The Best Female Director Movies on Showtime

What it's about: Based on the real-life adventures chronicled by Cameron Crowe, Fast Times follows a group of high school students growing up in Southern California. Stacy Hamilton and Mark Ratner are looking for a love interest, and are helped along by their older classmates, Linda Barrett and Mike Damone, respectively. At the center of the film is Jeff Spicoli, a perpetually stoned surfer who faces-off with the resolute Mr. Hand—a man convinced that everyone is on dope.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Peacock), stream on a subscription service (Philo, fuboTV, Showtime & 1 other), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime & AMC) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Young lawyer Ruth Bader Ginsburg teams with her husband Marty to bring a groundbreaking case before the U.S. Court of Appeals and overturn a century of sex discrimination.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV & Showtime), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $4.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Prime Video & 3 others).

What it's about: When Bella Swan moves to a small town in the Pacific Northwest, she falls in love with Edward Cullen, a mysterious classmate who reveals himself to be a 108-year-old vampire. Despite Edward's repeated cautions, Bella can't stay away from him, a fatal move that endangers her own life.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV & Showtime), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: An immature, newly unemployed comic must navigate the murky waters of adulthood after her fling with a graduate student results in an unplanned pregnancy.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV, Showtime, Hoopla & 1 other), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: The story of straight-edge literature professor Vivian who travels to Reno to get away from a relationship breakup when she falls in love with an attractive and unconventional girl named Cay.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (HBO MAX, fuboTV, Showtime & 2 others), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Prime Video).

What it's about: The strange story of John McAfee, who went from millionaire software mogul to yogi, Kurtz-like jungle recluse to potential murderer, and most recently a prospective presidential candidate for the American Libertarian Party.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Showtime) & stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime).

What it's about: Oppressed by her family setting, dead-end school prospects and the boys law in the neighborhood, Marieme starts a new life after meeting a group of three free-spirited girls. She changes her name, her dress code, and quits school to be accepted in the gang, hoping that this will be a way to freedom.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV, Showtime, Hoopla & 1 other), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: Iris invites her friend Jack to stay at her family's island getaway after the death of his brother. At their remote cabin, Jack's drunken encounter with Hannah, Iris' sister, kicks off a revealing stretch of days.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV & Showtime), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Prime Video).

What it's about: Gerry is a talented but down-on-his-luck gambler whose fortunes begin to change when he meets Curtis, a younger, highly charismatic poker player. The two strike up an immediate friendship and Gerry quickly persuades his new friend to accompany him on a road trip to a legendary high stakes poker game in New Orleans. As they make their way down the Mississippi River, Gerry and Curtis manage to find themselves in just about every bar, racetrack, casino, and pool hall they can find, experiencing both incredible highs and dispiriting lows, but ultimately forging a deep and genuine bond that will stay with them long after their adventure is over.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV, Showtime, Hoopla & 1 other), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: A look at the life of Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, with a focus on the price she paid for power.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix, fuboTV & Showtime), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: The teenage girls of Vestalis Academy are meticulously trained in the art of being “clean girls,” practicing the virtues of perfect femininity. But what exactly are they being trained for? Vivien intends to find out.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Showtime), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: Overeducated and underemployed, 28 year old Megan is in the throes of a quarterlife crisis. Squarely into adulthood with no career prospects, no particular motivation to think about her future and no one to relate to, Megan is comfortable lagging a few steps behind - while her friends check off milestones and celebrate their new grown-up status. When her high-school sweetheart proposes, Megan panics and- given an unexpected opportunity to escape for a week - hides out in the home of her new friend, 16-year old Annika and Annika's world-weary single dad Craig.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV, Showtime, Hoopla & 1 other), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Suffering from a severe case of depression, toy company CEO Walter Black (Mel Gibson) begins using a beaver hand puppet to help him open up to his family. With his father seemingly going insane, adolescent son Porter (Anton Yelchin) pushes for his parents to get a divorce. Jodie Foster directs and co-stars as Walter's wife in this dark comedy that also features Riley Thomas Stewart and Jennifer Lawrence.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV & Showtime), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: Toni, a tomboyish boxer, lands a spot on an after-school drill team in the West End community of Cincinnati. She eagerly absorbs routines, masters drills, and even pierces her own ears to fit in. It’s the joy of her first friendships and her discovery of dance. Shortly after Toni joins the team, most of the girls on the team suffer from episodes of fainting, swooning, and shaking in a seemingly uncontrollable catharsis. Nobody can explain the mysterious outbreak. These fits soon transform into a rite of passage as the trauma draws the other girls closer together. Caught between her need for control and her desire for acceptance, Toni must decide how far she will go to embody her new ideals.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, fuboTV, Showtime & 2 others), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: Filmmaker Amy Berg sheds light on the sexual, financial and spiritual abuses heaped upon members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by their former leader, Warren Jeffs.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV & Showtime), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $9.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: When Cynthia and Mary show up to collect Cynthia's inheritance from her deceased grandfather, the only item she's received is an antique sword that he believed to be proof that the South won the Civil War.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV & Showtime), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $6.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & YouTube).

What it's about: Cheryl, a young black lesbian, works a day job in a video store while trying to make a film about a black actress from the 1930s known for playing the stereotypical "mammy" roles relegated to black actresses during that period. This was the first feature film directed by an "out" black lesbian.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV, Showtime, Epix & 2 others), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime & TCM) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 1 service (iTunes).

What it's about: Mike Epps, Richard Pryor Jr. and others recount the culture-defining influence of Richard Pryor - one of America's most brilliant, iconic comic minds.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV & Showtime), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $9.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: A young woman is sent to Paradise Hills to be reformed, only to learn that the high-class facility's beautiful facade hides a sinister secret.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV, Showtime & Kanopy), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: In the not too distant future, two young women who live in a remote ancient forest discover the world around them is on the brink of an apocalypse. Informed only by rumor, they fight intruders, disease, loneliness & starvation.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV, Showtime, Hoopla & 1 other), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: After a crushing breakup with her girlfriend, a Brooklyn musician moves back in with her Midwestern mother. As she navigates her hometown, playing for tip money in an old friend's bar, an unexpected relationship begins to take shape.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV, Showtime & Hoopla), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $0.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: The story follows a married couple, apart for a night while the husband takes a business trip with a colleague to whom he's attracted. While he's resisting temptation, his wife encounters her past love.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV & Showtime) & stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime).

What it's about: Waitresses Angela and Jessie dream of leaving their low-rent diner and heading to Galveston, Texas. They soon find themselves on the streets of Dallas, trying to come up with increasingly wild schemes to raise some much-needed cash.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV, Showtime, Hoopla & 1 other), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: Madeline has become an integral part of a prestigious physical theater troupe. When the workshop's ambitious director pushes the teenager to weave her rich interior world and troubled history with her mother into their collective art, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur. The resulting battle between imagination and appropriation rips out of the rehearsal space and through all three women's lives.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV, Showtime & Kanopy), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: A look at the lives of two teenage girls - inseparable friends Ginger and Rosa -- growing up in 1960s London as the Cuban Missile Crisis looms, and the pivotal event the comes to redefine their relationship.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV, Showtime, Hoopla & 1 other), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Freshman high-school student Melinda has refused to speak ever since she called the cops on a popular summer party. With her old friends snubbing her for being a rat, and her parents too busy to notice her troubles, she folds into herself, trying to hide her secret: that star senior Andy raped her at the party. But Melinda does manage to find solace in her art class headed by Mr. Freeman.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV & Showtime) & stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime).

What it's about: A moving account of the experiences of men exonerated after years, and sometimes decades, in prison following newly found DNA evidence.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV & Showtime) & stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime).

What it's about: Dr. Jean Markham returns to the town she left as a teenager to take over her late father's medical practice. When a school-yard scuffle lands Charlie in her surgery, she invites him to visit the hives in her garden and tell his secrets to the bees, as she once did. The new friendship between the boy and the bee keeper brings his mother Lydia into Jean's world.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV, Showtime & Kanopy), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $4.99 on 1 service (iTunes).

What it's about: Three young women were sentenced to death in the infamous Manson murder case, but when the death penalty was lifted, their sentence became life imprisonment. One young graduate student was sent in to teach them - and through her we witness their transformations as they face the reality of their horrific crimes.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV & Showtime), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $6.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: It's 1961, two years after the original Grease gang graduated, and there's a new crop of seniors and new members of the coolest cliques on campus, the Pink Ladies and T-Birds. Michael Carrington is the new kid in school - but he's been branded a brainiac. Can he fix up an old motorcycle, don a leather jacket, avoid a rumble with the leader of the T-Birds, and win the heart of Pink Lady Stephanie?

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a subscription service (fuboTV, Showtime & CBS All Access), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: Uptight Millie Haven has always followed the rules, but when she has doubts before her big Kansas City wedding, her attitude-prone little sister Emma, the least likely of heroes, comes to the rescue. They embark on a spontaneous roadtrip to their grandmother’s farm where, with the help of Grandma Mildred, they rediscover their bond.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV & Showtime) & stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime).

What it's about: After Ruth moves in with her boyfriend in a remote holiday park, tensions rise as she makes an unsettling discovery that lures her into a spiral of obsession.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Showtime), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).

What it's about: The quiet Rose works in women's fashion clothing, hoping to be a designer. A traffic accident damages her face. She gets experimental stem cell treatment, leaving her stronger and prettier than ever - but there's a side effect.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV, Showtime & Hoopla), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (Google Play, Microsoft & Vudu).

What it's about: Three poor Black kids in rural Mississippi reap the consequences of their family's cycle of abuse, addiction, and violence.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV & Showtime) & stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime).

What it's about: A girl seeks help and guidance from a robot monster to cope with the bullies at school and her father's new girlfriend.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV, Showtime & Hoopla), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Vudu).

What it's about: Iverson is the ultimate legacy of NBA legend Allen Iverson, who rose from a childhood of crushing poverty in Hampton, Virginia, to become an 11-time NBA All-Star and universally recognized icon of his sport. Off the court, his audacious rejection of conservative NBA convention and unapologetic embrace of hip hop culture sent shockwaves throughout the league and influenced an entire generation. Told largely in Iverson's own words, the film charts the career highs and lows of one of the most distinctive and accomplished figures the sport of basketball has ever seen.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV & Showtime), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: The film follows a woman who has a chance to reflect on her life when a wormhole opens upon David Bowie’s death.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV & Showtime), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Vudu).

What it's about: IN MY FATHER'S HOUSE explores identity and legacy in the African-American family, as Grammy award-winning rapper Che 'Rhymefest' Smith and his long-lost father reconnect and try to build a new future in Chicago's turbulent South Side. Himself a child of a broken home, Che hasn't seen his father, Brian, in over 20 years, and presumes him dead. But after buying his father's childhood home, Che sets out to find him, and learns that his is now a homeless alcoholic living only several blocks away/ The film offers a probing take on memory and identity in a family two generations removed from slavery as it tracks Che and Brian's shared journey to create a new legacy for themselves, their community and the next generation of family.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV & Showtime) & stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime).

What it's about: Writer and Adderall enthusiast Stephen Elliott reaches a low point when his estranged father resurfaces, claiming that Stephen has fabricated much of the dark childhood that that fuels his writing. Adrift in the precarious gray area of memory, Stephen is led by three sources of inspiration: a new romance, the best friend who shares his history, and a murder trial that reminds him more than a little of his own story. Based on the memoir of the same name.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV, Showtime & Kanopy), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: A young woman quits her teaching job to be a private tutor (governess) for a wealthy young heiress who witnessed her parent's tragic death. Shortly after arriving, the girl's degenerate brother is sent home from his boarding school. The tutor has some strange, unexplainable experiences in the house and begins to suspect there is more to their story.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV & Showtime), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $5.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Grace is a Chinese American who longs to be a part of New York's high society. At a socialite event, she is mistaken for a Hong Kong heiress and meets her Prince Charming. Nothing is as it seems absorbing drama. What will happen to this Cinderella when the clock strikes midnight?

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV, Showtime & Hoopla), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Prime Video).

What it's about: Lesbians in the Bible Belt endure bigotry and sexism.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV & Showtime) & stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime).

What it's about: Witch Madness depicts a neglected chapter of human history: Europe’s three centuries of fanatical witchhunts, which resulted in the genocide of perhaps as many as two million women. But ultimately, the film communicates a message of love and hope.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (fuboTV & Showtime) & stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime).