“Mona Lisa Smile,” starring Julia Roberts as an art history teacher at Wellesley in 1953, isn’t the first film to celebrate collegiate life among women. Friday has rated these five films by their grade point average, up to 4.0:
1. ‘CAREER GIRLS’
(Mike Leigh, 1997) 3.5 GPA
British filmmaker Mike Leigh has a talent for capturing realistic human behavior. “Career Girls” is one of his most piercing character studies, aided by two brilliant performances (Lynda Steadman and the late Katrin Cartlidge as former college roommates who reconnect in London after six years). Together they discover the women they were then and are now.
2. ‘THE GROUP’
(Sidney Lumet, 1966) 3.0 GPA
Sidney Lumet stuffs this drama about eight female college grads finding themselves during the Great Depression with too much melodrama, from unwanted pregnancies to unexpected suicides, political struggles and sexual crises. But beneath the surface is an effective, tragic story about educated women who struggle for independence but fail to fulfill their potential.
3. ‘CIRCLE OF FRIENDS’
(Pat O’ Connor, 1995) 3.0 GPA
On the cusp of the ’60s in Ireland, three young Catholic women discover their sexuality and identity at the University of Dublin. Minnie Driver, who plays Benny, makes her feature film debut in this Austen-esque chamber drama.
4. ‘LEGALLY BLONDE’
(Robert Luketic, 2001) 3.0 GPA
Reese Witherspoon delivers a winning performance as bubbly Elle Woods, a heavily accessorized, poodle-flaunting blond bombshell no one takes seriously. But with a 4.0 GPA and a video resume directed by a Coppola, Woods is admitted to Harvard Law School, where she swiftly rises up the ranks on her own merit.
5. ‘DELTA DELTA DIE!’
(Devin Hamilton, 2003) 0.5 GPA
With the production values and wit of a “Girls Gone Wild!” tape, Devin Hamilton’s straight-to-video horror flick stars B-movie queen Julie Strain as the matriarch of Delta Delta Pi, a sorority house composed of cannibals. While the girls gratuitously bite, hack and puree their victims, it’s the wretched dialogue and awful acting that’ll really make you squirm.
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