Women directors may not have made a major impact at the box office this year, but they absolutely helmed some of the year’s finest films. With subjects as varied as a traveling magazine crew, a dance team with a mysterious affliction, and a self-sacrificing woman at a crossroads, these seven women-directed features made a major impression on the Women and Hollywood team. These are just some of our favorite films released in 2016. Women-directed films will also appear on our upcoming lists celebrating 2016’s best films about girls and women and the year’s best documentaries.
“Certain Women” — Written and Directed by Kelly Reichardt
There’s a definitive quality to Kelly Reichardt’s movies. In “Certain Women,” she revisits the Northwest United States, where her quietly gorgeous character studies are supported by stark environments. “Certain Women” is a essentially a trilogy of interconnected stories. Laura Dern plays a lawyer dealing with a patriarchal system. Michelle Williams, a Reichardt staple, is a woman building her dream house. And Kristen Stewart a young lawyer/teacher who is in over her head. But the real breakout of Reichardt’s latest is newcomer Lily Gladstone, who plays a ranch hand smitten with Stewart. Together, these women and their director make “Certain Women” shine.
“The Fits” — Written and Directed by Anna Rose Holmer
“The Fits” is one of those movies that stays with you. From writer-director Anna Rose Holmer, the film follows Toni (Royalty Hightower), a tough, taciturn 11-year-old athlete who joins her community center’s dance team, the significantly-named Lionesses. Soon after, the older, more talented girls on the team begin to have mysterious, seizure-like episodes the characters call “the fits.” Holmer injects dread and tension throughout the film, so the audience is uneasy even before the first outbreak hits. As Toni gets better at the dance routine, the fits continue to spread and eventually strike younger girls. Tellingly, the boys at the community center are left unscathed. Holmer keeps her characters and audience in the dark. Are the fits just a random bout of group panic and hysteria? Are they a metaphor for menstruation, the rite of passage into womanhood? Are they a commentary on environmental racism? Are they indicators of the risk you take when you pursue what you love? We don’t know, and “The Fits” isn’t telling. That’s what makes the film impossible to forget and Holmer a director to watch.
“Chevalier” — Co-Written and Directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari
“Chevalier” is a scathing satire of toxic masculinity. The dark comedy about middle-aged male frenemies centers on a group of six men aboard a luxury yacht in participating in a competition to determine who is “The Best at Everything.” But how do you quantify or qualify bestness? The criteria the men agree upon includes morning-time boners. He who earns the most points wins the contest. The game escalates quickly, with its participants desperate to prove their masculinity to one another and themselves. Award-winning Greek director Athina Rachel Tsangari offers a fresh take on male friendship, and her commentary is both astute and entertaining.
“Sand Storm” — Written and Directed by Elite Zexer
“Sand Storm” follows Layla(Lamis Ammar), an 18-year-old girl whose forbidden love affair is discovered by her mother. The romance — and what the teen is willing to do to protect it — has life-changing consequences for everyone involved. The drama takes place in a Bedouin village in the Israeli dessert. “The biggest challenge I faced was making a film about a culture that is not my own,” Zexer told Women and Hollywood. “The traditions, beliefs, customs, language — all were very different from mine. While understanding that this is something I could never bypass or ignore, and by this I mean that this film will always be from an outsider, I still wanted to give it my best shot and have it feel as if it were an internal voice.” Consequently, Zexer spent years getting to know girls and women “who went through the experiences portrayed in [the] film.” Her painstaking effort showed: “Sand Storm” is a totally immersive experience, and one that doesn’t feel voyeuristic or exploitative. The film was named the best Israeli film of 2016 at the Ophir Awards, the Israeli Oscars.
“American Honey” — Written and Directed by Andrea Arnold
Andrea Arnold has added another stunning feature to her resume. “American Honey” marks the “Fish Tank” writer-director’s first film shot in the U.S., and she dives deep into the country, tackling locations that most American filmmakers overlook entirely. The drama stars newcomer Sasha Lane as a young runaway who travels across the Midwest with a magazine crew composed of disenfranchised teens. “American Honey” is a real sight to behold, and that’s partly due its realistic looking cast. These actors look like American teenagers — not the poreless adolescents in Teen Vogue. Arnold managed to make us feel like we were seeing the country through Star’s eyes, hungrily taking in as much as possible at all times.
“Maggie’s Plan” — Written and Directed by Rebecca Miller
Greta Gerwig’s name is now pretty much synonymous with oddball comedies, but she continuously offers a fresh take on characters who just can’t seem to get it right. Here, she plays Maggie, and like the title suggests, Maggie has a plan — in fact, she has a several of them. Maggie is eager to have a baby, but her past romantic failures have convinced her that she’s better off searching for a sperm donor than a father. This is her first plan, and just like all the others, it goes awry. Maggie ends up romantically entangled with a hotshot professor (Ethan Hawke) who’s been overshadowed by his more successful academic wife (a hilarious Julianne Moore). Hijinks ensue. Rebecca Miller gets amazing performances out of her cast, and her writing and directing confidently take this story in unexpected but welcome places. “Maggie’s Plan” is a delight.
“Things to Come” — Written and Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve
“Things to Come” sees Nathalie (Isabelle Huppert), a Philosophy professor, dealing with the aftermath of both her husband’s infidelity and the death of her mother. She’s single, her overbearing, unstable mother is gone, and her children have grown up. Nathalie is concluding one chapter of her life and beginning another. “Total freedom,” she says of her new path. “I’ve never experienced it. It’s extraordinary.” Mia Hansen-Løve took home the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival for “Things to Come,” and the honor is well-deserved. It’s so refreshing — and rare — to see a female-led film toplined by an actress in her 60s. And “Things to Come” makes it painfully clear how much we’re missing out on by ignoring the stories of older women.
And we’d be remiss not to mention some of our favorite women-directed films that haven’t been released in the U.S. just yet, such as UK gems “Adult Life Skills,” directed by Rachel Tunnard, and “The Levelling,” directed by Hope Dickson Leach. Hopefully these films will hit U.S. theaters in 2017.
