21 Perfect Galentine’s Day Movies

Screengrab via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

The Help

This movie faced some mild yet totally earned controversy when it came out, and by extension, so did the book upon which it’s based. In this story, we get to know the maids working for a group of insanely wealthy and terribly self-conscious white families in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962. Aibileen, expertly played by Viola Davis, and Minny, Octavia Spencer’s masterpiece, are our two heroes. But in the book (and in the movie) our heroes are only able to be heroes because of the swift intervention and “hard work” of a white lady. Problematic, to say the least. And though this story is maybe not crafted as masterfully as the women in it and the women they’re representing deserve, the core of the narrative remains the strength, courage, intelligence, and all-around badassery of Aibileen, Minny, and the other maids who join them in their quiet rebellion.

What makes this movie so interesting and unique and fierce isn’t just the way the women decide to address the problem of poor treatment of maids, but the way the problem itself is portrayed. This isn’t just a story of redemption and bravery; it’s (obviously) an exploration of learned racism, of sexism, even of ageism. It’s a small story that encompasses hundreds of years of America’s deepest-rooted issues, and it somehow handles them with both universality and intense humanity. I cry every time I even think about this movie, about the real women in our history who undoubtedly endured these exact conditions, and about how Viola Davis didn’t even win a damn Oscar.

Best lady moment: Minny’s. Chocolate. Pie.