Film

Nine to Five

Nine to Five is a fizzy revenge comedy with genuine teeth under its wig-and-shoulder-pads surface: three underestimated women scheme against the sexist, credit-stealing boss who makes their office a small hell. Fonda, Tomlin and Parton (in her film debut) have riotous, easy chemistry, and Parton's title song alone earns the ticket price. Broad, silly, sharper than it looks.

TMDb rating7.0

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Working Girl1988

Melanie Griffith clatters through 80s Wall Street in shoulder pads and ambition, outsmarting men who underestimate her, with Sigourney Weaver as the boss you love to hate. Same corporate fury, same era, more romance.

But The love-story subplot softens the satire, tangling its office feminism up with a fairly conventional romantic arc.

Working Girl poster

Erin Brockovich2000

Julia Roberts plays a foul-mouthed, underqualified paralegal who out-hustles an entire legal system and every man who dismisses her on sight — the same underestimated-woman satisfaction, played straight instead of for laughs.

But It's a drama first and a comedy a distant second, trading giddy revenge-fantasy fun for real-world gravity.

Erin Brockovich poster

The First Wives Club1996

Three wronged women team up for petty, glorious revenge on the men who wronged them, with Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler and Diane Keaton clearly having the time of their lives.

But Leans hard into farce and montage, so the sharper class and gender commentary gets a little buried under the gags.

The First Wives Club poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

9to5: The Story of a Movement2020

This is the real labor organization Jane Fonda helped found, whose story and title the film lifted wholesale — the true history behind the joke.

Turns out the fantasy of secretaries seizing power wasn't just a fantasy — this documentary tells the real history of the women's clerical union that gave the film its name and its outrage.

But No stars, no gags, no song — just archival footage and interviews, at a much slower, more sobering pace than the film that borrowed its name.

9to5: The Story of a Movement poster
More like this (8)

Legally Blonde2001

Elle Woods gets written off as a bimbo by every gatekeeper she meets and wins anyway, using exactly what they mock her for — pure underdog joy with a killer soundtrack.

But Gentler and glossier than 9 to 5's workplace rage — there's no boss to depose, just prejudice to disprove.

Legally Blonde poster

The Devil Wears Prada2006

A glossier, modern spin on office survival, with Meryl Streep as a boss so magnetic you half side with her — proof the tyrant-boss comedy never really went away.

But The tyranny here is psychological rather than the cartoonish sexism of 9 to 5, so the catharsis lands very differently.

The Devil Wears Prada poster

Steel Magnolias1989

Dolly Parton reunites with an all-female ensemble for something warmer and sadder — small-town Southern women leaning on each other through gossip and grief, proof she's just as good outside comedy.

But There's no boss to topple here — it's a hangout drama about friendship and loss, not workplace revenge.

Steel Magnolias poster

Hidden Figures2016

Three Black women out-math and outwork the sexist, segregated NASA of the early 60s — the same prove-them-wrong pleasure, with history's stakes raised much higher.

But Earnest and inspirational rather than farcical — don't expect the loopy fantasy-revenge sequences.

Hidden Figures poster

Bombshell2019

A starrier, darker, real-world version of office sexism at Fox News, with Charlize Theron and Nicole Kidman playing women who finally say enough — fewer laughs, sharper anger.

But Considerably grimmer and more true-to-life; the shift from farce to reckoning might not be what you're after.

Bombshell poster

Baby Boom1987

Diane Keaton's high-flying executive gets derailed by an inherited baby and has to fight the boys' club all over again — a lighter, sillier cousin from the same era.

But Broader comedy, blurrier politics — it's more about motherhood chaos than corporate injustice.

Baby Boom poster

The Apartment1960

Same corporate world two decades earlier, seen from the other side — the 'good sport' woman being used rather than avenging herself.

Billy Wilder's bittersweet office comedy shows the machine 9 to 5 later rebels against, decades earlier, in exquisite black and white — funny, then suddenly heartbreaking.

But Melancholic where 9 to 5 is triumphant; there's no righteous comeuppance, just a quieter, sadder kind of hope.

The Apartment poster

Horrible Bosses2011no page yet

The same let's-get-rid-of-our-terrible-boss fantasy, gender-flipped and coarsened, proving the premise survives getting cruder and much less pointed.

Three guys plot to get rid of their monstrous bosses in a filthy, chaotic comedy that swaps social commentary for gleeful mayhem — same premise, dialed up to absurd.

But Trades 9 to 5's sly feminist bite for gross-out slapstick — no politics here, just revenge for revenge's sake.

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