As an adult, you learn that it takes time and effort to maintain friendships, but you also learn how important it is to keep a connection with the special people in your life. After all, close friends do lower stress, keep you sharp, and help you live longer, according to recent research! From laugh-out-loud comedies like Bridesmaids to dramas that will tug on your heartstrings like Beaches, these are the movies that will remind how important the female friendships in your life really are. So for your next movie night, invite your girlfriends over and put on one of these classic movies about friendship.
1. The First Wives Club
Old friends played by Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, and Diane Keaton reunite at a funeral only to realize that they have all been dumped by their husbands for younger women. The trio bands together to get their revenge.
2. 9 to 5
This satire was way before its time. Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda, and Lily Tomlin (A.K.A. the girl gang we would all love to be a part of) are fed up with their chauvinist boss. After accidentally abducting him, they find the office runs much smoother without him — they just have to find a way to keep him out of the picture.
3. Mamma Mia! The Movie
Mamma Mia, how can I resist you? Before you say this ABBA-tracked musical is about romantic love, may I remind you that it was Donna’s friends, The Dynamos, who were there for her over the years?
4. Now and Then
One unforgettable summer creates a lifelong bond between four childhood friends in this coming-of-age tale starring all of your favorite ’90s actresses.
5. The Heat
Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy as police officers? This film from the director of Bridesmaids is just as funny as you would expect it to be.
Anna Kendrick stars in this film as a loner musician who reluctantly finds her place in the hilarious and wonderfully weird world of college acapella.
7. The Joy Luck Club
Based on Amy Tan’s best-selling novel, The Joy Luck Club follows four Chinese immigrants and their second generation daughters as they learn more about each other, their families, and themselves.
As a lounge singer placed in a convent by the Witness Protection Program, Whoopi Goldberg’s Deloris Wilson isn’t too happy about having to hangout with a group of nuns. That is, until she joins the gospel choir and finds that a love of music binds them together.
9. Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion
Supportive but naive best friends Romy and Michele decide to reinvent themselves at their high school reunion to impress the snobs that used to bully them, but things don’t exactly go as planned for the pair.
10. A League of Their Own
Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, and Madonna (yes, that Madonna!) star in this comedy based on the true story of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League from the 1940s.
11. Frances Ha
In this black and white art-house flick, Lady Bird director Greta Gerwig stars as Frances, a dancer who hits personal and professional setbacks as her best friend get a new job and into a serious relationship.
12. Beaches
A list of movies about female friendships wouldn’t be complete without this tearjerker. The movie follows two childhood friends who share a bond that withstands fights, career up-and-downs, and heartbreak.
13. Hidden Figures
This 2016 hit is based on the little-known true story of three black NASA mathematicians who were integral to launching the first man into space.
14. Clueless
As if! Beneath all the expensive clothes and valley girl slang, this 90s classic is a story about friendship and finding yourself.
A hilarious and honest look at adult female friendship, Kristen Wiig plays a woman whose life falls apart as she helps plan the wedding of her best friend Lillian, played by Maya Rudolph. Rose Byrne and Melissa cCarthy respectively steal scenes as Lillians too perfect new friend and clueless soon-to-be in-law.
16. Waiting to Exhale
Come for a heartwarming story of four friends who support each and help one another find the love that they deserve — stay for that iconic scene of Angela Bassett setting her ex’s car on fire.
17. Sex and the City: The Movie
Sex and the City was the definitive show about female friendship, after all! The movie picks up four years after the series ended as Carrie prepares to finally marry Mr. Big.
18. The Craft
Sarah, played by Robin Turney, transfers to a new school and falls in with a group of girls rumored to be witches. However, they all soon learn that dabbling in the dark arts has its consequences.
19. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Based on the popular young adult book series, this movie follows a group of four friends that stay connected through a summer apart by sharing a “magic” pair of jeans.
20. Steel Magnolias
When aspiring beautician Annelle Dupuy, played by Daryl Hannah, moves into a small Louisiana town, she’s welcomed by a close-knit group of women who support each other through thick and thin.
The raunchy sleeper-hit of 2017, Girl’s Trip follows four women played by Regina Hall, Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah, and Tiffany Haddish (in her breakout role) as they travel to New Orleans for the Essence Festival.
In Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut, Ellen Page plays a pageant queen who finds friendship and self-confidence in secretly joining a roller derby league.
Labeled by some critics as “the female Superbad,” Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein play two high achieving high school students trying to fit four years worth of fun into the night before graduation.
A group of four close friends living in poverty decide to start robbing banks to escape their circumstances in this 90s commercial and critical hit.
While the 2019 remake of Charlie’s Angels was, well, not received too warmly, we still have the campy fun of Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, and Lucy Liu’s 2000s romp.
Fiercely independent Lady Bird (a nickname she gave herself) spends her senior year balancing a relationship with her best friend, a relationship with her mother, and deep desire to get out of her small town.
Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon star as Thelma and Louise, two unsatisfied women who unexpectedly embark on a road trip that will change both of their lives forever.
The clothes may be dated, but Tina Fey’s hilarious and insightful script is timeless. Lindsay Lohan plays transfer student Cady Heron and who becomes indoctrinated in “The Plastics,” her school’s most popular and ruthless clique.
Growing up is hard to do. Just ask Enid and Rebecca, the pair’s us-vs-them mentality is challenged as Rebecca wants to move on after high school while Enid struggles to figure out who she wants to be.
Female friendship is the driving force behind this southern comedy-drama. Struggling housewife Evelyn0 forms a friendship of her own with the elderly Ninny as she listens to Ninny’s fascinating tales about the Depression-area friendship between two women she knew, Ruth and Idgie.
