Looking for movies where women aren't tired old tropes? 2017 offers up juicy Film roles and stories: women kicking ass, being lewd and having fun...dammit.
-PJ Gach
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Is 2017 the year that women kick ass at the movies? This coming year there are movies where women roles are meaty. They’re messy, murderous, crazy, mean and happy people. Gasp. The roles are just like men’s roles we’ve seen in the past.
2016 showed film executives that people will flock to movies that have female leads and aren’t romcoms. Hidden Figures is still at the top of the box office. As of January 29, that movie’s pulled in over $104.02 million domestic. Bad Moms was the little comedy that could, Amy Adams was the lead in Arrival, a science fiction film where no one got blown up. Though trolls tried their hardest, people still flocked to the Ghostbusters reboot.
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So is 2017 the year that women conquer film? While there are lots of interesting films coming out this year, one must remember that most of them were greenlighted a while ago. Think about how long it took to get Wonder Woman on the big screen. Some of these films-big and indie have been kicking around for a while.
Could this be the year that women won’t be being treated as props or tropes--the victim, the girlfriend, and the kooky one night stand? The answer, judging by the release schedule, seems to be a “Yes. Throughout the year, we’re being treated to (and what a treat it is!) performers who are clever, sneaky, smart, duplicitous, and compelling. Grab your popcorn and head on down to the multiplex.
Two of Sundance’s big hits were comedies were the leads were women. Ingrid Goes West stars Aubrey Plaza and Elizabeth Olsen. It’s a twisted cautionary tale with a lot of laughter that doesn’t have a happy ending. Think Single White Female meets a classic buddy comedy (any of them) played against the Instagram star phenomenon. It just got picked up for distribution by Neon, so hopefully we’ll see it at the multi-plex soon.
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The other film also stars Aubrey Plaza. The Little Hours cast includes John C. Reilly, Nick Offerman, Molly Shannon, Alison Brie, Fred Armisen and Kate Micucci. It’s full of foul-mouthed nuns set in a medieval convent. A retelling of the Decameron with lots of improv.
There’s so much more to look forward to this year. Noomi Repace’s Shaw makes a return trip to the cinema in “Alien: Covenant,” Wonder Woman is in two (!!!) movies this year, Ripley and aliens are back. We’ll see Anna Kendrick, Rhianna, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Lawrence, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and more light up our movies. Yup, we’re so going to enjoy watching strong female characters on screen.
Read on to find out when all these fantastic movies and more will come out. Please note that romcoms are not listed below.
February
February 10, The Lego Batman hits movie screens in the US. It’s got voices by Will Arnett, Mariah Carey, Jenny Slate, Ralph Fiennes, Rosario Dawson, Zach Galifinakis, Michael Cera, and Billy Dee Williams. Arnett plays Batman, Cera is Robin. They’re joined in crime fighting with Bat Girl (Dawson) and Mayor McCaskill (Carey) against villains Harley Quinn (Slate), The Joker (Galifinakis) and Too-Faced (Williams).
A British-American horror/sci-fi movie may scare you and may make you think about the future when it’s released on February 17th. In Patient Zero, Doctor Who’s Matt Smith stars as a human survivor of a horrific pandemic. He is the only person who can reach the infected, for they are humans who have mutated due to the virus. Game of Throne’s Natalie Dormer is Dr. Gina Rose, a medical researcher trying to find a cure. Also in the cast is Stanley Tucci, Agyness Deyn and Clive Standen (Camelot, Doctor Who).
Allison Williams from Girls stars in comedian Jordan Peele’s first horror movie, Get Out. She, and her boyfriend Andre, played by Keith Stanfield visit her parents and enter another dimension of insane WASPiness. It shows up at Cineplex’s nationwide on February 24.
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Opening on that same day is I Don’t Feel at Home in this World Anymore Melanie Lynskey, depressed and grumpy comes home to house that’s been burgled. Fed up with the police, she takes control of the investigation. Elijah Wood is her co-investigator and neighbor.
March
A Groundhog Day from hell is what Samantha Kingston (Zoe Deutch— Vampire Academy, Why Him?) experiences when she wakes up at home the day after she dies in a car crash. The movie, Before I Fall, which will be released on March 3rd, also stars Jennifer Beals, Alyssa Lynch (Project Mc2), Logan Miller (The Walking Dead) and Diego Boneta (Scream Queens). The uber popular teen tries to figure out why her perfect life is not and how to fix it.
On the lighter side, Elle Fanning stars in the animated movie, Leap! opening on the same day. An orphaned little girl living in Brittany dreams of becoming a ballerina. Somehow, some way, she ends up in Paris and gets into a dance academy. Nothing will stop her dreams.
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Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, and Ewan MacGregor star in the live action Beauty and the Beast, which hits the US on March 17. Don’t expect a weepy, helpless Disney heroine of yore.
Want something a bit more badass? Brie Larson stars in Free Fire, also opening on March 17. The action-thriller’s set in the 70s. She’s an arms broker working with two gangs in Boston. They all meet in an abandoned warehouse to discuss a deal, and everything goes wrong. Larson’s co-stars are Sharlto Copley, Armie Hammer, Cillian Murphy, and Jack Reynor.
Scarlett Johansson closes the month with the movie Ghost in the Shell on the 31st It’s a remake of a Japanese movie, which in turn was based on manga by the same name. Controversy’s been courting the movie since Johansson was first cast as The Major in the sci-fi adventure.
Step Sisters opening that same day is a dance-comedy that preaches social justice too. Starring Megalyn Echikunwoke (Damien, Arrow, 24) Eden Sher (The Middle), and Matt McCrory (OITNB, How to Get Away with Murder).
Want something historical, also opening on the 31st is The Zookeeper’s Wife. Set in Poland during WWII, it tells the story of Warsaw Zoo employees Antonia and Jean Zabinksi, and how they saved people and animals during the war. Jessica Chastain plays Antonia, and Johan Heldenbergh, plays her husband, Jean.
Movies for the rest of the year after the jump
Be prepared to scream. A lot when you watch when you watch Rosario Dawson being stalked by Katherine Heigl in Unforgettable on April 21. Someone has a small issue with reality.
Signourney Weaver stars in a yet titled science fiction/horror movie that was developed and directed by Neil Blomkamp. We only know that she’s once again Ripley. On screens April 28th.
Emma Watson gets sucked into a mystery with Tom Hanks in The Circle, also on screens April 28th.
May
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Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2, beams down to earth on May 2nd. Zoe Saldana’s tough Gamora meets Karen Gillian (Doctor Who) Nebula. Let’s not forget Groot voiced by Vin Diesel, Chris Pratt as Peter Quill, Bradley Cooper reprises his role as Rocket. Look forward to seeing Sylvester Stallone, Kurt Russell, and Nathan FIllion pop into the movie too.
Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn team up for the mother-daughter comedy, Snatched. It hits the screens May 12—in time for Mother’s Day. Knowing Schumer, it may be a very, very dark comedy.
Noomi Repace as archeologist/warrior Elizabeth Shaw returns in Alien: Covenant, out on May 19.
June
Directed by Patty Jenkins, Wonder Woman finally hits the big screen on June 2. There’s been talk about a film version of the Amazon princess and warrior for over 20 years, Gal Godot saved the day in Batman vs Superman, and she’ll do it again in her own movie.
Scarlett Johansson, Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell, Zoe Kravitz, and Ilana Glazer are in Rock That Body, releases June 6. It’s a bachelorette party gone wrong.
Read Live Music Throughout February at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
July
Girl Trip is a horror/comedy/road trip indie starring Suzanne Birrell-Jones and Catherine Black. Catch it when it opens on July 21.
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Cara Delevingne, Rihanna, and Dane DeHaan star in the epic sci-fi adventure Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. Opens July 21.
The Coldest City is a spy thriller set in Berlin, Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, Sofia Boutella, Toby Jones, and Eddie Marsan may or may not be paranoid. Releases July 28.
August
Blake Lively plays a blind woman who regains her sight and learns unsavory things about her husband in All I See Is You, on August 4th.
A possessed doll freaks out over nuns and orphans in Annabelle 2. Freak out on August 11th.
Get even more freaked out when Cadaver starring Stana Katic and Shay Mitchell opens on August 25th.
September
Nina Dobrev, Diego Luna and Ellen Page star in the remake of the 80s movie that starred Julia Roberts and Kiefer Sutherland. Flatliners goes live on September 29th.
October
Idris Elba and Kate Winslet are plane crash survivors in A Mountain Between Us. Out on October 20th.
God Particle is part of the Cloverfeld universe. Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Chris O’Dowd, and David Oyelowo are astronauts doing things on October 27th.
November
Could this be the start of a movie franchise for Mila Kunis? Both she and Kristin Bell are back for A Bad Mom’s Christmas out on November 3rd.
Jennifer Lawrence is a dangerous Russian spy in Red Sparrow on November 10.
The Justice League out on November 17 has a slew of DC comic book heroes. Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) defends the planet with Superman (Henry Cavill), the Flash (Ezra Miller), Cyborg (Ray Fisher), and Aquaman (Jason Momoa)
December
He’s Out There opens in theaters on December 1st. A psycho thinks he’s found easy prey terrorizing a mom and her young daughters…Australian Yvonne Strahovski (A Handmaid’s Tale) is the mom.
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Star Wars: Episode VIII opens on December 15th. Starring the late Carrie Fisher, Tom Hardy, Carrie’s daughter Billie Lourd, Daisy Ridley, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, and John Boyega. Need we say more?
The Barden Bellas are back in Pitch Perfect III. Anna Kendrick, Hailee Steinfeld, Brittany Snow, and Anna Camp sing with Ruby Rose on December 22.
