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I love a good romance like anyone else, but some of the best movies are about the love between friends. We need them now more than ever too, as some of us are just starting to see and hang out with friends for the first time in for-freakin'-ever. These are the best movies about friendships that come in all shapes and sizes—old friends, new friends, big groups, and inseparable pairs. As I was made to sing in Girl Scouts before I even had the wisdom to know what "old friends" meant: make new friends but keep the old. One is silver and the other's gold!
Invite your buds over and pair one of these friend flicks with the best corner store wine and popcorn you can muster. Or if you're still separated from your BFFs for whatever reason, there's no shame in a text chain. I feel like half of the messages I've sent for the past year are "3, 2, 1, PLAY" for synching up virtual movie nights with friends. An alien looking at my 2020 text history would be so confused. Everybody paused and ready??
Booksmart (2019)
Friendship means showing up for each other, as Amy and Molly learn over and over during the course of one wild night.
Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion (1997)
This is what I like to think the girls from Booksmart would be like at their reunion. Right??
Stand By Me (1986)
There's always one group of friends you never forget, whether your best times were in college or running through the woods looking for a dead body. The latter is the plot of this movie, if that wasn't clear.
Now and Then (1995)
Four childhood friends reunite to reminisce about a fateful summer... and there are ghosts. Kind of. Maybe? Spooky!
Furious 7 (2015)
OK well *technically* Dom Toretto does not have friends. He's got family.
Girls Trip (2017)
This movie drew a lot of comparison to Bridesmaids when it was first released...but I would argue it's even more about friendship, because all four of those women are friends from the start. The Flossy Posse clearly have a history. You care about them! This is a friendship you're rooting for the whole time.
Steel Magnolias (1989)
Nowadays, "chick flick" just means like... a rom-com? Or worse/more general, just a movie with girls in it? It used to be more specific. Chick flicks used to be melodramatic movies like Steel Magnolias about women going through hard times together. Friendships that survive insurmountable tragedies. Movies that you watch with your BFF and just sob.
Magic Mike XXL (2015)
Sure, you show up to a Magic Mike movie for the body-ody-ody parade... but this is a freakin' road trip movie about great friends who challenge and support each other. It's too pure for this world, y'all.
Beaches (1988)
It's another quintessential "chick flick" about lifelong friends. Did you ever knooooooow that you're my heeeeeeroooooo??
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Many of the many Marvel movies (say that five times fast) feature friendship, but I would argue that only this one is about friendship. Nothing says BFFs like dance-offs, mixtapes, and a talking tree protecting you with a hug.
The Big Chill (1983)
It's weird thinking about what your parents, or in some cases grandparents, were like as 30-somethings. That's why we have The Big Chill as a record. A group of grown-up Baby Boomers gather for a friend's funeral and reflect on how much they have changed from their more rebellious days as kids and teens in the '60s and '70s. Little did they know what the next 40 years would hold!
Wolfwalkers (2020)
This gorgeous animated movie is about a young British girl in Ireland who befriends a local girl who turns into a wolf at night. It will take you right back to your childhood.
Game Night (2018)
It's low-key hard to maintain friendships as an adult... especially when your murder mystery party turns into a real kidnapping.
Tag (2018)
While it totally doesn't make sense that Jon Hamm, Hannibal Burress, Jake Johnson, Ed Helms, and Jeremy Renner would have been childhood friends—they are 4 to 12 years apart in age—this is a fun movie about an... unusual way that BFFs found to keep in touch over the years. Also, in case you don't remember this from the trailers and the posters, it's based on a true friendship. Wild.
The Breakfast Club (1985)
While the teens in The Breakfast Club aren't friends at the beginning of the movie, this is the quintessential movie about how cliques and popularity are kind of overrated. Anyone can bond. Sometimes all it takes is being forced to share a Saturday detention.
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005)
All you need is four girls and one seemingly magical pair of jeans for an endless number of stories and an unforgettable summer.
The First Wives Club (1996)
This '90s movie is about three women who connect over their husbands leaving them for younger women. Get it? They're the first wives. I was today years old when I learned this movie wasn't about politics.
Waiting To Exhale (1995)
This is another classic '90s movie about a group of women who lean on each other while working through their own lives—starring Whitney Houston, Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine, and Lela Rochon.
Another Round (2020)
This Academy Award winner, ooh la la, is about four middle-aged men who teach high school and decide to conduct an "experiment" by day drinking (and night drinking) to see how maintaining a low blood alcohol content at all times changes their lives.
The Half Of It (2020)
In this modern twist on Cyrano de Bergerac, a devastatingly strong friendship forms between a queer girl and the boy who hires her to write love letters for their mutual crush. It's the perfect friendship movie for when you're really in your feelings and wanna cry it out.
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