18 Movies That, Much to Our Surprise, Pass the Bechdel Test

Seemingly every piece of commentary about Showgirls, the 1995 camp masterclass starring Saved By The Bell’s Elizabeth Berkley, includes a sentence akin to this: ”Let it be known that no one would mistake this film for the pinnacle of feminist cinema.“ Each and every time I read it, I can’t help but think to myself, “Oh…whoever wrote this isn’t just dumb. They’re boring!”

I get it. It was written and directed by men. But Showgirls still passes the Bechdel test (see: doggy chow scene). The little story about small-town girl turned shiny, Sin City showgirl didn’t just empower its ensemble cast—a majority of women—to be naive, nasty, and very naked. It allowed them to be all three and commit violent acts of revenge against men (each other, too). See! Feminism!

My favorite fact about this classic, though, is that after it tanked at the box office and was panned by critics for its portrayal of women, its writer, Joe Eszterhas, took out a full-page ad in Variety to make the case to women audiences that it was still worth seeing. Something about a man spending a lot of money to beg women to engage with his art is, in a word, perfect. Sam Levinson could never. —Audra Heinrichs

I recently watched Alien for the first time, and while I was largely familiar with the movie’s general plot arc, I was still pleasantly surprised that one major twist had not been revealed to me! Let me be the three-millionth person to say: This movie is so, so good. (Also, I cannot imagine how terrifying it would have been to see it in a movie theater in 1979 without any real awareness of just how scary it would be.)

In any case, one thing the crew of the Nostromo are not gonna do is fuck or even be remotely romantically interested in each other, because right as they are awoken from their age-preserving slumber many years early, they are immediately thrown into a confusing-at-best, fatally-corrupt-at-worst space investigation. The two women on the crew, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and Lambert (Veronica Cartwright), only talk about ship business and attempting to not get eaten by the titular alien. Forty-year-late spoiler alert: That doesn’t work out for Lambert.

This movie is of course not a perfect exemplar of feminism: Shortly before Ripley manages to shoot the alien deep into outer space, she thinks she is alone on her escape pod and wanders around with very skimpy underpants slung uncomfortably low on her hips, showing what I imagine the studio deemed to be a tasteful amount of buttcrack. Ridley Scott had to film the 20-something Weaver being casually sexy, at least for a brief moment, it seems—but as a woman and, more importantly, an underwear-wearer, I simply wanted to yell “pull your panties up!!” —Nora Biette-Timmons

Note: This one is specifically named in the Dykes to Watch Out For comic strip from which the Bechdel test originated.

Kasi Lemmons to the rescue, again. In Candyman, she plays Bernadette, another best friend role, this time to Virginia Madsen’s Helen, a grad student who was years ahead of the zeitgeist by studying urban legends—in particular, that of Candyman, the ghost of a lynched Black man who haunts Chicago’s Cabrini-Green homes. It’s nice to have a friend you can talk gentrification and urban legends with. —Rich Juzwiak

The first entrant into what later became a box office machine marketed to women with insatiable libidos was never meant to be feminist. And it’s not—not really. Directed by Steven Soderbergh, Magic Mike, the Channing Tatum vehicle based loosely on the actor’s experiences as a stripper, became an instant classic with its intimate lap dances, gritty realism, and chiseled cast (including Matthew McConaughey as former stripper and owner of Xquisite Dallas and Joe Manganiello as Big Dick Richie). Though the 2012 film does scratch at the questions of sexual agency and financial independence, those questions aren’t really posed to its women characters, focusing instead on Mike’s romance with Brooke, the sister of his new protégé.

While later installments in the series veer increasingly progressive (as Zeba Blay wrote for Jezebel, “in the world of Magic Mike, sex itself is actually beside the point”), Mike’s first outing passes the Bechdel test almost by happy accident. In a 4th of July scene on the beach, Brooke and Joanna (Mike’s ex, played by Olivia Munn) meet and briefly discuss Brooke’s tattoo. It’s not much of a conversation, and Joanna may have been engaging with Brooke only to make Mike jealous. But then again, maybe Joanna is genuinely attracted to Brooke, and hopes to act on her desires in spite of Mike. The interpretation of the scene is certainly up for debate, but by the standards of the Bechdel test, Mike somehow gets a passing grade. —Emily Leibert

If one single movie is proof that passing the Bechdel test does not necessarily make for a feminist (or even neutral) work, surely it is Deep Throat. The movie that kicked off porno chic (and whose makers were accused by Linda Lovelace of coercion and rape) does so within seconds as Linda (Lovelace) greets her roommate. “Give me a hand putting them way, will ya hun?” asks Helen (Dolly Sharp), handing Linda some boxes of cereal. Helen is receiving oral sex at the time. When she’s done, she takes a dip in the pool and tells Linda about it, and then asks for tanning oil. Then they discuss their lifestyles and paths for the future and, of course, sex and pleasure. —Rich Juzwiak

First, people disagree as to whether this 1937 Disney feature passes the test because Snow White’s stepmother, the Queen, doesn’t have a name, but others say that either doesn’t matter because “the Queen” is a royal title and she rules the kingdom by herself, which is far from sexist. But, uh, the whole crux of the movie is the Magic Mirror naming Snow White the prettiest bitch around, which causes the Queen to banish her to the forest in a fit of jealousy. The Queen only interacts with Snow White as the Old Granny, and that discussion is initially about caring for Granny but then it becomes about how Snow wishes for a man, the Prince. And after Granny’s poisoned apple sends Snow White into a deep sleep, only true love’s kiss can awaken her? Yeah, even if it does pass, it’s certainly not a feminist story, which we honestly shouldn’t expect from a 1930s children’s film. —Susan Rinkunas

Psycho is primarily concerned with a demented serial killer named Norman Bates. However, the seminal Alfred Hitchcock film does pass the Bechdel test, in the funniest way possible. Less than 10 minutes into the movie, two named women—Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) and Caroline (Pat Hitchcock)—talk about painkillers. Mary has a headache and the fellow secretary offers her tranquilizers instead of aspirin. Fun!! —Caitlin Cruz

It would be absolutely impossible to pick a best line from Tommy Wiseau’s beautiful disaster The Room—its plethora of nonsense that begs to be yelled back at is why it became a midnight movie phenomenon. One of its most beloved scenes, though, has the added distinction of clearing the Bechdel bar:

Claudette: “Everything goes wrong at once. Nobody wants to help me. And I’m dying.”

Lisa: “You’re not dying, Mom.”

Claudette: “I got the results of the test back! I definitely have breast cancer.”

At least she’s chill about it. —Rich Juzwiak

Among the things that make Ang Lee’s 2000 spin on the wuxia genre remarkable are the several conversations that take place among its women characters: Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) and Jen (Zhang Ziyi), for example, discuss calligraphy and, with Madam Yu (Hai Yan), recent theft and murder. “A female criminal! Now that’s news!” notes Madam Yu. Indeed! —Rich Juzwiak

The movie is mostly about figuring out who killed a guy, but there are moments throughout where caretaker Marta (Ana de Armas) talks with Meg (Katherine Langford), as well as with her mother and sister, about things besides men. Plus, Marta ends up with the gigantic house and the entire shitty family mad at her, so that’s quite satisfying for a movie that passes the test. —Susan Rinkunas

A brief flashback in which a social worker (or some such employed “authority”) named Miss Dunne (Karen Allen) speaks to Louise Little (Lonette McKee), the mother of Malcolm and his siblings, about Louise’s ability to care for her children after the death of Malcolm’s father allows Spike Lee’s 1992 biopic Malcolm X to qualify. There was actually another scene in the movie that was deleted (and ended up in physical media extras) of Malcom’s girlfriend Sophia (Kate Vernon) and her friend Peg (Debi Mazar) casing a mansion by posing as surveyors for the Athenaeum Society who are compiling a catalog of Great New England Antiques. But, as Malcolm (Denzel Washington) literally says to Sophia earlier in the movie, “I don’t like women who talk too much.” It shows—the movie barely passes. —Rich Juzwiak

We’ve got a dubious contender here, folks. This Leonardo Dicaprio-led film—yes, the one that gave us cocaine-addled bankers, hordes of topless women, and a straight man’s wet dream in then 22-year-old Margot Robbie—is apparently Bechdel-approved by a hair. There are two iffy scenarios that qualify this bender of a cinematic romp as, uh, lightly feminist. First, Jordan Belfort’s wife Naomi and Donnie’s wife Hildy talk briefly about the death of Naomi’s Aunt Emma while on a boat in Italy. Two women with names not talking about men: check? There’s also a two-line exchange after Jordan crashes his car with his daughter in it. The couple’s housekeeper Violet asks, “Is she okay?” Naomi confirms she is. That’s it! Really dependent on what you’d define as a conversation, which arguably is…not this! —Emily Leibert

It’s a real turtle-sausage fest with the exception of their…friend, broadcast journalist April (Paige Turco, stepping in for Judith Hoag, who played the character in the first film and said she wasn’t asked back because the producers deemed her “too demanding”). April, though, does get to interact with her neighbors, one of them named Muriel (per her partner’s dialogue—she’s actually listed as “Soho Woman” in the credits). The brief scene occurs when April is returning to her apartment building and Muriel and “Soho Man” are leaving. When Soho Man asks April how the action-news business is going, April tells him it’s tiring, leading Muriel to recommend cutting back on the “heavy aerobics…all the jumping and yelling.” She adds, “I find it disturbing.” Muriel/Soho Woman is played by none other than Susie Essman, the comic who would go on to make an indelible mark on Curb Your Enthusiasm as Larry’s foil Susie Greene. In Ooze, she’s dressed just as iconically as that character too, with leather boots and a hat with a big bow on it. Expect nothing less from Susie! —Rich Juzwiak

Before the intrepid documentary crew of The Blair Witch Project embarks on their journey into a disorienting forest and becomes increasingly besotted by twig sculptures and rock piles, they interview some locals of Burkittsville, Maryland (formerly Blair). Among the more colorful of local color is one Mary Brown (Patricia DeCou) who tells interviewer Heather (Heather Donahue) a “really kind of scary story” about a supposed encounter with the Blair Witch. It happened when she was fishing at a nearby creek with her dad: A woman wearing a wool shaw with hair all over her body “like horse fur” appeared to Mary. When the woman opened her shawl, Mary said, “You could see she was a female.” Well, at least we know definitively that she wasn’t talking to Heather about a man! —Rich Juzwiak

Bonus: This one technically doesn’t pass the strict guidelines of the test as the conversations in question are between a women and a girl, but since the characters are female and because of the raptors, we’re including it.

Admittedly the gal-on-gal conversations in this movie are limited, because there are only two women: Dr. Ellie Sattler and then a child, Lex. But they do talk about things other than a man when running from dinosaurs, so it does count. But, if we might expand our human-centric film-buff brains, or evolve them if you will, to remember that all of the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park were females (before conveniently becoming males to reproduce when they wanted to), then the movie passes even more soundly. Remember the terrifying scene where two velociraptors broke into the kitchen? Those ghastly screeches they let out were two velocirapt-hers working through how to kill and then eat Lex and Tim. —Kady Ruth Ashcraft