Leading Ladies

Am I imagining it or people still writing leads roles for women that require them to be stupid for at least half the film?  It was pervasive throughout the heyday of slasher films and thrillers where the perceived audience was young unenlightened men.  The directors and screenwriters were usually men as well.  But this Fest has me wondering if the trend might not be over.  There was an effort to feature women directors as well as films with female leads.  I question several of the choices, two of them were crowd pleasers at the screenings I attended.  Paris or Perish is a comedy written and  directed by the lead actress and you would  think she would have known better.  The story is a fluff piece about the redemption of a shallow, self-absorbed fashionista who gets deported to her backwoods home in Morocco.  The first third of the film you follow Maya as she belittles and degrades the most vulnerable people she meets.  She is hateful beyond belief; so are all of her many BFFs.  She is also incredibly ignorant of what goes on around her oblivious of how cruel she really is.   In less than a month in exile she is MIRACULOUSLY transformed into a warm, caring and enormously talented designer.  Please!
Last Call is co-writen by a woman but directed my a man.  It does not do much better.  Again, the female lead, a theatrical director mounting a production of Camus' Caligula.  Her process is again abusive, self absorbed and ultimately destructive.  She has no idea that anyone around her [many of them are cut from the same mold] might have a life.  She is all that matters.  The ending fails to confirm if there is even a transformation or any redemption for her as the plot shifts to how the others cope.  I was annoyed by the characterization throughout the film[s].  Perhaps I have missed the point.  maybe these distasteful leads were created to illustrate that women can be assholes too!  What a stupid concept.