Passes the Bechdel test

Master

Name: Master
Released: 2022

2022. Directed by Mariama Diallo, written by Mariama Diallo.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
22 women characters. 18 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 33 scenes out of 84.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Not rated bechdeltest.com readers haven't rated this film.

The film

Three women strive to find their place at an elite Northeastern university as old as the country. When anonymous racist attacks target a Black freshman, who insists she is being haunted by ghosts of the school's past, each woman must determine where the real menace lies.

Released: 18 Mar 2022
Genres: Drama, Horror, Mystery
Rated: R
IMDb: 5.3 / 10
Metascore: 66 / 100
Awards: 1 win & 8 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Gail 198 lines, woman
Liv 116 lines, woman
Jasmine 115 lines, woman
Amelia 38 lines, woman
Cressida 29 lines, woman
Michelle 28 lines, woman
Diandra 27 lines, woman
Tyler 21 lines, man
Katie 17 lines, woman
Esther 13 lines, woman

Full cast, 40 people

Regina Hall as Gail Bishop
Zoë Renee as Jasmine Moore
Amber Gray as Liv Beckman
Talia Ryder as Amelia
Talia Balsam as Diandra
Ella Hunt as Cressida
Noa Fisher as Katie
Kara Young as Sascha
Bruce Altman as Brian
Jennifer Dundas as Julianne
Joel de la Fuente as Lam
Julia Nightingale as Freshman Counselor
Anna van Patten as Libby
D.C. Anderson as Painter
Will Hochman as Tyler
John Kroft as Nicky
Emmett Carnahan as Jock
Megan Byrne as Librarian
Orlagh Cassidy as Communications Director
Robert Emmet Lunney as Victor
Ty Molbak as Athlete
Paige Rhea Allison as Hooded Woman
John Way as Tour Guide
Edelen McWilliams as Tour Member
Tim Barker as Tour Member
Karin Calabro as Singing Woman
Cate Smit as Amelia's Mother
Tommy Bo as Asian American Student
Paola Sanchez Abreu as Latinx Student
Armand Schultz as College President
Shannon Dorsey as Elisheba
Ian Bedford as Library Security Guard
Beth Dixon as Mrs. Dennis
Okwui Okpokwasili as Custodial Worker
Vin Knight as Dean of Students
Mary Catherine Wright as Esther Bickert
Larry Bull as Security Guard
Emma Copp as Overachiever
Angela Grovey as Dining Worker
Vincent Yacovelli as 1950 Headmaster's Son (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 3% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 84

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers

Scenes	Women's lines	Men's lines
1 to 2	1	0
3 to 4	8	0
5 to 6	0	0
7 to 8	30	0
9 to 10	17	21
11 to 12	26	6
13 to 14	18	0
15 to 16	28	0
17 to 18	45	1
19 to 20	12	0
21 to 22	17	0
23 to 24	2	0
25 to 26	6	8
27 to 28	37	0
29 to 30	1	0
31 to 32	24	7
33 to 34	2	6
35 to 36	17	2
37 to 38	20	5
39 to 40	18	2
41 to 42	12	0
43 to 44	19	0
45 to 46	22	0
47 to 48	1	0
49 to 50	1	0
51 to 52	17	0
53 to 54	23	3
55 to 56	7	0
57 to 58	2	2
59 to 60	2	0
61 to 62	13	0
63 to 64	33	0
65 to 66	8	5
67 to 68	31	0
69 to 70	11	0
71 to 72	0	0
73 to 74	0	0
75 to 76	28	0
77 to 78	0	0
79 to 80	23	0
81 to 82	49	6
83 to 84	5	4

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.

FRESHMAN COUNSELOR: We’ve got a live one! JASMINE: Barely. After that flight. FRESHMAN COUNSELOR: Last name first name? FRESHMAN COUNSELOR: Alright, you’re in room...

CRESSIDA: Tonight’s not too late to start. JASMINE: Wait! Listen, I can explain. So I sleepwalk, right? Sometimes, not all the time. KATIE: Do you ever sleep eat? JASMINE: No. I don’t think so. So anyway, last spring I slept over at my friend’s house after prom with a bunch of people --

JASMINE: Usually I’ll sleepwalk if I’m stressed, or in a new place or whatever. So I guess that’s what happened, because the next thing I know, her m… JASMINE: So it’s like... I didn’t just piss my own pants. I pissed everybody’s pants. CRESSIDA: Who found this girl? KATIE: The primal scream!

DINING WORKER: Don’t be shy, now! I know you can do better than that. Here you go, load up that plate now. Mmhmm! Now we’re talking. Alright now child, eat… AMELIA: She’s not gonna do anything.

AMELIA: Lizzo? JASMINE: Wrong, wrong, wrong. AMELIA: Ok, game over. She’s my roommate.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 89 are women's.

636 lines from women, 78 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

22 women and 14 men in the cast. 18 women and 11 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

A woman speaks the first line. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 10 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 89% of the words (6,059), men 11% (736).

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Run the other way, for men, the film scores 1 out of 3.

Conversations between two named characters

Two women

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

7 of the 11 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 60% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Mariama Diallo (woman)
Written by: Mariama Diallo (woman)
Produced by: Andrea Roa (woman), Brad Becker-Parton (gender not listed), Joshua Astrachan (man)
Shot by: Charlotte Hornsby (woman)
Edited by: Jennifer Lee (woman)
Music by: Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe (man)
Production design by: Tommy Love (gender not listed), Meredith Lippincott (woman)
Costumes by: Mirren Gordon-Crozier (woman)