Some things belong together like a glass of wine and a good movie. Your best friend and snuggly blankets with furbabies on the couch. And, of course, a list that tells you what to watch so you don’t spend 45 minutes mindlessly scrolling and end up rewatching something you’ve already seen four times (or watching nothing at all 🙋🏻♀️).
These are the best friendship movies we recommend. You know, the ones worth grabbing tissues for while tearing open chocolate or Sour Patch Kids. We’re talking classics that hold up over time, hidden gems that deserve more credit, and a few newer picks that belong in the canon. You’ll find book-to-movie adaptations, destination films that make you want to book a flight to Italy immediately, and the kind of stories that remind you why your friends are your chosen family.
Please know that Sheree and I couldn’t fit every movie we love on this list with newer updates. Iconic, beloved, not-going-anywhere movies about best friends like Mean Girls, Stand By Me, Bend It Like Beckham, and The Goonies.
Now, press play. Afterwards, be sure to check out these great friendship books when you are ready to crawl under the covers. 💜 Christine and Sheree
Bridesmaids (2011)
Nearly every woman of a certain age has gone through this rite of passage at least once: getting a call from her best friend asking her to be a bridesmaid. In real life, it can be amazing or a drag. In Bridesmaids, it’s both, and the comedy dial is turned up to eleven.
Down-on-her-luck Annie Walker is going to be Maid of Honor at her best friend’s wedding, if she doesn’t screw everything up. This is the funniest friendship movie of the 2010s and perfect with your own besties over a bottle of wine. ~Sheree
🎞️ If you like Bridesmaids, try these fun wedding movies.
Mamma Mia (2008)
Is Mamma Mia a great film? Debatable. 😂 Is it one of the most annoyingly joyful, sing-along-inducing (Dang ABBA), wanderlust-sparking Greece friendship films? You bet!
Meryl Streep, Christine Baranski, and Julie Walters play best friends reuniting on a Greek island for a wedding. Their chemistry is so good that it almost overshadows the cheesiness. Almost.
Watch this one when you need a pick-me-up. Plus, Mamma Mia is magically always on TV and your airplane screen. I love Streep & Baranski in literally anything. ~Christine
🎞️ If you like Mamma Mia, watch more movies set across Greece.
Thelma & Louise (1991)
One of the most beloved friendship movies of the ’90s broke all the rules. Thelma & Louise transcends genre, subverts stereotypes, and ends on a literal cliffhanger. It’s a buddy comedy, a road trip film, a drama, a crime thriller, and a romance – sometimes all in the same scene.
Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon are best friends desperate to escape their lives in Arkansas, driven to the edge by men who don’t respect them. This is the feminist film that paved the way for every female-led, #MeToo revenge story that followed. ~Sheree
Wicked (2024)
Yes, it’s over two and a half hours long. Yes, you will need snacks and a bathroom break. Yes, it is completely worth it. Along with politics, Wicked is a story about two women who should have been enemies and chose to be friends instead – and what that friendship costs.
Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are spectacular together, and Jon M. Chu’s adaptation is visually stunning. If you loved the Broadway show 🙋🏻♀️, the books, or just films about complicated female relationships, watch Wicked. It is a phenomenon you don’t want to be left out of. ~Christine
🎞️ If you like Wicked, find even more terrific books to movie adaptations.
Steel Magnolias (1989)
The best movies about friends are the endlessly quotable ones, and that’s what you get with Steel Magnolias.
The film follows a group of women from a close-knit Southern community as they cope with the loss of one of their own. Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis, Dolly Parton, Daryl Hannah, and Julia Roberts each deliver their zingers with panache. You’ll laugh ’til you cry (and cry) in this hilarious tribute to the bonds shared between small-town women. ~Sheree
Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (1997)
Here’s an extra niche category: films about friends starring the cast of Friends! Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion doesn’t exactly hold up to changing social attitudes and the shifting winds of political correctness. However, for a certain generation, the nostalgic pull is so strong that we can’t help but enjoy it anyway. Plus, Lisa Kudrow (a.k.a. Phoebe Buffay) is brilliant in her leading role alongside Mira Sorvino.
In this cult classic comedy, two struggling 28-year-olds invent fake careers and success to fool their former high-school frenemies at a ten-year reunion. Haven’t we all thought about doing the same? ~Sheree
Girls Trip (2017)
Girls Trip was the first film written by a Black woman to take in over $100 million at the box office – and that’s before you even get to how funny it is.
The “Flossy Posse,” played by Regina Hall, Queen Latifah, Tiffany Haddish, and Jada Pinkett Smith, travels to a music festival in New Orleans. Critics loved it, and audiences loved it more.
If you want to watch a movie about Black women being best friends and living their best lives, this is the one. ~Sheree
Fried Green Tomatoes (1991)
Fried Green Tomatoes is based on Fannie Flagg’s book Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. Like all of the best book-to-movie adaptations, it makes the novel come to life on the big screen in the best possible way.
Kathy Bates plays a woman stuck in a joyless life who starts visiting a nursing home. She gets drawn into the story of two fierce, funny, deeply devoted friends from Depression-era Alabama. It’s cozy, devastating, and funny in a way that only the very best Southern storytelling can manage. This is the kind of movie that makes you want to call someone you love. ~Christine
Practical Magic (1998)
Technically, this is a movie about sisters. But Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman spend so much of it being each other’s entire world – through grief, bad men, small-town judgment, and actual ☠️ – that I am counting it. Plus, Sandra Bullock is one of my all-time favorite actresses.
Practical Magic is the ultimate cozy watch: a New England farmhouse, autumnal everything, a little witchy magic, a lot of wine (those midnight margaritas are iconic for a reason), and two women who choose each other over and over again. It has a devoted following for good reason, and if you’ve never watched it on a rainy night with your best friend, you need to now. ~Christine
The First Wives Club (1996)
Three women, played by Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler, and Diane Keaton, reunite after losing a college friend. They discover they’ve all been dumped by their husbands for younger women. What follows is one of the most satisfying revenge comedies ever committed to film.
The First Wives Club is sharp, hilarious, iconic, and fun, but it also has heart underneath all the scheming. With Diane Keaton’s passing in 2025, revisiting this one feels especially meaningful. It is a reminder of what she did best: humbly making you laugh with all the feels and meaning. Sings, “And don’t tell me what to do. Don’t tell me what to say…” Gosh, I miss her. ~Christine
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005)
As a woman, the premise is objectively ridiculous. A pair of jeans that magically fits four different body types and gets mailed around the world to keep best friends connected during a summer apart. And yet, you can’t help but get drawn in.
America Ferrera, Amber Tamblyn, Blake Lively, and Alexis Bledel are so genuinely warm together that you’ll forget you’re watching a movie about enchanted denim. Based on Ann Brashares’ bestselling novel, this one hits the book-adaptation, female friendship, and travel trifecta.
The young women scatter to Greece, Mexico, and South Carolina. Every destination feels like a reason to order your Lonely Planet guidebooks now. It’s a little silly but also sweet, which is honestly the ideal wine-night combination. ~Sheree & Christine
Under the Tuscan Sun (2003)
Frances, played by Diane Lane, buys a crumbling villa in Tuscany on impulse after a devastating divorce. She proceeds to rebuild both the house and herself with the help of some very endearing community members and her very fabulous best friend, played by Sandra Oh.
This movie is technically about self-discovery, but it’s also about what it means to have such sincere people in your corner when everything falls apart. It also showcases gorgeous Italian scenery, paired with excellent life advice. The film is oh-so watchable, over and over and over again. ~Christine
🎞️ If you like Under the Tuscan Sun, watch even more movies set in beautiful Italy.
Book Club (2018)
Book Club stars four iconic leading ladies – Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Diane Keaton, and Mary Steenburgen – as friends whose lives are shaken up by a risqué pick, 50 Shades of Grey, for their next book club read.
It’s a wake-up call for all of them, encouraging them to seek out pleasure and fulfill desires in their own lives. This is a love letter to female friendship at every age, and a gentle reminder that it’s never too late to want more. ~Sheree
🎞️ If you like Book Club and Under the Tuscan Sun, be sure to watch Book Club: The Next Chapter.
Mona Lisa Smile (2003)
Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, and Maggie Gyllenhaal round out an all-star cast in Mona Lisa Smile. Set at Wellesley College just after World War II, Mona Lisa Smile is about a progressive art history teacher who quietly takes liberties with her students’ syllabus and understanding of what their lives can look like.
The female friendships are complicated, fierce, and real. For friendship movies, enjoy the addition of beautiful costumes, sharp writing, and a great cast. ~Sheree
When Harry Met Sally (1989)
When Harry Met Sally is widely considered one of the best romantic comedy films of all time, but that’s a bit of an oversimplification. It’s one of the best films about friends – yes, friends who become lovers, but friends first and foremost.
Uptight Sally meets loose-unit Harry when they share a car ride to New York after graduating from college. They don’t warm to each other, but repeated encounters over the years lead to a close and wholesome friendship.
The chemistry between the characters, played by Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal, is undeniable and makes for very entertaining (and iconic) viewing. ~Sheree
Waiting to Exhale (1995)
Long before Angela Bassett “did the thing,” she starred alongside Whitney Houston, Loretta Devine, and Lela Rochon in Waiting to Exhale – one of the most important films about female friendship of the ’90s.
Four Black women navigate love, loyalty, and the slow exhale of finally feeling safe in their own lives.
It went on to gross over $80 million worldwide and win awards. The value of that representation – an all-Black female ensemble at the center of a mainstream film – cannot be overstated. It holds up beautifully. ~Sheree
Muriel’s Wedding (1994)
Before Toni Collette was the star of gritty highbrow dramas, she stole Australia’s hearts in Muriel’s Wedding, a movie about getting a life and getting the heck out.
Muriel is a socially awkward daydreamer, openly mocked by her so-called friends and cast out when she causes a scandal at a society wedding. But she reconnects with Rhonda, a fellow ABBA fan and her one true person. Rhonda turns out to be Muriel’s true salvation, making this one of the most moving friendship movies in Australia’s cinematic history. ~Sheree
Miss You Already (2015)
You know those movies where you sense the stars are really friends, even when the cameras weren’t rolling? Miss You Already is one of those. Drew Barrymore and Toni Collette are utterly believable as lifelong best friends whose bond holds steady even when facing death.
It’s a film about terminal illness, so yes, it will yank hard on your heartstrings. But it’s also about bravery, second chances, and the particular kind of love that only a true best friend can offer. ~Sheree
Beaches (1988)
Critics panned it. The fans didn’t. Beaches stars Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey as two best friends who fight for each other through thick and thin across decades of exchanging letters, navigating love triangles, and facing life-or-death challenges.
It’s the film that made “Wind Beneath My Wings” a chart-topper, and it remains one of the great cult classic friendship movies for a reason. ~Sheree
The Joy Luck Club (1993)
Based on Amy Tan’s novel, The Joy Luck Club follows four Chinese-American women and their immigrant mothers. We watch decades of secrets, sacrifice, love, and the type of friendship that forms when you have survived things together that you can’t quite put into words.
It’s a film about mothers and daughters as much as it is about friends, which means it hits twice as hard. Save this one for when you’re ready to have all the feels. Have tissues. Refill your glass first. ~Christine
Let Us Know Your Favorites
Whether you work your way through this list in one long weekend or save them for the moments that call for your bestie, these are the films worth watching. Grab someone you love – and can laugh and cry with – pop the cork, and press play. Let us know your favorites in the comments.
What To Watch Next: More Movies To Enjoy With Friends
I love watching romances and romantic comedies with my friends. Grab the popcorn and watch these dark romantic love stories. Or, try something lighter with our favorite British romance movies and romantic Italian films.
Serendipity with John Cusack. While on the surface a romance with Kate Beckinsale, the best friend relationship with Jeremy Piven provides a lot of the heart in this movie.
Hey Gene, thank you for the recommendation. I remember enjoying Serendipity back in college. I’ll have to rewatch it.