Bechdel Test Movie List

Mattie Ross, the lead, asks the boarding house landlady if there are any rooms available. She replies.

Technically it passes, but if that's it I'd file under dubious.

I think it doesn't pass. The boarding house landlady is credited on IMDB as boarding house landlady and that's not a name.
And she isn't that important to the plot so the name part can be overlooked, either.

I agree with the rating, it passes: Mrs. Floyd (the landlady) is named in the movie itself, I don't know why she doesn't get a name on IMDB. It's not a requirement of the Bechdel test, but one of her conversations does actually affect the the story if you are paying close attention (spoilers): she offers to sell Mattie a flour sack to carry the gun around. Presumably she was successful, because later you can see Mattie laboriously fumbling the gun out of the sack in what is probably the slowest draw in history. The conversations also establish Mattie's character; Mrs. Floyd is a ruthless bargainer who's not afraid to ask a girl whose father just died to both share a bed in the boarding room (she gave the only empty room to a paying customer, who couldn't have shared a bed with Grandma Turner anyway because he was male) and to get money from her for an empty flour sack. And she's the only one who is successful bargaining with Mattie, because she takes a 14-year old girl as a serious opponent when no one else does.

Amazing though that even with a female lead, True Grit barely passes the Bechdel test, but passes the reverse Bechdel with flying colors.

If this movie passes the test, the test needs to be rewritten. There is more than one woman in the movie, but one of them is essentially a set piece to interact with. There is only one actual female character in this movie. Perhaps it would be more effective to say:
1. It has to have at least two women in it as at least supporting actors.
Incidental bit parts don't really speak to the spirit of this rule imho. I didn't write the rules though, so maybe I just don't get it.

I agree with Nimravid. Mrs. Floyd is a named, if minor character. There wouldn't be a lot of female characters since the story took place in the Old West, which was short on women to begin with, and was also an environment where women weren't considered equal to men. True Grit definitely passes both technically and in spirit as its about a 14 year old girl overcoming a male dominated world to get what she wants: revenge for the death of her father. Plus the scene where she argues to get her father's property returned to her is excellent.