career” is how it reveals Sybylla's insecurities as well as her strengths. She may always have a laugh and a quip ready when people casually and constantly remark on not just her lack of beauty, but how much it falls short when compared to her aunts and her mother, but it's something she grapples with, at one point breaking down in tears. Davis is not another glamorous actress dressing down, and Sybylla is not conventionally beautiful, with her wild hair and freckles. Her attraction, however, is undeniable, no less so because of her intelligence, wit, and charm, much of which is a direct result of her uniqueness and disinterest in many social niceties and conventions.

But unlike other films about nonconformist women, Sybylla's free spirit and general tomboyishness doesn't mean she's uninterested in some aspects of traditional femininity. She willingly, freely partakes in various beauty routines, and enjoys the far larger selection of elegant dresses and accessories at her disposal. And in spite of her commitment to remain unmarried and become a famous writer, she also becomes genuinely conflicted about Harry Beecham, a wealthy young man who falls in love with her and proposes to her, and who is played by a very young and dreamy Sam Neill. Their courtship is as complicated as Sybylla herself, who is flirtatious, mercurial, innocent, and passionate, and she leads him on as much as she keeps him at arm's length.

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Sybylla’s family is all eager for her to accept him, and while Sybylla may be ahead of her time, she is not allowed to believe that she's the first to have such reservations about marriage, with her relatives warning her that loneliness will be the price of her independence, and that her dream could very well remain a dream. Practically every free-spirited, independent-minded young woman is warned of the danger of refusing marriage proposals from wealthy men, but Sybylla experiences the consequences of her refusal far more than other cinematic heroines such as Jo March, whom Sybylla most resembles. Jo at least had a warm and loving family to provide support and a safe home to return to, but Sybylla has no such luxury. If she needed a reminder, she gets quite a painful one after she's forced to work off her father's debt by becoming a governess to the children of a family that makes her own look like the Kardashians.

Sybylla's decision to reject Harry again, even after this brutal experience, is far more admirable, and quite similar to Jo March's decision to refuse Laurie's proposal. “I'm so near loving you,” Sybylla tells Harry. “But I'd destroy you. And I can't do that.” Much like Jo, Sybylla knows she has no place in the life her suitor is offering, and that they'd both end up regretting it. The 2020 adaptation by Greta Gerwig knew this, and chose to portray Jo and her book as the true love story.

I'm not the only one to notice the similarities, and Gerwig's vision received high praise from Armstrong herself. But “My Brilliant Career” is able to take it further. For Armstrong, leaving off with Sybylla right back where she started isn't a step back, it's acknowledging that Sybylla has begun to find herself as an artist to be able see a way out on her own terms, and mail out the book that inspired the film itself to a publisher. As she sends it off with a kiss, it's with the knowledge (both ours and hers) that her true romance has just begun.

52 Films By Women: Lady Bird (2017)

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By Andrea Thompson

When Greta Gerwig’s masterpiece “Lady Bird” came out in 2017, it was lavished with much-deserved critical praise, and some record-breaking commercial success, given that it had the highest grossing limited theatrical release by a female director. It also inspired a highly contentious debate, one that seemed entirely beside the point, and often had misogynistic over and undertones. Was the film’s central relationship, that of between the title character played by Saoirse Ronan, and her mother Marion (Laurie Metcalf) abusive? Or more accurately, was Marion an abusive parent?

I suppose when you have a mother who is as imperfect, and yes, at times outright cruel to her daughter, such conclusions can hardly be avoided. Why did I call it beside the point? Because Gerwig captures each character, be they front and center or supporting, with such nuance and precision, that it doesn’t really matter. No one achieves that magical, wholly impossible state where they become so perfect they’re worth rooting for at all times. 

That includes Lady Bird, or Christine, a student at a Catholic high school in Sacramento, California, in 2002. Lady Bird feels stifled by her surroundings, referring to her hometown as “the Midwest of California,” longing to escape to college on the East Coast, specifically to New York City, that mecca of all who are even slightly artistically inclined, or just ambitious in general. It’s a move her mother vehemently opposes due to financial concerns.

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Nevertheless, Marion and Lady Bird’s bond is very real, strong, and complicated like many mother-daughter bonds tend to be. Marion may belittle her daughter when she doesn’t do simple things like put her clothes away, shame her for being unaware of her father’s depression, and constantly accuse her of being ungrateful, but the painful beauty of the film is that it’s understandable, albeit more so from our safe distance. Marion has endured the stress of a childhood which included an abusive alcoholic mother, and an adulthood where her financial situation remains tenuous, partly due to her husband’s mental health, and eventually, his job loss. Then there’s the money she shells out for the Catholic school Lady Bird finds so suffocating.

None of this excuses Marion’s behavior, which includes refusing to speak to her daughter after she discovers she’s planning on attending college in New York, despite Lady Bird’s tearful pleas and apologies, but it does make her human, and thus, forgivable. To paraphrase Cheryl Strayed, it’s a view of a relationship that’s “happy, humane, and occasionally all fucked up,” with an emphasis on the latter component. Most films refuse to acknowledge the role money has in shaping a person’s life and mindset, but the family’s class status dominates their decisions and how they interact with each other and the world.

In her influential essay A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf described how her mindset drastically changed after she inherited a substantial amount of money. Before, she had taken whatever odd jobs, writing or otherwise, that were available to her. It was a life of “fear and bitterness,” consisting of work that was hard yet difficult to live on, and always feeling the need to flatter because it seemed so necessary. Getting her own money, an amount that was enough to provide food and shelter, changed everything. She had everything she needed and always would. “Therefore not merely do effort and labour cease, but also hatred and bitterness,” Woolf wrote. “I need not hate any man; he cannot hurt me.” Very few women will experience such a reversal of fortune, and it’s the rare person who can maintain a mental equilibrium in the face of such constant pressures, which include the continual erosion of the social and economic safety net.

At least we are reassured that Marion’s sacrifices will eventually pay off, even if it isn’t explicitly stated. This movie is at least somewhat autobiographical, and while Lady Bird heads off to college in NYC, but it’s clear the naive teenager still has a lot to learn. She’s willing to learn it though, and her bond with her mother will remain strong, if only because distance is generally the first step in children actually being able to not only get along with parents, but see them as human.

Film Girl Film's Top 15 Movies Directed by Women In 2019

By Andrea Thompson

2019 was a great year for women in film, with a variety of filmmakers bringing complex stories of women’s experiences to the screen. Below are theoness Film Girl Film has chosen as the standouts, with honorable mentions included.

15. Honey Boy

Amazon Studios

This is a film that screams vanity project. Shia LaBeouf not only penned the story of the turbulent childhood and young adulthood of Otis (played by Noah Jupe at 12 and Lucas Hedges at 22) a child star and obvious proxy, he also stars as Otis's alcoholic father James, whose good (ish) intentions are mostly stifled by his inability to cope with past traumas. But LaBeouf's eschews any kind of cheap thrills or bad behavior justification to bring us a deeply human story of a toxic father-son bond. Certainly LaBeouf's tormented patriarch, a sex offender who is verbally, emotionally, and physically abusive toward his son, has no right to our sympathy, yet he gets it anyway, mostly because LaBeouf doesn't excuse or even fully explain his behavior. He's mostly interested in exploring the history that made James and Otis the men they are, and depicting the tenderness that existed between them despite everything.

14. Jezebel

IMDB

Numa Perrier's deeply autobiographical film brings a black female gaze to sex work as it follows 19-year-old Tiffany (Tiffany Tenille), as she starts working as an internet fetish cam model. In Perrier's deeply complex portrayal, this world can be simultaneously empowering and exploitative, with Tiffany's older sister Sabrina, played by Perrier herself, serving as a mentor and voice of wisdom throughout. As much a coming-of-age story as an exploration of how each sister defines and exploits their sexuality, “Jezebel” disdains both melodrama and judgment for a thoughtful exploration of how those with few resources find a means to achieve power, financial stability, and their human connection.

13. Hustlers

STX Films

“Hustlers” is one of those films that could've just been a puritanical cautionary tale about the dangers of girls gone wild. Good thing writer-director Lorene Scafaria saves her anger for the patriarchy rather than the strippers who come up with a plan to turn the tables on their Wall Street clients after the recession hits. Even smarter, Scafaria anchors her story in the friendship between Ramona (Jennifer Lopez in a career-best performance), the originator of the scheme, and Destiny (Constance Wu). Before 2008, they and their co-workers are able to earn more than a good living, but after the financial crisis, their profession becomes less than viable. So they decide to drug wealthy Wall Street men and get them to spend ridiculous amounts of money, which they would then keep for themselves. By giving women who are normally sexualized furniture center stage, Scafaria allows us to share their delight in scamming the scammers, then their fear as their world inevitably unravels, resulting in an insightful, female-centric crime story that mostly unfolds sans judgement.

12. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Sony Pictures

Given that 2018 saw the release of the critically and commercially successful documentary “Won't You Be My Neighbor?,” did 2019 really need another film about Fred Rogers? Hold that thought, because “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” makes an enthusiastic case for yes. It's probably no coincidence that the posters for both films also mention kindness, since Fred Rogers not only advocated it, he seemed to embody it, and not only to the children who were the target audience of his wildly successful show “Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.” Even if Tom Hanks doesn't have much of a resemblance to Mr. Rogers, he nevertheless seems to channel him and the values he tirelessly championed to an uncanny degree, enough to make journalist Lloyd Vogel's (Matthew Rhys) journey from cynic to believer feel fresh rather than tired. Director Marielle Heller also brings the same clear-eyed compassion that made “The Diary of a Teenage Girl” and “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” so heartfelt to this story of a budding friendship between two very different men.

11. Rafiki

IMDB

Star-crossed lovers were a thing long before film was, but Kenyan teenagers Kena and Ziki face more obstacles than most. Their fathers are not only running against each other in a local election, but they live in a deeply conservative society that expects them to be good wives and any LGBTQ relationships are legally punishable by jail or worse. As the love between Kena and Ziki grows, so too does the danger, leading to devastating consequences. Yet the joy the two find in each other, embodied in the gorgeous pink hues director Wanuri Kahiu bathes both in, outshines the trauma. Banned in Kenya for “clear intent to promote lesbianism in Kenya contrary to the law,” “Rafiki” nevertheless became the first Kenyan film to screen at Cannes, quickly finding acclaim while drawing attention to Kenya's anti-LGBT laws without catering to Western sensibilities.

10. Varda By Agnès

IMDB

If the documentary “Varda By Agnès” is difficult to define, it's because the late great filmmaker Agnès Varda herself defies anything resembling easy categorization. Like her other films, the premise of “Varda By Agnès” is deceptively simple, yet soon reveals layers of complexity which unfold throughout, as Varda looks back on her life and career while articulating her style of filmmaking. However, the doc is far more than a retrospective, and far less predictable, at one moment reminiscent of a casual chat with an old friend, the next an imaginative journey wherein a great artist instructs devoted cinephiles and neophytes alike on how she not only viewed, but interpreted the world. It's a fitting end to a decades-long career and life, both of which 90-year-old Varda defined on her own terms to the end.

9. The Farewell

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A movie with a character who happens to be a terminally ill grandmother is a tough sell for a comedy. But the matriarch who receives a fatal cancer diagnosis isn't just a side character in “The Farewell,” she's the central plot point. After struggling New Yorker Billi's (Awkwafina) beloved Nai Nai (Shuzhen Zhao) is diagnosed, her family opt to keep her illness a secret and decide to throw a fake wedding to provide an excuse for them all to gather in China and celebrate Nai Nai one last time. And it's...pretty funny, with not just the expected dark humor, but a wide spectrum of hilarity abounding alongside the touching moments of grief. Based in part on writer-director Lulu Wang's own experiences, “The Farewell” is apt to make you laugh and cry not just in equal measure, but simultaneously.

8. Little Woods

Tribeca Film Festival

You can never have too much of Tessa Thompson, and “Little Woods” allows her to fully immerse herself into a role and world where a single wrong step could tear through a life with the force of a tornado. And she downright mesmerizes as Ollie, who finds herself in tight circumstances with a mere eight days left on her probation and the hope of a new life. Or rather, her somewhat estranged sister Deb (Lily James) does after their mother dies, and Deb and her son find themselves on the verge of homelessness and destitution. To help her family, Ollie decides to reenter the world of prescription drug smuggling, a dangerous but profitable business in their bleak rural North Dakota town. Remarkably, this is director Nia DaCosta's feature debut, and the fact that she gives us a brilliantly realized modern Western with a feminist twist, where a drug run to Canada also doubles as an attempt to receive a safe and low-cost abortion, is hopefully indicative of much more to come. Thankfully, there are already hopeful signs of just that.

7. Queen & Slim

Universal Pictures

“Queen & Slim” kicks off with its title characters on a date that is only remarkable for its lack of spark, but things get heated in the worst way after a police offer pulls them over for a minor issue, and things escalate, with Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith) getting shot and Slim (Daniel Kaluuya) shooting the officer in self defense. The two then go on the run together, with their bond and their relationship blossoming as they drive south through a lush vision of Black Americana. That they both come off as deeply human while remaining symbolic of the tragic human cost of racism seems due in large part to the near symbiotic creative melding of director Melina Matsoukas, who also directed Beyonce's “Lemonade,” and writer Lena Waithe, the creator of the series “The Chi” and who also wrote the acclaimed “Master of None” episode “Thanksgiving.” Their story is tragic, but it is also full of beauty and humor as Queen and Slim dare to hope for something better, even as they know the odds against such a thing are overwhelmingly stacked against them.

6. Fast Color

Lionsgate Publicity

It's said that not all heroes wear capes, and certainly none of the women with superhuman abilities do in “Fast Color.” This criminally underseen gem has many of the beats, but almost none of the familiar tropes of typical superhero fare. Gugu Mbatha-Raw plays a woman named Ruth, a fugitive on the run from authorities attempting to harness her abilities, and most critically, from herself, since those abilities have become a destructive force she's unable to control. In this bleak dystopian future which is rapidly running low on resources, the key to Ruth's future may just lie in the home she fled years ago, where her estranged mother (Lorraine Toussaint) and daughter (Saniyya Sidney) embody a past she tried to escape, and a more hopeful future they may be able to bring to fruition.

5. The Souvenir

A24

Joanna Hogg's semi-autographical film “The Souvenir” is like a deceptively calm pond which conceals a raging torrent just beneath the surface. Honor Swinton Byrne, the woman responsible for the storm that's eventually unleashed, may still be constantly referred to as Tilda Swinton's daughter, but this film suggests that won't be the case for long. Her performance as Julie, a young film student in the 80s whose dreams are nearly derailed by her involvement with an older man who is also a heroin addict, is the kind of on-screen arrival that the term breakout role was made for. With part two arriving next year, it's hard to imagine how Hogg or Byrne will match the kind of urgency they brought to this film, but this creative pairing – which feels like a match made in cinematic heaven – could feasibly pull it off.

4. One Child Nation

One Child Nation

Director Nanfu Wang grew up in a time when China's infamous one-child policy was at its height, with every facet of society extolling the virtues of having a smaller family...and the consequences of disobedience. After Wang had a son, she decided to investigate the policy she'd never given much thought to and its impact. When she uncovered was a complex and horrific hidden history of forced abortions, child abandonment, and infants who were literally torn from their arms of their families and given to American couples for adoption, who were tragically unaware that they were abetting kidnapping. Wang fearlessly confronts her own complicity and that of her family and community as she delves into the past, and how China is attempting to erase it from its future.

3. Little Women

Sony Pictures

Greta Gerwig didn't just write and direct Louisa May Alcott's beloved 1868 novel, she brought it to life, with each of the four March sisters getting their due. Yes, even Amy. One of the most brilliant decisions Gerwig makes is to bring the book to the big screen in a nonlinear fashion, juxtaposing scenes from the sisters' idyllic childhood with their darker adulthood. While the Civil War rages, depriving them of their father, the March family becomes a matriarchal worldutopia, wherein Meg (Emma Watson), Jo (Saoirse Ronan), Beth (Eliza Scanlen), and Amy (Florence Pugh) are free to explore their hopes and ambitions, guided by their beloved Marmee (Laura Dern), and befriended by their wealthy neighbor Laurie (Timothée Chalamet). As each sister struggles to find her way, Gerwig takes care to ensure that their lives not only feel familiar, but relevant as each wrestles with how to balance their dreams with the narrow expectations imposed on them.

2. Atlantics

IMDB

Mati Diop made history in more ways than one with her feature debut “Atlantics.” She was the first black woman to have a film in the main competition at Cannes, where “Atlantics” won the Grand Prix. The film more than lives up to the hype, with a touching love story that is also part supernatural fable and devastating indictment of modern exploitation and rampant poverty. Ada (Mama Bineta Sane) lives in a Senegalese suburb, and is promised to a wealthy man. But she is in love with Souleiman (Traore), a construction worker on a futuristic tower which is due to open soon. Souleiman and his co-workers haven't been paid for their labor in months, so they decide to take their chances and depart by sea in search of something better. As Ada waits for news of him as she prepares to marry, she gradually learns that the spirits of Souleiman and the other young men are possessing the bodies of the living and demanding justice. As Ada slowly comes to accept the truth and take control of her own life and body (she's forced to take a virginity test), Diop infuses her story with a beauty that never belies its sense of urgency for compassion in a world that can often seem short on it.

1.Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Neon

If Céline Sciamma had just wrote and directed a romance between two women who find the kind of love that leaves the screen burning from their mutual passion, “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” would still have been one of the best films of the year. But Sciamma does so much more, making the case for an entire history that has mostly been unacknowledged by the art world. Not just of the female artists who managed to create in spite of the obstacles, but the lives of women in general, who are often not considered worthwhile subjects. (Times have sure changed, huh?) “Portrait” may take place in 18th century France, but its insights into the dynamics between artist and muse, how art is created, and how those who are silenced manage to find a voice, feels very much needed in our present moment.

Honorable mentions: Late Night, Homecoming: A Film By Beyonce, The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open, Booksmart, Hala