On my Piczo Website in 2006 (for those of you who don’t know what Piczo is- it was a website builder used mainly by 13 year olds to write a list of your best friends, post mini square pictures of the OC, Mary Kate and Ashley and Starbucks Cups and the occasional anonymous made site dedicated to the top five fittest girls in your school year). On my Piczo website I had a best friend page with a picture of me and my friend pouting with the caption “We ride together, We die together, Bad Boyz for Lyf”.
Slightly embarrassing anecdote but comparing myself and my best friend to Will Smith and Martin Lawrence is a good example of how a younger me was always looking to find the adventurous, exciting and intense friendships I saw on screen. Friendships like the boys in Stand By Me, the quick witted banter between Marcus and Michael in Bad Boys 1 and 2 (so excited for the 3rd movie) and the roller coaster chemistry between Keauno Reeves and Patrick Swayze in Point Break. Also, not forgetting the loyalty seen with Frodo and Sam from Lord of the Rings.
Even after watching the 2007 film Son of Rambow in the cinema I asked one of my friends if she wanted to film a knock off version of Rambo in the woods near my house. Just like a young cheeky and now really successful Will Poulter and now the not so famous Bill Miner did. There is a certain Romanisation in films around young lads that I wanted to be a part of. Once I noticed it I saw it everywhere it’s even in Persil adverts, it’s all about boys playing out in the woods, in the mud, getting in fights, it’s one big adventure where “Boys will be Boys”.- By the way my friend said no to the Rambo remake in Canley Woods and didn’t speak to me much after that…
I’m not saying there aren’t any great films about Female Friendships but the ones that dominated my screen at home were always boys coming of age with their gang of best mates or male double act/Cop duo. Yes, yes I did eventually come across Thelma and Louise one rainy day on a camping holiday in Cornwall. Straight after me and my friend posed with sunglasses and head scarves and I still call my cousin Louise and she calls me Thelma in attempt to compare ourselves to the intense friendship they had. But let’s face it the stakes are bloody high in Thelma and Louise, it’s not just about girls mucking about on a road trip and the intricacies of friendship. Thelma is running away from her abusive husband and spoiler alert they drive off a cliff and die.
However, this year there have been a few films I have watched that have really made me think that’s us. That’s me and my best mates. And sorry for sounding overly cheesy here but I’ve come out of the cinema feeling on the top of the world. Here is the “jumping out of the tree in the mud” moment I was waiting for.
3. Animals
A cigarette in one hand and glass in the other: “There way I see it, girls are tied to beds for two reasons: sex and exorcisms. So, which is it with you?” This film is about the crazy and impassioned friendships that make us who we are in our early twenties before we all become boring, talking about houses and getting married. It brought back my own memories the feeling of waking up with a furry layer of alcohol on your teeth having only got into your flat together at half past five in the morning, waking up trying to work out how you got from Dalston to a dingy club in Elephant and Castle, then home and who the hell was that person on the night bus you got sick on. The writing is witty and raw from Emma Jane Unsworth and brilliant performances by Halliday Granger and Ali Shakat.
2. Booksmart
The premise of Booksmart is simple, two girls try to do everything they missed out on in one night before they graduate, the details between the lines however about female friendship are anything but. Many critics and people I have spoken to about Booksmart have compared this film to Superbad and I do see the similarities but director Olivia Wilde adds her own distinctive style to a high school teen comedy and depicts the silliness and importance of young female friendship we all needed to see on screen. I fell in love with the two-lead character’s friendship from the beginning as soon as they greet each other with dance moves and don’t know when to stop. Straight away the goofiness of teen girl best friends which we know but is rarely acted out in films is established. Another detail in Amy and Molly’s friendship that stood out for me was as soon as either one of them senses any doubt about themselves, the other one will shower them with compliments. This I know to be true. We are all cheerleaders for our best friends no matter how big or small. Whether it’s a new job, overly waxed eyebrows or if they’ve managed to get out of bed today, we are always there to cheer them along.
1. Hustlers
Now this film, is what I had been waiting for, a Martin Scorsese esque storytelling but with glamorous slow mo walks, a true story about women and the best entrance to a film I have ever seen. My chin was literally on the floor and the whole cinema were whooping and hollering as Romana (JLO) entered in a glittery Borat style thong thing. Despite this jaw dropping entrance let’s not let the snobs believe this is the female version of Magic Mike. It’s about the financial crash of 2007 and how group of women stole from the most powerful men in New York, who had already stolen so much from the rest of the world. But at its core it’s about the rollercoaster of female friendship. And if it couldn’t get any better they’ve thrown in 90s Icon Julia Stiles.
What hit me when watching these films is that they don’t try to be exactly like the male friendships I grew up idolising. These films are proof that we don’t have to have that all female reboot of that originally all male casted film. (Oceans 8 I still love you) They are our stories, unique to our experiences. Yes, it might help that these three films have all been written and directed by women but they aren’t all that different to the Stand By Me’s or Bad Boys One and Two’s. We can have that mad night out on our last day of school and jump in the pool, drink champagne from the bottle, punch someone in the face, travel to Mordor and back again for a friend and even trick the most powerful men in the world and rob them for all their worth.
To bring in the new year, instead of trying to be one of the lads as I have previously done, look to your gang or right-hand woman, grab your best friend at 12, if she’s not with you send a drunk text but whatever you do make sure you dance on those tables and down that champagne because as JLO rightly says in Hustlers together we are “the untouchables”.
I ran once but it was awful 