7 Movies to Watch while Waiting on ‘How to Be Single’
Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures
By JORDAN ECARMA
Think you know single life? Rebel Wilson is here to show you how it’s done.
The “How to Be Single” trailer recently debuted, and I already love so many things about this movie. I love that the first poster features four female stars. I love that the gorgeous, hilarious Leslie Mann is in it. I love that Dakota Johnson gets to have some fun after everything she endured in “Fifty Shades of Grey” (and a break in between filming that and “Fifty Shades Darker”). And I love that the trailer’s closing jokes are Wilson’s character (Robin) razzing Johnson’s (Alice) about her indifference toward getting a bikini wax.
While “Single” is unlikely to reach the record-breaking box office numbers brought in by “Fifty Shades,” it could still similarly benefit from the holiday—as well as from Johnson’s star power. “Fifty Shades” took a modest $40 million production budget and went on to make more than $570 million worldwide. Also based on a book, “Single” is inspired by the novel by Liz Tuccillo—who co-wrote the bestselling He’s Just Not That Into You, a book of frank, funny dating advice that also became an ensemble rom-com in 2009.
2015 has been a great year for women in film, with female stars getting to carry movies ranging from Judd Apatow’s “Trainwreck” to Disney’s live-action “Cinderella” remake to the post-apocalyptic action in “Mad Max: Fury Road.” I hope “Single” and its female cast are a sign that 2016 will be just as good, if not better.
Meantime, here are seven fun flicks led by female casts—you know, just to tide you over until it’s time to party in New York with Robin and Alice.
1. “Trainwreck”
As I wrote earlier this year, “Trainwreck” manages to be a ton of fun while being a step forward for women in film. Amy Schumer expertly balances heavy themes (divorce, alcoholism, heartbreak) and raunchy hilarity befitting a Judd Apatow project.
2. “Clueless”
Watch it for the millionth time to laugh, love and learn about the power of female friendships with Cher, Dionne and Tai. Sidenote: Enjoy the subtle feminism of how Cher knows she’s pretty instead of waiting for someone to tell her. How often do you see that in a movie?
3. “Bachelorette”
Wry, quirky and darkly hilarious, “Bachelorette” is an underrated little film that explores the frenemy paradox. Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher and Lizzy Caplan alternately love and hate each other as they reluctantly perform bridesmaid duties for the sort-of best friend they used to make fun of in high school.
4. “Pitch Perfect”
“Pitch Perfect” has everything: Anna Kendrick singing, “synchronized lady-dancing” and most of all, women being funny AND gross AND pretty AND raunchy and anything they want to be.
5. “Mean Girls”
In case you hadn’t noticed, “Mean Girls” is the Internet. It struck a chord with my generation because we recognized ourselves in it … and because the lines are so damn quote-able. GRETCHEN STOP TRYING TO MAKE FETCH HAPPEN. IT’S NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN.
6. “Easy A”
Emma Stone dances expertly on the line between raunchy and sweet as the lead in “Easy A,” a performance that brings to mind Audrey Hepburn’s turn in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” … it’s all about sex and yet it’s not a sexual role. But unlike the quirky Holly Golightly, who did have touches of Manic Pixie Dream Girl about her before she became completely real in the end, Stone’s Olive is awkwardly and adorably real throughout the film.
7. “The Other Woman”
A wife meets the woman her husband is cheating with … and the two become best friends. “The Other Woman,” a beyond quirky flick about a betrayed wife who bonds with two women her husband had affairs with, was mis-marketed as a modern rom-com. This is an old-fashioned screwball comedy in a time that unfortunately no longer recognizes screwball as a genre. I’d like to think that back in the day, Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann and Kate Upton’s characters could have been played by Carole Lombard, Katharine Hepburn and Joan Fontaine. The opposite of the cat-fighting characteristic of “The Women,” this comedic take on marital infidelity is all about women supporting each other and navigating heartbreak the better for it.
Jordan Ecarma is a former journalist now living the millennial dream: getting paid for writing Facebook statuses (that is, digital PR). She watches her use of the f-word (“feminism”) around conservatives and the c-word (“conservatism”) around feminists. Find her under @JordanEcarma.
