Girlfriends

1978 Directed by Claudia Weill

A photographer and her best friend are roommates. She is stuck with small-change shooting jobs and dreams of success. When her roommate decides to get married and leave, she feels hurt and has to learn how to deal with living alone.

Melanie Mayron Anita Skinner Christopher Guest Bob Balaban Eli Wallach Roderick Cook Kenneth McMillan Amy Wright Kathryn Walker Viveca Lindfors Mike Kellin Kristoffer Tabori Nancy Mette

Alternative Titles

Girl friends, Girl Friends

drama comedy

86 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Sean Baker 12

I can’t believe this was a first-time watch for me. Seems to have been a big influence on Lena Dunham and the mumblecore crowd.
It is so close to Girls in style, tone and pacing that it’s perfect that Dunham gave episodes to director Claudia Weill to direct.
Thanks to Criterion Channel for making this available.
Review by brat pitt ★★★½ 1

need more movies about the devastating loneliness + loss of emotional intimacy + perceived abandonment/betrayal of gal pal break-ups because uhhhh they really do be like that :/
Review by irmavep ★★★★★ 4

I was having a really shitty day yesterday and part of it was feeling weighed down with how, as a woman in a misogynistic society, you constantly have to deal with the fact that the cultural artifacts and institutions you love don't love you back, and in fact probably hate you. This isn't new or anything but every so often you reach a breaking point and I was there last night. So, I decided to watch this film and found a refuge for a couple of hours. It's brilliant and tender and funny and I loved it, and it loved me back. Then I googled it to find some information about the cast and saw that the google summary of…
Review by theriverjordan ★★★★★ 17

The only way to describe the relationships depicted in Claudia Weill’s “Girlfriends” is to say “it’s complicated.” But even that doesn’t seem sufficient.
Shot piecemeal over the course of three years due to its sometimes-nonexistent budget, Weill’s work is an essential entry in the feminist film canon. It’s also an ode to adult adolescent late bloomers everywhere.
Weill depicts the ‘breakup’ of roommates Susan and Anne, when the former moves out after getting married. As Susan ‘grows up’ and marks the major life milestones of having a baby and buying a house, Anne is left alone in her arrested apartment development.
Weill eloquently traces the evolution of how Susan and Anne relate to one another. What begins as platonic coupling…
Review by Sally Jane Black 1

Abortion, adultery, career, romance, art, independence, friendship, sex, sexual health, rent, space, assertiveness, religion, trust, marriage, and sexuality interact in every day moments, small arguments, disappointments, triumphs, deep conversations, quiet conflicts, and chance meetings. The major dramas are largely eschewed. We don't see the weddings, except still images, black-and-white through the character's lens. Her life is in constant collision with reminders of dependence--not community, not in the film's view--and constraint. She navigates, pushing through narrow tunnels of relationships, jobs, roommates, and responsibilities, holding on dearly to what modicum of freedom she can find. This is contrasted, eventually, with one deep bond that empowers instead of stifles, and a bittersweet reunion that illustrates the bond while also reminding that the restrictions…
Review by laura ★★★★

what girlfriends & frances ha both do so well is highlight how women perceive being alone as being selfish. there is this fear that if you take time to yourself, and want to have a space separate from your relationship, or focus on an artistic pursuit or your career, that you are alienating yourself in an unhealthy way. but they also show how solitude is needed to become rooted enough in your ideas & practices to create. how the space you build for yourself gives you time to figure out what you want to make. and in the end, when your work is ready to show, you bring the people you love to spaces where they can gather, and feel, and you invite them into the world you created when you were once alone.
Review by muriel ★★★★½ 2

such an authentic depiction of womanhood and female friendship like this one rarely comes along, i found myself going wow she is literally me more times than i'll like to admit. can confirm you never get over the excruciating pain of losing your best friend to a man
Review by Robert Franco

a film about learning one of the most important lessons in everyday life: how to be comfortable with being alone. and considering the times we’re living in, we need to be reminded of this now more than ever.
Review by ˗ˏˋ Liam ˊˎ˗ ★★★★ 2

that’s the frances ha print right there
Review by Willow Maclay ★★★★★

Beautiful, Natural, Changing, Friendships, Relationships, Life Affirming, Female, Cinematic Bliss.
Review by Brianna ★★★★½

‪a genuinely near-perfect movie about one of my biggest fears (my friends getting married and having kids) which doesn’t even end with a feel-good resolution and susan accepting annie’s new life but more like both parties’ contentment in not really being apart of one another’s separate lives but still committing to the intimacy of their friendship‬
Review by Allison M. 🌱 ★★★★

“I don't know what's going on anymore.”
I thought it captured the essence of being a woman. It was poignant, funny, and real. It succeeded on so many levels.
P.S. Kubrick liked this film (was “impressed” by it)

Recent reviews

Review by Oats Yogurt ★★★★½

Absolutely fantastic. There were so many laugh lines for a story that was tugging at me emotionally throughout. The third girlfriend in this movie is New York City!
Review by Raphafast ★★★½

I'm pretty sure it was a big inspiration for Frances Ha. I wasn't focused at all tho, I was doing a tone of things while i was watching it; the joys of midterms in college... so I definitely need to watch it again 'cause I think that this is a pretty cool film that was very ahead of its time by its themes.
Review by benkei💜 ★★★½

the world is your oyster
Review by nadine ★★★★

...and they were roommates!
Review by Thomas ★★★★

I am positive that I watched Girlfriends in the early 1980s when it was on cable. I'm pretty sure I was interested in it because I had seen Melanie Mayron in the TV movie Hustling, as well as on the TV show Rhoda and I got a kick out of her. I didn't have strong memories of the movie other than I thought it was kind of boring.
Fast-forward about 40 years, and I bought the Criterion Blu-ray which I watched this morning. I had to ask myself whether I really had seen it before because none of it was familiar to me at all, apart from Mayron being in it.
This time, however, it was anything but boring. It's…
Review by assaultbagel ★★★★½

Hooooo boy felt this one!! Looking at the no frame mattresses in her apartment was like, wow young people in New York really don’t evolve or change. I’ve seen a solo dresser drawer sit on a friend’s bedroom floor for a little less than a year. The only difference is none of these people live in Manhattan any more lol. Everyone had their own selfish moments but I never really blamed anyone for acting that way which I feel like is my main issue with recent works that emulate this one, I usually just end up feeling no sympathy to the characters. It’s hard when relationships change sometimes!! True!! I related to the many forms of Susan’s self-sabotage... though I probably wouldn’t pursue an older married religious figure as a general rule but that’s just me
Oh also... 💕!!!!Christopher Guest!!!!💕
Review by daniel whitcomb ★★★★★

it be like that :/
Review by backseatmatt ★★★½

wow this movie totally rips off frances ha
Review by Jillian Acreman ★★★★★

My favourite part of this movie was the couch shaking every time Matt laughed. He laughed every time the lead did something he thought was quirky or cute, and he thought she was quirky and cute the entire time.
Second favourite part: the dynamic between every single woman in this movie.
Review by Daiana Carvalho ★★★★½

#52filmsbywomen
26/52
Frances ha could never thank this enough
Review by theriverjordan ★★★★★ 17

The only way to describe the relationships depicted in Claudia Weill’s “Girlfriends” is to say “it’s complicated.” But even that doesn’t seem sufficient.
Shot piecemeal over the course of three years due to its sometimes-nonexistent budget, Weill’s work is an essential entry in the feminist film canon. It’s also an ode to adult adolescent late bloomers everywhere.
Weill depicts the ‘breakup’ of roommates Susan and Anne, when the former moves out after getting married. As Susan ‘grows up’ and marks the major life milestones of having a baby and buying a house, Anne is left alone in her arrested apartment development.
Weill eloquently traces the evolution of how Susan and Anne relate to one another. What begins as platonic coupling…
Review by Tristan BK ★★★★½

Extremely relatable and perceptive, the progenitor of so much young 20-something indie cinema today. But the characters actually aren't annoying, even if they have their blindspots. I was starting to wonder if the movie was ever going to address Susan's selfishness, and it handled it perfectly.
One of the best looks at friendship in film—the mutability of the shared self as relationships evolve, Susan and Anne unable to have the conversations that came so naturally before once the interloper comes between them. The problems are very small, barely conflict at all in the cinematic sense, but we feel so much a part of these characters' worlds that these little frictions become all important.
Cinematically, mostly naturalistic, but some well placed photo montages (including some saucy honeymoon pics) and a wall painted red.