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Roles for women in Hollywood have come a long way since the advent of storytelling through cinema. We’re no longer damsels in distress, vamps, or any other archetype that barely contains the depth of a teaspoon. Female characters and female-driven stories have totally expanded over the course of the last few decades, and they’re only getting better. While we still have a long way to go, there are several movies and TV shows well worth celebrating, and we’re highlighting some of our favorite stories involving imperfect women on the big and small screen below.
We’re casting a wide net here when we say imperfect. The word has a few different connotations. You can be imperfect in the messy way, like we see in Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag, or you can be the imperfect heroine — or anti-heroine — like Viola Davis’ Annalise Keating in How to Get Away with Murder. But the common thread that binds these characters and stories together is their complexity.
We combed through our favorite TV shows from past, present, and the recently released for the most engaging, impossible-to-look-away-from stories about imperfect women on the screen. When we look at these movies and TV shows, we see versions of ourselves or women we know whose lives don’t look the way society expects them to — but who are all just doing their best along the way. Some are thrilling, others touching, but all feature the kind of content we want more of on our screen.
Read on for our round-up of the best movies and TV shows featuring imperfect, complicated women at their center.
A version of this article was originally published on Dec 2022.
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‘Veep’
Image Credit: Photo By: Elizabeth Goodenough/Everett Collection. Veep is a beloved, political satire television series that follows the life of the VP of the United States, Selina Meyer, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. It shows the topsy turvy time of working in government, and an inside look into our leading woman’s pursuit of power.
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‘Marriage Story’
Image Credit: ©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection Marriage Story is a film that follows the contentious, emotional divorce between Charlie and Nicole (played by Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, respectively). Along with their divorce, they’re navigating co-parenting their son, and it shows a raw glimpse into being honest and empathetic to oneself, and others, as well as coming to terms with change.
Watch it on Netflix.
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‘The Menu’
Image Credit: ©Searchlight Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Following several flamboyant characters who travel to a private island to eat at an exclusive restaurant, Anya Taylor-Joy’s character, Margot, navigates a deadly, chaotic evening by utilizing her non-affluent background and double identity. Many loved her character for defying expectations, and using her wits to get through the night.
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‘Good Luck to You, Leo Grande’
Image Credit: ©Searchlight Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Good Luck to You, Leo Grande follows Emma Thompson’s character — a retired religious education teacher, widower, and woman who’s never experienced an orgasm. She hires a hot, young sex worker named Leo Grande to help her experience everything she missed out on. She challenges societal norms surrounding sexuality and aging, and living her best life at any age.
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‘Someone Great’
Image Credit: ©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection / Everett Collection Someone Great follows the love lives on three best friends in NYC, and while all of them are different, they navigate the truth behind love, loss, and personal growth, no matter how messy it can get.
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‘Bad Moms’
Image Credit: Everett Collection / Everett Collection Bad Moms is all about these three moms breaking societal norms, and trying to find themselves out of the unattainable “perfect mom” stereotype. It’s hilarious, it’s honest, and it makes you think.
Watch it on Netflix.
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‘The Morning Show’
Image Credit: ©Apple TV/Courtesy Everett Collection Starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, The Morning Show shows the behind-the-scenes drama of the most famous morning show in the country, and how these determined women stay at the top.
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‘Promising Young Woman’
Image Credit: ©Focus Features/Courtesy Everett Collection If revenge is your speed, then the Oscar-winning Promising Young Woman might be in your lane. The film stars Carey Mulligan, whose character Cassie is on a mission of retribution for a friend who was raped in college, and to give men payback for taking advantage of women.
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‘Tallulah’
Image Credit: ©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection The film Tallulah is about a woman named Lu, who was played by Elliot Page, kidnaps a baby from a neglectful mother, and acts as the baby’s new caregiver. This film is all about how we deal with relationships, and the topic ways we keep people distanced from us.
Watch it on Netflix.
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‘Maid’
Image Credit: ©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection In Maid, the lead character, Alex, played by Margaret Qualley, is working to make a new life for her and her daughter. She escapes an abusive relationship, and works as a maid. This mini-series is all about confronting and learning from past traumas, and reclaiming one’s independence in the face of adversity.
Watch it on Netflix.
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‘Not Okay’
Image Credit: ©Searchlight Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Not Okay follows writer Danni Sanders, played by Zoey Deutch, who gets caught up in a major lie: that she was in France during a terrorist attack, and survived. She rises to fame, and then it all crashes down. The film even had a warning at the beginning saying it has an “unlikable female protagonist,” which sums up her character, but glosses over the biggest theme: how she has to come to terms with what she did, help others, and start anew.
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‘To The Bone’
Image Credit: ©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection / Everett Collection Ellen, played by Lily Collins, is an anorexic teenager who becomes part of a loving, accepting group. It shows life is complex, and that to make growth, you have to confront your inner demons.
Watch it on Netflix.
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‘Eileen’
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Eileen follows a woman named Eileen Dunlop, played by Thomasin McKenzie, who is working at corrections facility for teenage boys, and meets a glamorous new co-worker named Rebecca, played by Anne Hathway. Both of whom fall in deep when trying to get the truth about one of their patients, and cross some lines to get what they want.
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‘Babylon’
Image Credit: ©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection Babylon follows the rise and fall of several characters in the 1920s as sound films replace silent films in Old Hollywood. Margot Robbie’s character Nellie is an aspiring starlet who quickly attains fame, falling into the lure of drugs and gambling, and shows how she’s trying to balance it all.
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‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Everything Everywhere All At Once follows several characters of the Wang family, including Evelyn. A Chinese immigrant who is concurrently dealing with an IRS audit, the cusp of a divorce from her husband, and a visit from her father — a man of devout tradition — she finds herself thrust into an unbelievable adventure in which she must connect with parallel universe versions of herself to prevent the destruction of the entire multiverse.
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‘Hacks’
Image Credit: Photo By: Priscilla Grant/Everett Collection. The HBO Max show Hacks follows the odd and dark mentorship between a legendary comedian, played by Jean Smart, and an outcast, played by Hannah Einbinder. It’s a brilliant show that depicts personal ambition and the complexities of human relationships.
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‘Big Little Lies’
Image Credit: Photo By: RCF/Everett Collection. With Laura Dern, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Zoe Kravitz and Reese Witherspoon in the cast, it’s no wonder Big Little Lies was so loved. The show follows three mothers, Madeline (Witherspoon), Celeste (Kidman) and Jane (Woodley) as they reckon with the struggles of being seemingly perfect mothers and wives. They make questionable choices throughout, but are all working to find who they are.
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‘Scream 5’
Image Credit: ©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection Despite being the daughter of killer Billy Loomis, and having hallucinations of her father telling her to go on a killing spree, Sam Carpenter helps her younger sister and her friends to evade the new Ghostface killer.
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‘Waiting To Exhale’
Image Credit: ©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection. In Waiting To Exhale four women — played by Loretta Devine, Whitney Houston, Angela Bassett, and Lela Rochon — navigate love and loss. No one has quite the life they hoped for — Savannah (Houston) is waiting for her married lover to leave his wife and family, Bernadine’s (Bassett) aspirations of owning her own business have been shelved by her 11-year marriage to a man who, after more than a decade, leaves her for another woman, Robin (Rochon) can’t seem to find love after dumping her married lover, and Gloria (Devine) is a single mother hoping to find someone with whom to share her life.
None of these women’s lives are straightforward, but they still have one another at the end of the day. Waiting To Exhale is a real testament to the bonds between women, and how those love stories are often the most important in our lives.
Watch on HBO Max.
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‘Frances Ha’
Image Credit: ©IFC Films/Courtesy Everett Collection. Written by real-life partners Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig, Frances Ha features the latter as a young woman trying to realize her dreams as a dancer and choreographer — even though the chances of them coming to fruition are diminishing by the day. Frances Ha is sweet, but never overly saccharine. It’s a thoughtful and poignant look not only at lasting female friendship but the ways in which our visions for our lives never come to pass exactly as we saw them.
Watch on Amazon Prime Video.
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‘Obvious Child’
Image Credit: ©A24/courtesy Everett Collection. After a one-night stand following a bad breakup, struggling comedian Donna (Jenny Slate) finds out she’s pregnant and decides to have an abortion. As she gets her fling, Max (Jake Lacy), involved, Donna realizes that, even though she’s standing by her decision, everything around her feels a lot more complicated. She’s “going through an emotional crisis” (we’ve all been there), feels stuck in her career, a bit judged by her own mother, and it seems that everyone else’s lives are moving ahead while Donna is dealing with an incredibly personal decision. Obvious Child is such a touching portrait of feeling confounded and stuck in life, and Slate’s performance as Donna is so vulnerable.
Watch on Amazon Prime Video.
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’20th Century Women’
Image Credit: Everett Collection / Everett Collection. They say it takes a village to raise a child, and that couldn’t be more true in 20th Century Women. Starring Annette Bening, Elle Fanning, and Greta Gerwig, the film chronicles the three women and how they work together to guide Dorothea’s (Benning) son through his teen years. Between Julie (Elle Fanning), who’s leaving childhood behind and embracing adulthood — and all the complexities that come with it — Abbie (Greta Gerwig), who’s learning that leaving her rebellious youth behind might be the next step in her journey, and Dorothea, who tries to be everything she can for her son while still being her own woman, these women embody the various parts of womanhood in the late ’70s in ways that feel so authentic and personal.
Watch on Amazon Prime Video.
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‘The Worst Person In The World’
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection. Heralded as one of the best pictures of 2021, Norwegian film The Worst Person In The World is the story of Julie, a young woman at multiple crossroads. Over the course of four years, Julie has to figure out her love life and career path, ultimately causing her to scrutinize her life choices. For nearly any 20-something young woman, this film will completely resonate.
Watch on Amazon Prime Video.
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‘Young Adult’
Image Credit: ©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection. All right, let’s pivot to some movies. In 2011, Oscar-winning scribe Diablo Cody gave audiences a real taste of the imperfect adulthood with Charlize Theron-led Young Adult. In it, Theron plays a newly divorced woman who travels back to her hometown in an effort to win back her ex-boyfriend — who just so happens to be married with a newborn daughter. Theron is the epitome of a hot mess in this film, and even though she’s not even close to aspirational, we can’t help but hang on her ill-fated escapades throughout the movie.
Watch on Amazon Prime Video.
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‘Sex And The City’
Image Credit: © HBO/ Courtesy: Everett. Sex And The City was completely revolutionary in its time. Women in their 30s talking about their romantic relationships, casual sex, and more hadn’t been seen quite like this on TV. At the heart of the series, of course, were the bonds between the four women — Carrie, Samantha, Miranda, and Charlotte. And even when these characters made decisions that weren’t favorable in the least, the show portrayed the bonds between these women as the real love story we needed all along.
Watch on HBO Max.
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‘Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens’
Image Credit: ©Comedy Central/Courtesy Everett Collection. After rising to fame with Crazy Rich Asians, Awkwafina took fans back to Queens and gave audiences a look at a fictitious iteration of her life in the New York City neighborhood. Brash and completely unexpected, Awkwafina Is Nora From Queens gave us a look at a young woman navigating her young adulthood — even if she did so grudgingly.
Watch on HBO Max.
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‘Fleabag’
Image Credit: ©Amazon/Courtesy Everett Collection. The patron saint of breaking the fourth wall, Fleabag became a total sensation with its first season and was heralded as near-perfection by its second and final season. Focusing on one young British woman’s messy escapades, Fleabag took audiences into the mind of its lead character, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s writing and acting wholly resonated for all the Fleabags out there.
Watch on Amazon Prime Video.
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‘GLOW’
Image Credit: ©Netflix/Courtesy Everett Collection. What made GLOW‘s three-season (should’ve had a fourth and final season!) run feel so special was how it gave each member of its ensemble cast space to explore their characters and come into their own. The series followed the ups and downs of the real-life ’80s show featuring ladies wrestling — gorgeous ladies wrestling, to be precise. By the time fans got to dig into the second season, we really saw a whole other side of these women.
Each of the characters on the series came with their own backstory, their own talents, motivations, even shortcomings. Regardless of who fans came to identify with, there was something and someone here for audiences. Betty Gilpin and Alison Brie may have been the marquee names to bring audiences in, but when the series highlighted the rest of the ensemble, it was truly at its best.
Watch on Netflix.
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‘How to Get Away with Murder’
Image Credit: ©ABC/Courtesy Everett Collection. Now, if we’re going to talk about anti-heroines, we have to talk about Annalise Keating on How to Get Away with Murder. Played by Oscar, Tony, and Emmy-winner Viola Davis, How to Get Away with Murder was never short of shocking moments, twists, and turns. At its center, law professor Annalise Keating guides, protects, and sometimes sacrifices her young law students for the sake of any given case — and her own reputation. It’s her changing motives, her secrecy, and a bit of untrustworthiness that always kept audiences intrigued and showed us right off the bat that there was more to this biting law professor than met the eye.
Watch on Netflix.
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‘Insecure’
Image Credit: Photograph by Merie Wallace/HBO. Over the course of its run, Insecure highlighted Issa Dee and all of the (we’ll say it) growth experiences throughout the show’s five seasons. Created by and starring Issa Rae, Insecure focuses on the awkward and glorious life of this modern woman coming into her own and all the missteps along the way.
Watch on HBO Max.
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‘Killing Eve’
Image Credit: ©BBC America/Courtesy Everett Collection. Kiling Eve quickly became a major TV obsession from its very first episode. Starring Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer, this series take on the cat-and-mouse premise gave us a new, frightening kind of trained assassin in Villanelle, balanced by Oh’s measured and curious Eve Polastri (well, only measured for maybe a season or two). Two women obsessed with one another — what more could you want? But by the time the series reached its end, fans were shocked.
Watch on Hulu.
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‘Scandal’
Image Credit: ©ABC/Courtesy Everett Collection. When Scandal premiered in 2012, we’d never seen a character like Olivia Pope. Played by Kerry Washington, Olivia’s ability to manage some of Washington’s biggest scandals — while also getting caught up in one herself — showed us just how multi-faceted dramatic characters for women could be. Washington’s performance was layered and complicated, becoming a character we rooted for even if we questioned her motives.
Watch on Hulu.
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‘The Mindy Project’
Image Credit: Jordin Althaus/©Hulu/courtesy Everett Collection. Mindy Kaling’s post-The Office work has been impressive, to say the least. But we have to give a major shout-out to her quirky, thoughtful comedy The Mindy Project. During the series’ six-season run, audiences grew to love (and sometimes be frustrated by) Kaling’s character Dr. Mindy Lahiri, a young Ob/Gyn trying to balance her personal life and career. The turn was a strong showing for Kaling, and offered a fresh, complicated character we hadn’t seen her play before. If you’re going to be a mess, you might as well be a hot mess, just like Kaling’s character says.
Watch on Hulu.
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‘Tár’
Image Credit: Florian Hoffmeister / © Focus Features / courtesy Everett Collection In 2022’s Tár, Cate Blanchett plays Lydia Tár, a conductor and composer whose ambition unlocks her major downfall. “Yes she’s a concert musician in the peak of her powers in a position of authority and has had a brutal inner critic and is incredibly exacting in order to achieve and get as close to perfection as possible in an artistic form, but I thought it much more about it as a I thought about it being a meditation on power,” Blanchett said of her complicated character during Variety’s Music for Screens Summit for LA3C. “What happens when you get close to power and how that can change you positively and negatively,” the actress continued.
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