Grab your girlfriends for a night of chick flicks
"Chick flicks" are films about love and romance that have a high appeal to female audiences. Often these films are heavy with emotion, contain relationship themes, and have a female protagonist. Several chick flicks have received high critical acclaim for their stories and performances. For example, the 1983 film "Terms of Endearment" and the sequel "Evening Star." Another example, "Steel Magnolias" received many awards and nominations.
This film genre has existed since the early days of cinema. "Imitation of Life," produced in 1959, had the classic strong woman protagonist and dealt with social issues of race, class and gender. The 1961 film "Breakfast at Tiffany's," although commonly known as a classic, is sometimes considered an early chick flick because of the common elements of loneliness, obsessive materialism and romance. The mother of all chick flicks, "Gone With The Wind," is a Civil War epic with classic girl power. This is not only a great women's movie, but also a terrific lesson for men in understanding womanly indecision. "Thelma and Louise" is a great "buddy" movie about a road trip that goes very bad. The ending is breathtaking. It is a truly memorable movie.
There are many chick flicks available at our libraries. "Grey Gardens," touted by many as required viewing, portrays both a humorous and bizarre story of a mother and daughter who lived holed up in their East Hampton mansion. Despite their destitution and lost chances, they maintain an inspiring flair for life.
"White Oleander" can be described as a movie about women and their vanity, insecurity, ugliness, beauty and frustration. In this movie you can experience various motivations behind women doing both good and bad.
Some other chick flicks available are "Broken Windows," "The Deep Blue Sea," "Erin Brockovich," "I Want to Live!," "Mayflower Madam" and "Mildred Pierce."
We also have plenty of choices for men. How about a "guy cry" movie? You might enjoy some of these: "Good Will Hunting," "Brian's Song," "Backdraft," "Hotel Rwanda," "Field of Dreams" and "Cinderella Man."
Ready to sit down and watch a movie? All you need is a library card to check out our DVDs. We have a great selection to choose from. If it's not on the shelf, you can use our "holds" system, and we can get it for you. Movie selections available include both older titles and new releases. Titles you may not be able to find elsewhere.
Mary Jo Berkes is the branch manager of the Hilton Head Island library.
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This story was originally published August 9, 2014 at 4:01 PM with the headline "Grab your girlfriends for a night of chick flicks."