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Indie Movies About Working-Class Women Are Less Than Enlightened

A guest post from Double X writer Caryn James:

With stylish women flaunting recessionista chic and Michelle Obama embracing her modest roots—“my parents were working class people,” she repeats in speeches—it may seem like a timely advance that a flurry of independent films (in theaters and on DVD) are depicting those forgotten heroines, working-class women. In Wendy and Lucy, a deglamorized Michelle Williams lives out of her car while driving to Alaska in search of a job. There’s Frozen River, with Melissa Leo in her Oscar-nominated role as a trailer-park single mom, and Julia, with Tilda Swinton playing a downwardly spiraling alcoholic.