Looking for movies with tuff (punk) girls...

September 3, 2008 1:57 PM

I'm working on a video project (and I also love the genre) and looking for movies with "bad' or "tough" girls; gangs or solo, the more punk the better. Extra points for fight scenes! I'm thinking along the line of 70s and 80s exploitation films. I'd also like to check out any general punk or teens-in-crisis movies that aren't Repo Man, Suburbia, River's Edge, Over The Edge or Permanent Record. Thanks for your help!
posted by apetpsychic to media & arts (31 comments total)

The Warriors features a badass girl gang called The Lizzies.
posted by jonmc at 2:05 PM on September 3

Tank Girl.
posted by skallagrim at 2:06 PM on September 3

Switchblade Sisters.
posted by gettingpaidforthis at 2:06 PM on September 3

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
posted by iconomy at 2:07 PM on September 3

Came in here to mention The Lizzies in The Warriors, but I see jon was all over it. Definitely look into them. They're punk as hell and kick major, major ass.
posted by SpiffyRob at 2:08 PM on September 3

Mi Vida Loca
posted by carsonb at 2:13 PM on September 3

Guilty pleasure, and dating myself by remembering this from Night Flight: Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains.
posted by peagood at 2:14 PM on September 3

From a British perspective... Scrubbers.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:17 PM on September 3

Sin City?
posted by markblasco at 2:18 PM on September 3

Not sure if this is the kind of thing you were thinking off, but Christina Ricci's Dede Truitt in The Opposite of Sex always seemed tough/punk to me. And she's a teen, and causes a crisis, which leads to another crisis, and so on.
posted by sandraregina at 2:30 PM on September 3

I just saw Bad Brains Live -- CBGB 1982, and there were some way punk women there. Got it via Netflix, if that matters.
posted by MrMoonPie at 2:31 PM on September 3

The Legend of Billy Jean (one of my guilty pleasure movies. ) Not so punk, but definitely an 80's aesthetic. Nice girl turns tough... and teens in crisis!
posted by kimdog at 2:34 PM on September 3

Lizzies.
posted by P.o.B. at 2:36 PM on September 3

Yeah, I'm like a half hour late...
posted by P.o.B. at 2:37 PM on September 3

The Craft
posted by infinityjinx at 2:51 PM on September 3

Check out some of Gina Gershon's stuff.
posted by turgid dahlia at 2:56 PM on September 3

Caged Heat - Jonathen Demme's first film. The girls are in prison so by definition they are bad and there are indeed lots of fight scenes. They don't make films like this anymore.
posted by mmascolino at 3:02 PM on September 3

Mi Vida Loca
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 4:12 PM on September 3

Thirteen

Kids
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 4:14 PM on September 3

Times Square
posted by Kloryne at 4:45 PM on September 3

Reform School Girls with Wendy O. Williams
posted by KoobieKitten at 4:47 PM on September 3

Miss Reese Witherspoon in
Freeway (1996)
(a few years late, but has some great girls' prison scenes)

Linda Manz in
Out of the Blue (1980)

Linda Blair was
Born Innocent (1974)
posted by doncoyote at 5:04 PM on September 3

Lots of great answers, thanks everyone!

Where to start. I guess I'm looking more for things set in a "real world," (which is why I left of The Warriors and other kind of fantastical ones like that.

That said I'm still psyched to check out Switchblade Sisters, though it seems exploitative than I really want. By exploitation I mean more like "this could be your daughter... "

A bunch of these I haven't seen in years (Caged Heat, Mi Vida Loca, Legend Of Billy Jean [I used to be so confounded by her hair as a kid], Freeway) but remember loving (especially Freeway) and will definitely be renting soon. I've meant to see Thirteen for a while, and Kids is an old favorite that might have some interesting bits I've forgotten about.

Thanks again!
posted by apetpsychic at 7:30 PM on September 3

No one has mentioned Times Square?
posted by Brittanie at 7:50 PM on September 3 [1 favorite]

Fun, with Alicia Witt and Renée Humphrey.
posted by gentilknight at 9:35 PM on September 3

Speeding on the Needlebliss
posted by Artw at 10:19 PM on September 3

This doesn't have much to do with the real world, but it does have zombies, a small town, blind orphans, and women on motorcycles:

Chopper Chicks in Zombie Town

(and Bill Bob Thornton before anyone had ever heard of him).

And the women aren't really punk. More of a Hollywood fake-biker look.
posted by DrumsIntheDeep at 10:46 PM on September 3

The Fabulous Stains movie movie won't be available on DVD until the end of the month. It was never released on tape, so any copies you find on EBay will be home-brew recordings from TV; either VHS or VHS-to-DVD transfers.

However, if you can't wait until September 30th for it, let me know and I can get you a copy of a DVD made from a digital broadcast of the movie; the quality is almost as high as a proper DVD and light years ahead of everything else currently out there.
posted by Clay201 at 2:07 AM on September 4

Death Proof?? It definitely has a gang of pretty bad ass girls as the main characters, along with chase scenes and fight scenes.
posted by mbatch at 10:16 AM on September 4

I cannot believe no one has mentioned Foxfire! It's a classic group-of-girls-turned-rebel after banding together to get a teacher who has been sexually harassing them, lead of course by a tough-punk Angelina Jolie. I even know a few riot grrrl types who got the Foxfire symbol tattooed on themselves ...
posted by vodkaboots at 11:13 AM on September 4

"Real World?" How about the 1984 documentary concerning teen runaways in Seattle:
Streetwise

Or Jodi Foster and Runaway Cherie Currie as
Foxes (1980),
akin to Valley-of-the-shadow-of-near-death Girls,
directed by Adrian Lyne
posted by doncoyote at 4:51 PM on September 4