Buzzfeed describes the “good for her cinematic universe” as a fan-made genre of movies where a character overcomes great turmoil with a satisfying triumph. As a feminist myself, this is my favorite type of movie trope. Men are always the hero in movies and the women are always portrayed as weaker and subordinate to the man. The good for her cinematic universe is a film about a woman getting well deserving vengeance or revenge by men in the movie who underestimated her. The satisfaction that I get when a woman realizes her power and makes whoever has wronged her feel her wrath is indescribable. Here is a list of some of my favorites.
1. Gone Girl (Hulu) – Amy Dunne goes missing on the couple’s anniversary and people start to suspect that her husband Nick (Ben Affleck) might have more to do with her disappearance than he is letting on.
2. Don’t Breathe (Hulu) – Rocky wants a better life for her and her sister so she and a group of friends try to break into a man’s home and rob him but while they are inside, they discover he is a psychopath and not the sweet blind man they assumed he was.
3. Mr. and Mrs. Smith (Hulu, Starz app, Amazon Prime Video) – I do not care what anyone says this was Angelina Jolie’s movie and Brad Pitt was just there hanging around in the background.
4. Midsommar (Prime Video, Hulu, Showtime) – The literal definition of a “good for her” movie if I have ever seen one before. Plus, Florence Pugh can do no wrong in my eyes.
5. Knives Out – I know Chris Evans had on his infamous cream cable knit sweater in this movie but let us not forget how Ana de Armas CARRIED this movie from start to finish.
6. Easy A (HBO Max, Prime Video) – The main character Olive (played by Emma Stone) finds herself on the downside of a rumor that she started herself. The film is based loosely on the classic novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, where Hester Prynne is a woman who is shunned by her community for adultery. Easy A is a modern take on what women still must go through to this day when it comes to having their character judged by the public.
7. John Tucker Must Die – Four girls’ team up to take down and humiliate the school’s playboy who dated and cheated on all four of them…at the same time.
8. 10 things I Hate About You– Two words KAT STARTFORD