10 Amazing Films Directed By Women
4. Big
Let us never forget that Big, one of the most charming films of the 1980s, was directed by a woman, specifically Penny Marshall aka Laverne of Laverne and Shirley. The well-known movie about a preteen boy who wishes that he could be big and then turns into the most endearing iteration of Tom Hanks we've ever seen (and that's saying a lot) is quite simply impossible not to like.
Marshall embraces a kind of wide-eyed view of the world in this film, one that is reminiscent of childhood, and it operates with equal parts mischievous gleefulness and bittersweet melancholy.
The love story in the film is one that's best not examined too closely, but its conclusion is emotionally evocative, as both characters long for the simplicity of childhood, and when achieves it, the other is left behind. Big is a lightweight piece of candy, cinematically speaking, but there are few films like this that are capable of completely jettisoning all shreds of adult cynicism in favor of sheer joyfulness.