Celebrating the coming-of-middle-age story: the best films starring brilliant women over 40

Mainstream Hollywood often attempts to frame the lives of older women as 'completed' after they have passed the typical milestones of womanhood: discovering one’s blooming sexuality, marriage and children. All of this is followed by the semblance of a vague happily ever after. There is a scene in the 2014 Oscar winning drama Boyhood, in which the mother, portrayed by Patricia Arquette cries hysterically, "You know what's next? It's my fucking funeral! I just thought there would be more." We have curated a film list that proves there is more, movies that bring to light the rich, complex lives of older female leads, celebrating the full spectrum of a woman’s life.

The majority of movies ignore the fact that middle age is an incredibly complex time in women's lives — with questions surrounding menopause, sex, mortality, loneliness, a parents’ death and the growing separateness of the lives of your children. Below, these moving works introduce the coming-of-middle-age, where growing older does not lead to the end of the narrative, but rather opens up another meandering, verdant path, brimming with the simultaneous possibilities and difficulties of growth and self-discovery.