I watched all of the
Scream movies this weekend. I enjoy those. 3 is pretty fucked up to rewatch in light of all of the Weinstein stuff...these were made by Dimension which is a Miramax company (Clerks VHS spotted in the party at the end of the first movie, and Jay and Silent Bob cameo in 3 at the movie studio), and there is a lot of talk about slutty Hollywood actresses sucking their way to the top and the monsters up there who are using and abusing them.
Then I watched both of the I Know What You Did Last Summer movies (the third one doesn't exist.) By the numbers nostalgic crack.
Man I love me some 90's slasher flicks. The posters gave me a laugh - prominently featuring all 6 main characters on each one.
Edit: I just heard a woman at work say something about a movie, couldn't hear which one, but she said "it has a positive female main character so I liked it". This shit just makes me Picard face palm. Like wow we really need to support these portrayals of strong women because it's not like we've ever seen one of those in oh I don't know, the past 40 years.
These slashers I mentioned alone are prime examples of this having already been done decades ago, yet we still are inundated with messaging that positive female roles are few and far between. Sidney and Gale from Scream are in all 4 movies, and consistently prove themselves to be smarter than their male counterparts. The only guy who makes it to the end from the first movie is Dewey, the comically inexperienced deputy who is nearly always played for laughs.
Julie in IKWYDLS is the sexy but smart main character, she is shown to be the only one with backbone and the only one who the act torments, she's the moral centre. The boys are constantly not sure what to do, and the two female leads drive the entire amateur detective investigation. I am so motherfucking sick of this women are shit on narrative.