Film

She's Beautiful When She's Angry

A spirited documentary that unearths the fierce, inventive women who sparked the modern women's movement between 1966 and 1971. Through interviews, archival footage, and photographs, it captures the radical energy, infighting, and genuine transformation of those pivotal years. Essential viewing for anyone wanting to understand where contemporary feminism came from, and why it still matters.

TMDb rating3.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a rousing, archive-rich history told through the sharp voices of the women who lived it, and you enjoy seeing activists argue, organize and refuse to be polite about it.

Skip it if you want a tightly structured argument or a fresh take on the period; this leans on talking heads and old footage, and its affection for its subjects sometimes outruns its critical edge.

What it asks of you: Around ninety minutes of steady listening, with plenty of archival material to take in, and a willingness to sit with a lot of people speaking directly to the camera.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Pill2011

Explores how the contraceptive pill became a catalyst for women's liberation, with the same archival richness and focus on ordinary activists doing extraordinary work.

But Narrower in scope than a general movement history; assumes some knowledge of the era and its medical politics.

The Pill poster

Nine to Five1980

A comedy born directly from the women's movement, starring three brilliant women dismantling workplace sexism. Funny and furious in equal measure, it shows the movement's ideas in action.

But It's a Hollywood comedy, so it resolves conflicts the documentary shows were messy and unresolved. Tone shift might feel jarring.

Nine to Five poster

The Slap2015

A miniseries examining power, consent, and social norms through a single explosive moment. Same willingness to interrogate uncomfortable truths about gender and authority.

But Deliberately slow and interior; less about historical sweep, more about one family's reckoning. Can feel claustrophobic.

The Slap poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from She's Beautiful When She's Angry

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Shape of Water2017

Both revere overlooked women and ask audiences to see them as fully human rather than supporting characters. One uses facts; one uses magic to reach the same emotional truth.

Guillermo del Toro's fantastical Cold War romance centers a woman who is poor, silent, and excluded—yet becomes the story's moral and emotional center. Like the documentary, it insists on the humanity and agency of those society deemed insignificant.

But It's a magical-realist fantasy, not a documentary. The shift from archival reality to fairy-tale metaphor will feel completely tonal.

The Shape of Water poster
More like this (5)

Inequality for All2013

Documentary about economic disparity that shares the same urgent, accessible style and belief that history matters to understanding now. Both are calls to pay attention.

But The issues don't overlap directly; requires interest in economic justice as a separate (if related) subject.

Inequality for All poster

The Help2011

Period drama about women finding their voices and solidarity across race lines, set in the Civil Rights era. Similar energy about the cost of speaking up.

But Controversial for its white-savior perspective. Dramatized, so it simplifies real historical complexity the documentary honors.

The Help poster

Hidden Figures2016

Tells the overlooked story of Black women mathematicians whose brilliance was erased. Celebrates the specific courage it took to exist professionally while marginalized.

But Hollywood narrative smooths the rougher edges; focuses on individual triumph over systemic change. Feels gentler than the documentary's rawness.

Hidden Figures poster

Made in Dagenham2010

British drama about 1960s female factory workers fighting for equal pay. International perspective on the same era's gender struggles.

But Union politics and British industrial relations won't resonate if you're purely interested in the American women's movement.

Made in Dagenham poster

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles1976

Chantal Akerman's film is the aesthetic revolution born from the ideological revolution the documentary chronicles—proof that the women's movement changed not just politics but how art itself could be made.

A three-hour avant-garde film about a widow's routine: cooking, cleaning, sex work. By refusing to judge or dramatize, it transforms mundane domestic and bodily labor into profound political statement. Radical cinema made by and for the movement the documentary documents.

But Glacially paced, plotless, and deliberately boring. Tests patience severely. Demands you sit with discomfort rather than resolve it.

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles poster

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Recommended by

Mrs. America, Woman of the Year, 9to5: The Story of a Movement, Vito