1. Shirkers (2018) - 3.

5/5 Stars

Director - Sandi Tan

Shirkers is a documentary telling the story of three teenage girls and the film that was

stolen from them by the man they considered a close friend. Shirkers is an honest and

terrifying look into the reality of being a woman, especially a woman of color, in creative

spaces.

2. Never Goin’ Back (2018) - 3.5/5 Stars

Director - ​Augustine Frizzell 

This movie doesn’t have much meaning or much plot. Which is fine if you ask me, it’s a  

quick, fun, light-hearted, comedy that tells the story of two friends that are having a  

difficult week. It’s messy and fast-paced and at times a little gross, but it’s a fun  

watch and is a pretty accurate portrayal of a friendship between two nineteen  

year old girls living on their own.  

3. Dude (2018) - ⅗ Stars ​(Trigger Warning - Sexual Assault)

Director - Olivia Milch

4.​ ​The Tale (2018) - 4.5/5 Stars ​(Trigger Warning: Rape of A Minor)

Director - Jennifer Fox

The Tale is the horrifying truth of Jennifer Fox’s life and how she was taken advantage of

as a young teenager by her adult camp counselors. It’s difficult to be open and honest

about your trauma and it’s even more difficult when you have to recreate it. The
 Tale offers a fresh perspective on the typical documentary and engages it’s audience at

every turn. The audience becomes fully immersed in this world to the point where it’s

uncomfortable. Even if you haven’t been in Fox’s shoes, ‘The Tale’ tells a story in such a

deeply personal manner that anyone watching can resonate with every minute.

5. The Virgin Suicides (1999) - 5/5 Stars

Director - Sofia Coppola

The Virgin Suicides is the haunting tale of a group of sheltered young sisters coming of

age told from the perspective of a group of neighbourhood boys. Most people are

confused and even upset by the story being told from the perspective of young men, but

I think it only further drives Coppola’s point home. The Virgin Suicides is all about the

idealization of young women, it’s an interesting dissection of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl

trope told in an inventive way that’s yet to be explored.

6. American Honey (2016) - 5/5 Stars ​(Trigger Warning - Attempted Sexual Assault)

Director - Andrea Arnold

Gorgeous cinematography? Check. Deeply personal story? Check. Realism? Check.

Fantastic screenplay? Solid performances? Metaphor for some facet of the human

experience? Check, check, check. Must be an A24 movie.

7. You Were Never Really Here (2018) - 4.5/5 Stars ​(Trigger Warning - Kidnapping, Violence)

Director - Lynne Ramsay

2018 was a really good year for great movies about killing pedophiles and Lynne

Ramsay’s “You Were Never Really Here” is no exception. Joaquin Phoenix gives a great
 (and silent) performance as Joe, a veteran and hitman hired to track down missing girls.

I was unable to tear my eyes away from the screen while watching this film and I’m sure

I’m not the only one. ‘You Were Never Really Here’ is a gritty and deeply violent film with

a slick screenplay, some of the best editing and direction of the year, and impressive

fight choreography.

8. Little Miss Sunshine (2006) - 5/5 Stars

Director(s) - Valerie Faris & Jonathan Dayton

This movie is my only argument for why The Oscar’s should add a “Best Ensemble

Cast” award. Definition of a cast that plays off of each other and it’s a shame that every

actor involved couldn’t have been nominated. These are the best performances I’ve

seen from any member of this cast (excluding Toni Collette in Hereditary) and it’s such a

shame that it went without the praise it deserved.

9. Jennifer’s Body (2009) - 5/5 Stars

Director - Karyn Kusama

I’m a big fan of horror movies about women who eat people.

10. Whip It (2009) - 4/5 Stars

Director - Drew Barrymore

In 2009 Drew Barrymore made her directorial debut in the criminally underrated ‘Whip It’

and my life has not been the same since. Whip It is a quirky dramedy that tells the story

Seventeen year old pageant queen Bliss Cavendar and her journey to become “Babe
 Ruthless”, the star of a local roller derby team. Whip It is not only a fun look into the life

of roller derby, but also an interesting study of a young woman’s relationship with her

mother and how she must learn to assert herself after finding her passion. Barrymore

delivers one of the best directorial debuts and Ellen Page gives us, unsurprisingly, a

fantastic performance as our protagonist.

11. Lady Bird (2017) - 5/5 Stars

Director - Greta Gerwig

Movies with a primarily teenage demographic, specifically teenage girls, are often

assumed to be bad. Often movies that exist for teenage girls to relate to and love are put

under heavy scrutiny and become the target of relentless ridicule (Twilight is the best

example of this) so I was surprised to see that Lady Bird, unlike most teen dramas, was

met with such high praise and went on to become one of the highest acclaimed films of

the year. Lady Bird is deserving of all of it’s praise and was easily one of the best films of

the year, but until I watched this for a third or fourth time, I didn’t understand why of

every coming of age film this one was so highly regarded within the film community.

Lady Bird is the semi-autobiographical story of director Greta Gerwig’s senior year of

high school and her relationship with her emotionally abusive mother. Outside of the

entertaining script, the natural chemistry of Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf, and some

truly phenomenal direction by Greta Gerwig, there’s a distinct reason that Lady Bird is

able to stand out against every other coming of age story we’ve seen told again and

again. Nothing about ‘Lady Bird’ is particularly new or original. A teenage girl feels like

no one understands her, she’s experiencing her first kiss, first love, losing her virginity,

going off to college, has an unhealthy relationship with a family member, these are all
pretty common staples that come with the coming of age drama. So why does Lady Bird

feel so fresh? It’s real. Teenage movies often have a difficult grasp on what it’s actually

like to be a teenager and end up feeling like movies written by adults about how they

think teenagers act, even when they’re retelling true events. Gerwig somehow manages

to capture the actual feeling of being a teenager that often not found in coming of age

films. Lady Bird feels like she’s seventeen years old. We feel like we could actually have

a class with her, we can feel what she feels, we’d listen to the music she’d listen to, we

might have been friends with her. Lady Bird is able to be great and receive the acclaim

that it gets because Greta Gerwig has a real understanding of people and how they talk

and why they do the things they do and what makes them different or the same. Every

character in this film feels like a real person.

12. Wonder Women (2017) - 2/5 Stars

Director - Patty Jenkins

Highly embarrassed that this is the best movie from the DCEU. DC is kind of struggling

with building this universe mostly because it doesn’t quite understand that the majority of

us watch superhero movies because they’re fun or we’re heavily invested in the

characters and their world. No one wants to see bland characters so far from their

original purpose giving uninteresting performances. To be fair, this one was a lot better

than some of DC’s other, blander, more mind-numbingly boring, plot-hole filled,

nightmares (yes this is about Batman v. Superman), but still doesn’t live up to it’s

potential and is somehow saved from being a complete disaster by Chris Pine (who

plays the same character in every movie he’s in).

Director(s) - Dorota Kobiela & Hugh Welchman

14. The Kindergarten Teacher (2018) - 3.5/5 Stars

Director - Sara Colangelo

Remember that time Maggie Gyllenhaal starred in that one Netflix movie about that

kindergarten teacher who had an unhealthy fixation on one of her students because of

his artistic ability and gave the best performance of her career? Yeah, me too. This is

one of those movies that had it not been released on Netflix (or directed by a woman)

and had been given the proper promotion, it surely would’ve had the same Oscar buzz

as First Reformed, At Eternity’s Gate, Can You Ever Forgive Me, and possibly even First

Man. The Kindergarten Teacher is a deeply uncomfortable film that forces it’s audience

to ask “Where’s the line?”.

15. Raw (2016) - ⅘ Stars

Director - Julia Ducournau

I Love Movies About Women Who Eat People: Part Two. Raw is a study of

human sexuality set to the backdrop of a French veterinary school in which a teenage

vegetarian begins to eat her classmates after she’s forced to consume raw meat. iAt

times, Raw loses itself in all that it’s trying to say, but is ultimately redeemed through it’s

strong performances, unforgettable gore, and use of absurdist realism.