Recommendations Wanted for Movie with Strong Female Lead

I've shown my college-age daughter many of what I consider the great films. Last week I showed her Apocalypse Now and she was pretty impressed but while discussing it she said all the movies I've shown her have male leads.

She asked if I could show her a great film with a strong female lead.

It's a pretty good challenge and I want to come up with some good examples. Looking at online lists on the subject I get a lot of movies like Kill Bill, Alien, Terminator, Lara Croft, etc. These are not the kind of movies I'm looking for.

Here's what I came up with:
Gone with the Wind
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Norma Rae
Places in the Heart

Any others?

 

Some of Mike Leigh's films might fit the bill. Secrets and Lies, Vera Drake, Life is Sweet, Happy Go Lucky, Naked etc.

Quirky, English, some funny, some grim. All entertaining and thought provoking.

 

Erin Brockovich
Gorillas in the Mist
Contact
Gravity

 

Raze

 

The Last Seduction
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri

 

Steel Magnolias
Moonstruck

 

Silence Of The Lambs?

 

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (and it's sequels)
Rosemary's Baby
The Hand that Rocks the Cradle
Monster
Bumblebee

 

Fargo - Francis McDormand does a great job amongst the mayhem.
Alien and Aliens - Sigourney Weaver is a strong female in the first two movies. After that things change.
The Help - Viola Davis is a strong woman in a tough position here.
Hidden Figures - Well, pretty much all of the women in this movie.
Misery- Kathy Bates is a bit off center but she certainly had her own version of strength and conviction in this movie.
Red - Helen Mirren is a strong female character in a somewhat silly spy/action spoof movie.

Just about anything with Octavia Spencer in it. Regardless of the movie her role will be a strong woman character of some merit...I really like Octavia's style.

 

Aliens

 

I named Alien in my original post as the type of movie I'm not interested in (action, suspense, special EFX, explosions, car chase-type movies).

 

Fargo's a good selection, thanks.

 

Pretty much anything made in the last 18 months.

 

Pretty Poison

 

I take it you've never seen Aliens.

It lasts 2.5h, the first half of which is backstory and focuses on the interplay of the cast. Then, all hell breaks loose but only in short sequences. 3-5 minutes of action and then 20 min of more story and character development.

It's not some vapid generic action flick but rather a character development story with a masterful performance resulting in her getting an Oscar nomination.

 

going back to my Altman well, two films with domineering women leads;

3 Women (sissy spacek/shelly duvall)
Come Back to the Five and Dime (Cher/Sandy Dennis)

 

Fargo is the first one I thought of.

Silence of the Lambs (also previously mentioned) is another great choice... in addition to a great character and a great performance by Jodie Foster, it's got a lot of subtext about the way women are looked at by men in our society.

I can think of some older movies that have great, strong women in supporting roles but not lead roles (e.g. Pickup on South Street or Vertigo) but I can't think of anything else off the top of my head.

 

I'd second the 'Secrets & Lies' Brenda Blethlyn nomination . I just watched it again a couple weeks ago. It walks a tightrope between comedy & tragedy. Love it!

 

"Until The End of the World" by Wim Wenders will exactly fit your needs: a young lady who's living from party to party meets a mysterious man fleeing the FBI. Their ways split in Paris, but she's so fascinated by him she traces him down and follows his way all around the world. Her ex, a romantic-minded writer (played by William Hurt) follows her, too, with the help of a private eye from Berlin. Eventually, they make it to Australia and that's where my description ends take time for it - the 'good' version (a.k.a. the Director's Cut) clocks in at almost five hours but it's totally worth it. The female lead is so cool - she's a strong woman, fascinated by men but by no means depending on them in order to enjoy life to the fullest.

 

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

 

The Queen (Helen Mirren)
Elizabeth: The Golden Age (Cate Blanchett)
The Impossible (Naomi Watts)
Eyes Wide Shut (Nicole Kidman)
True Grit (2010) Haillee Steinfeld

 

Howards End

 

More to come:

Desperately Seeking Susan (Rosanna Arquette and Madonna in a great comedy, highly recommended! Plus, written and directed by a female director as well.)

The Lady In The Car With Glasses And A Gun (cool 2015 thriller in the style of 70s grindhouse cinema, basically a remake of the 1970 film with the same title)

Victoria (a german experiment in film about a tourist who goes out one night in Berlin when she meets a gang of locals who celebrate with her before planning to rob a bank early in the morning. Shot in one single take in the streets of Berlin from roughly 4 a.m. to 6 a.m., this is a very intense, very good movie with high rewatchability)

 

Lion in Winter= Katherine Hepburn

 

True, I've not seen Aliens. I saw the first two and assumed the third was more of the same.