Summer popcorn flicks and thoughtful lesbian-themed cinema don't typically collide, When it comes to lesbians -- or women in general for that matter -- seeking representation on the big screen, the summer blockbuster season is fairly slim pickings next to the testosterone-laden superhero scenario on endless redux and the paean to the poor shlubby guy who always gets the hot girl comedies that apparently never get old in Hollywood.
So what's a girl to do on an impossibly humid 90-degree summer day when she's craving popcorn and arctic temps in a darkened theater? We’ve compiled a list of summer movies that feature strong female characters, respected actresses and features about or directed by women. Be sure to look for separate coverage of LGBT film festivals.
Get your Swedish Fish and tub o' corn and settle in!
July 12
Hot Flashes
This movie from Desperately Seeking Susan director Susan Seidelman had us at Wanda Sykes, Brooke Shields, Virginia Madsen, Daryl Hannah and Camryn Manheim play middle-aged former Texas high school basketball champs who reform their team to challenge the current high school girl's basketball team for charity. Top that off with the fact that Hannah's character is a lesbian and you've got yourself at least a bargain matinee! Just be forewarned that generations will collide and menopause jokes will be made.
Girl Most Likely
Bridesmaids’ Kristen Wiig and Annette Bening face off as mother and daughter in this comedy from Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini. Wiig plays a Tony-winning actress (insert cameo of Cynthia Nixon presenting the award here) who suffers a mental breakdown and is forced to live with her self-absorbed, pseudo hippy-dippy mother (the always excellent Bening) at her childhood home on the Jersey Shore. Natasha Lyonne, Michelle Hurd, Darren Criss and Matt Dillon costar.
Red 2
Mary Louise Parker and Helen Mirren as assassins. That’s all you need to know about this guilty pleasure sequel to the 2010 Bruce Willis/Morgan Freeman starrer Red, about a group of rag-tag former assassins who get back in the game. Catherine Zeta Jones and Anthony Hopkins join the cast for the sequel.
July 26
Blue Jasmine
Woody Allen’s latest picture pits Cate Blanchett as Ginger, a control freak of an uptight richie rich who’s forced to reconcile with her working class sister Ginger (Fingersmith’s Sally Hawkins). Blanchett and Hawkins alone are worth the price of admission. The film costars Alec Baldwin, Bobby Cannavale, Louis C.K. and Tammy Blanchard.
August 7
We're the Millers
Summer really is about guilty pleasures, and we can’t wait to see Jennifer Aniston as a stripper posing as a suburban mom to smuggle marijuana over the border! Jason Sudeikis plays the strippers shiftless fake hubby while Emma Roberts plays her daughter and Will Poulter plays her son. Ed Helms, Kathryn Hahn and Nick Offerman round out the cast.
August 9
Elysium
Who doesn’t love a good post-apocalyptic flick, especially one that pits the one-percenters against the rest of us (see 1927’s Metropolis)? That said, we can’t freaking wait for this Jodie Foster/Matt Damon starrer. District 9’s Neill Blomkamp directs the sci-fi movie in which the wealthiest of the wealthy live on a man-made space station while all others fend for themselves on and over-crowded, blown-out planet Earth. Leave it to Damon’s working class hero to save Planet earth from cyborgs and rich people while Foster plays the Mayor of Elysium who’ll do anything to keep the poor and miserable earthbound from infiltrating her safe haven.
Lovelace
From out producers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (the team behind The Celluloid Closet, Howl and Paragraph 175) comes a biopic about porn star Linda Lovelace starring Amanda Seyfried doing her best ‘70s impression. Most famous for Deep Throat, Lovelace later became part of the anti-pornography movement that included Andrea Dworkin and Gloria Steinhem. The film costars Juno Temple, Peter Saarsgard, Chris Noth, Sharon Stone and Chloe Sevigny.
August 16
Kick Ass 2
The ultimate revenge of the nerd’s film, the original Kick Ass gave us relatable superheroes. The standout of the film course being the foul-mouthed tomboyish caped crusader Hit-Girl, played by Chloë Grace Moretz. Well, Hit-Girl is back for the sequel and she’s a little older and a whole lot more badass! The movie costars Jim Carrey, Aaron Taylor Johnson, Lyndsy Fonseca and Christopher Mintze-Plasse.
August 30
Afternoon Delight
Perhaps the quirkiest of our summer movie list, acclaimed TV writer Jill Soloway (United States of Tara, Grey’s Anatomy, Six Feet Under) tries her hand at writing and directing an indie feature. The film stars the wonderfully versatile Kathryn Hahn (Crossing Jordan, Parks and Recreation, Revolutionary Road) as depressed housewife who seeks mother the stripper who gave her a lap dance during a wild girls’ night out with her lady friends. The ubiquitous Juno Temple plays the stripper while Jane Lynch and Michaela Watkins costar.
Passion
Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace star as a high-powered exec and protégé (respectively) in Brian DePalma's remake of the psycho-sexual French thriller Love Crime. McAdams and the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo engage in plenty of heavy head games and flirtation. And that's pretty much enough to get our butts in theater chairs on a hot late August day!
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