Film

Career Girls

Name: Career Girls
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Released: 1997
Cast: Katrin Cartlidge, Lynda Steadman, Kate Byers, Mark Benton, Andy Serkis

Drama

Mike Leigh's tender comedy about two women whose friendship survives time, distance, and the messiness of becoming adults. Shot in natural light with actors improvising much of their dialogue, it feels like watching real people you know—funny without trying, sad without sentimentality. For anyone who's ever wondered what happened to their closest friend.

TMDb rating

3.3

If you liked this

Secrets & Lies1996

Leigh's masterpiece about family, class, and the lies we tell ourselves. Similarly improvisational, similarly moving, with that rare quality of making ordinary human pain feel profound without ever sentimentalizing it.

But It's two and a half hours, and large stretches are uncomfortable dinner-table scenes. Patience is required; payoff is not immediate.

High Fidelity2000

A sharp, affectionate look at how friendship survives growing up and changing. Both films understand that the real drama isn't plot—it's the small betrayals and forgivenesses that matter between people.

But The protagonist is a bit of a self-absorbed man-child, and if you're not in the mood to spend two hours with his neuroses, it won't win you over.

Before Sunrise1995

Two people talking through a night in Vienna. Linklater's film, like Leigh's, trusts conversation and performance over incident. It's about connection, memory, and what happens when real people try to mean something to each other.

But Essentially ninety minutes of dialogue between two people. If you need plot momentum or don't find the characters instantly magnetic, it will feel static.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Career Girls

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Another Year2010

Same director, but approaching friendship from the opposite angle—showing what happens when people fail to stay close, rather than how they succeed.

Mike Leigh again—a deceptively gentle film about a long marriage and the friends who orbit it. It shows us a friendship across years in a completely different key: less effusive, more painful, more about how people use each other. The connection is Leigh's own obsession with time and intimacy.

But It's deeply misanthropic. Everyone is slightly awful; no one grows. If you're looking for hope or character redemption, this will feel like watching people disappoint each other for two hours.

Naked1993

Another Leigh film, rougher and darker than *Career Girls*, but with the same gift for finding humanity in mess. A wounded, brilliant man stumbling through London. Raw performances that feel entirely unmediated.

But It's bleak and often repellent. The protagonist is frequently contemptible, and there's no redemption arc to make you feel better about what you've watched.

Under the Skin2014

Not a narrative in the traditional sense, but deeply interested in how people connect—or fail to. It has the same documentary-like quality of observing real behaviour, though in a stranger register. Haunting in ways that sneak up on you.

But Glacially paced, obscure in meaning, occasionally silly-looking. Demands active viewing and tolerates ambiguity. Some will find it pretentious; others will weep.

Four Rooms1995

Released the same year, another British indie about people talking in confined spaces. It has *Career Girls*' affection for ordinary speech and its interest in how much drama lives in what goes unsaid between friends.

But It's stagey and claustrophobic by design. If you prefer expansive narratives or don't connect with the specific brand of British deadpan humour, it will feel claustrophobic in the wrong way.

Fleabag2016

A British character study about a young woman navigating friendship, family, and self-delusion. Funny, painful, and genuinely interested in how people fail and forgive each other. The same emotional register, compressed into episodes.

But Heavy on meta-theatrical asides that some find gimmicky. The protagonist is morally messy in ways that can feel exhausting if you need to like who you're watching.

Ginger & Rosa2012

Sally Potter's film about two girls' friendship during the Cold War. Like *Career Girls*, it's interested in how intimate bonds survive diverging paths. Serious, visually precise, and quietly devastating about growing apart.

But It's slow and introspective. Plot is minimal; feeling is everything. If you need clear narrative momentum, it will feel like nothing is happening for long stretches.

The Souvenir2019

About a young art student and her toxic relationship, but also about memory, how we mythologize our own past, and the gap between who we think we are and who we actually become. Same exploratory, character-driven spirit.

But Deliberately vague about its narrative stakes. Some scenes feel deliberately obscure. It's more interested in feeling and texture than clarity, which can frustrate viewers who want to know what's actually happening.

My Brilliant Friend2018

Opposite era and country, but the same emotional truth: that a friendship can be as defining as any love story, and far more complex.

Italian television series about a lifelong friendship in postwar Naples. It has *Career Girls*' understanding that female friendship is often the central relationship of a life. Ravishing cinematography, and genuinely invested in how these two women shape each other.

But Slow. Naples dialect and social detail require attention. Later seasons become increasingly violent and complex; if you want the sweetness of female friendship without its complications, this will disappoint.

Stalker1979

Wildly different in style and geography, but both films believe that watching people talk and remember is a legitimate form of drama. Tarkovsky's register is cosmic; Leigh's is domestic. Same conviction, opposite ends of the spectrum.

Andrei Tarkovsky's meditation on desire and stasis. Two men journeying through a mysterious landscape, talking. Glacially paced, hypnotic, entirely different in register from *Career Girls*—but shares its faith that human connection is enough to sustain a film.

But Soviet science fiction poetry, nearly three hours long. Nothing happens; philosophy happens. Demands surrender. Most viewers will find it impenetrable or beautiful or both, often in different moments.