2) Maleficent
Feel free to get off this train if you’re not a fan of feminist takes on films, because there’s still a couple more movies focusing on women and girls after this one, but that’s also precisely why they’re more valuable and worthwhile than your run-of-the-mill Hollywood dudefests. Even if, as is the case with Maleficent, the action is largely driven by our protagonist’s jilted love affair with some douchebag, it’s possible simply by virtue of having a female protagonist for an otherwise dull and predictable story to have a hint of a novel spin to make it more than the sum of its parts.
For Maleficent, we could focus on the bizarre villainous portrayal by the hit-or-miss Sharlto Copley, or some of the CGI effects that for some reason are becoming the standard for these fantasy movies despite looking less than stellar. But I would argue it deserves to be seen for its interesting treatment of the excruciating sequence involving the violent theft of Maleficent’s wings (which many read as a metaphor for female mutilation or rape—you know, standard Disney fare), and the sweet relationship between Maleficent and Aurora, portrayed rather beautifully by Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning. Even if its execution isn’t perfect, the ambition of this movie is far more interesting than most other efforts Disney has put out in some time.