The most recent adaptation of Little Women was a masterpiece and took the world by storm. It was filled with feminist messages, heartwarming sister relationships, and romance to make you swoon. The cast had Saiorse Ronan (The Lovely Bones), Emma Watson (Harry Potter), Florence Pugh (Midsommar), Eliza Scanlen (Sharp Objects), Timothée Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name), Laura Dern (Big Little Lies,) and Meryl Streep (Mamma Mia). But what should you pick up to read or watch next? Well I have broken down the movie into sections with some recommendations for you all!

If you loved the feminism in Little Women a.k.a the scene where Jo talks to her mum about how women are more than just their looks or when Amy tells Laurie what it means to be a woman in the 1800s. I would recommend you watch the Netflix original series, Anne with an E.

Anne with an E is about Anne Shirley, an orphan girl who comes to live with an  elderly brother and sister in Avonlea, Prince Edward Island. Anne has a big imagination and an even bigger heart. This show is beautifully shot, has incredible characters, and so many feminist moments. The most feminist-centred episode would have to be Season 3, Episode 7, so if you’re just going to watch one episode, watch that one. Anne is very similar to Jo and it is also set in the past (1907), so this a perfect watch if you loved Little Women. This TV show is based on the books Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery, but the TV show did something very similar to Greta Gerwig’s adaptation and has taken a more modern twist and opened a discussion about relevant issues today.

Things A Bright Girl Can Do by Sally Nicholls is also a great read if you want to read something with a feminist undertone. This book is set in the early 1900s during the suffragette movement in England. Things A Bright Girl Can Do is filled with badass women and is so insightful to a movement we often forget about.

If you loved the time period of when Little Women is set I would recommend either watching or reading Little House on the Prairie. This story takes place in Minnesota in the 1870s-90s. The costumes in the show are great (not quite as extravagant as in Little Women), it shows how people survived and how hard people had to work. This is based on the real life of Laura Ingalls-Wilder and her family settling into Walnut Grove. Laura is feisty, brave, and a little reckless. This show/book is filled with heartwarming family moments and a great insight into what it was like to live in this time period.

If you loved the romance in Little Women I would recommend watching Poldark. This show is set in Cornwall, England in the late 1700s and early 1800s. It has a strong female lead and a romance that will have you swooning, the accents are also amazing. If you’ve watched The Hobbit, Aiden Turner is the dashing love interest in this.

Family plays a very important role in Little Women and if you adored that aspect of this movie you should definitely go and check out One Day At A Time. Although this show is set in present day America, it has a great family dynamic and discusses so many important issues.

Little Women is all about the March sisters and if you loved any scene with all four sisters together you should pick up The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall. This book might just be the modern Little Women and it follows four sisters on summer holiday in Massachusetts. This book is targeted at younger readers but can be read at any age.

Greta Gerwig is one talented director, if you adore this woman (who doesn’t?) you should check out her other very successful film Lady Bird.  You may see some familiar faces in this film as well (Saiorse and Timothée just seem to have the best chemistry). This film is about a teen girl in her senior year of high school and how she navigates her relationship with her mum, friends and boys

In case you’ve already watched/read all of these you can always just rewatch the movie, that never hurts.

Do you have any other recommendations? Tell us in the comments below!

The post What To Read Or Watch If You Enjoyed ‘Little Women’ (2019) appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Happy Women’s History Month! For those of you who aren’t aware, March is known as women’s history month in the United States, along with International Women’s Day on March 8th, to celebrate women’s contribution in history and modern society. In honour of all the great females out there, we take a look at nine female directed movies to watch throughout the month of March!

Read on to discover our picks and tell us in the comments below if you enjoy them too!

Marie Antoinette (2006) and The Beguiled (2017)
Directed By Sofia Coppola

In a male-dominated industry, Sofia Coppola managed to break through and become one of the most famous female directors. She has directed eight movies throughout her career, but my  personal favourites are Marie Antoinette and The Beguiled, with both films featuring female leads as the main character. Marie Antoinette tells the story of the infamous queen during her time in the French court up until the French revolution, while The Beguiled follows three women at an all girls school and what happened when a civil war soldier asked for asylum there. Both movies have a different tone, the first one is more about humanizing Marie Antoinette, while the other is more dark and intriguing. Both films are interesting and worth the time watching, and in fact, Sofia Coppola became the second woman to win Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival in the festival’s 70-year history.

Lady Bird (2017)
Directed By Greta Gerwig

I haven’t watched this movie yet, but Lady Bird has received quite a lot of buzz since its release in 2017. During the award season, it has received 41 major nominations over the 2018 awards season and won 13 of them. The movie is a coming-of-age story of Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson and her turbulent relationship with her mother.

Wonder Woman (2017)
Directed By Patty Jenkins

Of course we couldn’t miss this record-breaking movie by Patty Jenkins that gave the superhero world a good shake up when it was released in 2017. Not only was it the first superhero movie directed by a woman, it is the first one with a female superhero as the main character. The movie received many overwhelming positive reviews and it became one of the highest-grossing movies of all time. Wonder Woman is not only praised for its female superhero, but also the message of courage and the portrayal of the Amazonian women. There’s a reason why this movie is widely acclaimed, and if you haven’t seen it, you better go watch it now!

The Babadook (2014)
Directed By Jennifer Kent

Who says women can’t direct horror movies? This famous Australian thriller was released in 2014 by Jennifer Kent and received a 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The Babadook is a supernatural thriller story about mother and son that were being stalked by the Babadook, a supernatural entity with its iconic top hat. This movie is intriguing and keeps you at the edge of your seat, and at the end, you’ll need to replay the whole movie over in your head to think which part is real and which part wasn’t.

Frozen (2013)
Directed By Jennifer Lee

Yes ladies and gentlemen, this iconic Disney movie is co-directed by a woman, the first one from its lengthy list of movies. Nobody expected the movie to be as popular as it was, although being an animated film, they do tend to take the world by storm, especially the children, seemed unable to let it go (pun intended). There was no way we could escape the image of Frozen and the songs, it’s just everywhere and it’s not without reason! Why? Because this is the first Disney movie where the main character took control of her own destiny without regards to the rules, and certainly, no prince comes to save them.

Suffragette (2015)
Directed By Sarah Gavron

It is only appropriate that the movie about this iconic movement was to be directed by a woman. For those of you who doesn’t know, the suffragette movement happened in the 1920s to fight for women’s rights to vote. This is another movie on this list that I haven’t watched just yet, but I am always fascinated with the movement and recognising the importance of this movement in this month, this is the perfect movie to watch this month.

Shrek (2001)
Directed By Vicky Jenson

Yes, another classic animation co-directed by woman! This beloved green ogre tale was first released in 2001 and yet it remains a favourite to this day. It is a parody of several fairytales and it brings a fun and fresh breath of air at that era. I don’t know about you, but I have so many fond memories of Shrek; it’s so underrated nowadays!

Mamma Mia! (2008)
Directed By Phyllida Lloyd

And finally, a personal favorite of mine and many others. Like it or not, this movie’s setting is so pleasing to the eye, along with catchy songs and amazing relationships all around! Not only do we have an amazing mother-daughter relationship, but the friendship between Sophie, Donna and each of their girlfriends is something to strive for! All the females are so supportive and nice towards each other, it’s heartwarming and fun to watch.

Any others you would add? Tell us in the comments below!

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Among the other Oscar contenders this year, it bears the most similarities to Luca Guadagnino’s coming-of-age drama Call Me By Your Name. Both examine adolescence as a significant time of development, positioning their lead characters as uncertain, self-conscious individuals awkwardly trying to bridge the gap from childhood to adulthood. But where Call Me By Your Name offers a nostalgic, idyllic celebration of youth, Gerwig takes a much more sardonic approach, dragging out every social gaffe, ill-considered remark, and twinge of regret.

At its emotional centre, Saoirse Ronan embraces the social baggage of a teenager trying to find her way in a world full of contradictions. She captures the awkward physicality of a girl who still isn’t familiar with her lanky limbs or identity, yet one who is still trying to rise above everything that she believes is holding her back. For a start, she sees her real given name, Christine, as nothing more than a mark of her parents’ control over her life. By adopting the pseudonym Lady Bird, she is carving herself out a new identity that doesn’t have any traces of her parents’ influence.

But perhaps Ronan’s greatest accomplishment in this role is her embodiment of a girl who possesses flaws that, by all conventional definitions, shouldn’t make her so likeable – and yet she is. Just like every teenager, she makes mistakes, goes through disappointing relationships, suffers insensitive family members, and struggles against class boundaries. At the same time Lady Bird expresses the idealism of youth, attempting to become a better version of herself whilst facing a truly scary possibility – that this better version doesn’t exist. Ronan strikes just the right balance of ambition and insecurity, creating a character who is paradoxically both an average teenager and a unique individual.

And then there’s Marion, who carries her own share of problems that aren’t too far removed from her daughter’s. Laurie Metcalf delivers a wonderfully nuanced performance as the exasperated mother who is “warm, but she’s also kind of scary”. Just like Lady Bird, Marion is constantly let down by her own dependence on external validation, expecting praise for her hard work while obliviously denying her daughter the exact same kind of support.

The two lead characters are mirrors of each other, displaying the same qualities years apart in experience and wisdom. Lady Bird and Marion both desperately want to form a connection, and yet their biggest barrier is their own pride and reluctance to compromise. Despite this, the pettiness of their contempt reveals itself in moments of brief affection, when all disdain is quickly pushed to the side by something as simple as shared admiration of a pretty dress.

Gerwig instills a natural flow from scene to scene, skipping through the final year of Lady Bird’s high school life at a comfortable pace. Each scene finds an emotional or symbolic connection to the next, with even the jumps in time smoothly slotting into her personal journey. As a result it feels as if Lady Bird is telling this story in nostalgic retrospect, recounting the highs and lows of a transformative year that felt like it was over before it had ever really begun.

By tapping into the oddities of mother-daughter relationships, Gerwig proves her capability of pinpointing the quirky moments of life that are left unnoticed or unspoken. The bickering between Lady Bird and Marion isn’t engaging because of any extraordinary factor, but rather the opposite; it is an ordinary yet nuanced illustration of every argument that has ever happened between a mother and her child. Ronan and Metcalf’s performances ultimately carry Gerwig’s strong vision and screenplay from start to finish, creating an affectionately satirical reflection on the awkward days of our adolescence.

What do you think about Lady Bird being up for the 2018 Oscars Best Picture award? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!

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