There are so many good girl films coming out it's not even funny

We really have to thank Bridesmaids for the slew of non-traditional girl-power films we have coming our way. The movie, which made $25 million on its opening weekend, was a game changer for how the film industry views women. As HuffPo pointed out, Bridesmaids scored critical raves, took in $288 million worldwide and earned two Oscar nods. “Though it seems silly to think that there were skeptics, its success proved to many in Hollywood that women can anchor successful broad comedies, not just the romantic comedies and Sex and the City films.”

According to Hollywood Reporter writer David Friendly the Bridesmaids effect has resulted in all the major film studios asking “Where’s our Bridesmaids?!” Just to remind you the film opened with a record $26.2 million with an audience that was 67% female. And most importantly, the film helped get a lot of other female-centric projects that may not put women in the most beautiful light and be all about getting the guy. From the Carrie Preston-directed That’s What She Said to the phone-sex comedy For a Good Time, Call…, Leslye Headland’s (much hyped about) Bachelorette and the comedy Celeste and Jesse Forever (co-written by and starring Rashida Jones), all will push the comedic envelope in 2012. 

Girls cast

2 Broke Girls

 

The Bridesmaids effect has also come to television as you can clearly see in the success of Girls, 2 Broke Girls and New Girl. Wow. We really don't try very hard with titles do we? Of course, it's not much better on the men's side. I just saw a commercial for a show called Guys with Kids. 

The movie I am looking most forward to is Bachelorette which despite its wedding-centric plot is very different than Bridesmaids. These girls make those ladies look like 13-year-old girls. They are party animal coke-heads that don't even need a gratuitous bathroom scene to get crazy. The awesome Lizzy Caplan literally delivers a monologue about blow jobs. The film is about a group of grown-up mean girls (Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher and Caplan) who get together for their friend's (the amazing Rebel Wilson) wedding. Except she is one of those friends they treat like shit (they call her pig face.) In an interview Kirsten Dunst says on the Bridesmaids comparisons, "I think Bachelorette takes it to a much darker, more independent place. Dark in a fun way though." Hopefully it's less dark than the miserableness that was Meloncholia. Plus James Marsden and Adam Scott!! Yes!

Rebel Wilson

“For 10 years, people were really afraid that there wasn’t an audience for an R-rated female-centric comedy,” says Bachelorette writer/director Leslye Headland. “(Bridesmaids) proved that there was. I think it will get hundreds of movies made.” And it has. This fall we can also look forward to For A Good Time Call written, produced by and starring Lauren Miller and Ari Graynor. 

Right now you can see Celeste and Jesse Forever written and starring Rashida Jones about a long term couple and their unconventional breakup. Rashida said she was definitely inspired by When Harry Met Sally when she wrote the film:

"I would be lying if I said we didn't set out to borrow and steal from the best parts of that movie because [co-writer] Will [McCormack] and I absolutely love that movie. We humbly set out to do what When Harry Met Sally did so well. They asked this question: Can women and men be friends? I guess the answer is they can't, because they end up together. But we were hoping to ask a similar cultural question right now, which is: Can you be friends with your ex? Can you just go into being friends with you ex?"

The important thing is these movies are getting made and they are also highlighting actresses who used to only be able to play the sidekick friend, like Lizzy Caplan.She has been in everything for years (hello Janice in Mean Girls!) and I think this may finally be the year she breaks through. Lizzy Caplan said, “When you’re a girl in a movie, you mostly get to say, ‘Now behave, boys.’ In Bachelorette we got to act as bad as the guys do.” She said this whole cinematic movement means better roles for actresses in general. When talking with her actress collegues she says, “The dinner parties are far more enjoyable since no one is saying, ‘Why do we have to watch boys do everything fun?’ It’s just not like that anymore.” And now you don't Lizzy. 

Lizzy Caplan