The Spice Girls might have coined the phrase but the ladies in the following ten films exhibit far more Girl Power than Sporty, Scary, Baby, Ginger and Posh. From recent films such as Hard Candy, Erin Brockovich and Million Dollar Baby to classics like Carrie and Aliens, this top 10 features great female characters performed by the very best actresses at the top of their games.

My fascination with Stephen King started with a paper boat. The boat bobbed and weaved its way along a tiny stream created by the day’s rampant rain fall. Little Georgie, whose boat it was, happily followed the paper toy until it disappeared down a drain. Saddened and a little ashamed that he had lost the boat his older brother had made him, Georgie begins to walk home but is alerted by a gravely voice from within the blackness of the drain. Georgie investigates. He peers into the drain. To his surprise a smiling clown stands before him holding the boat…

…they never did discover Georgie’s body.

If Top 10 lists tell us more about the person or persons making them than the films themselves, Quentin Tarantino’s favourite movies confirms he is the true nerd of modern cinema. He loves cult films that operate away from the mainstream and generally below the sort of critical appreciation offered by his contemporaries, and prefers niche genre tactics over classical Hollywood narrative (apart from his inclusion of “His Girl Friday”).
John Walker, who compiled a list of the greatest 1000 movies ever made, said of Tarantino’s choices, “he lives up to …