Film

Sex and the City

Other titles called Sex and the City: the 1998 series (HBO).

A fashion-obsessed romantic comedy about four New York women navigating love, friendship, and their thirties. Stylish and often hilarious, it swings wildly between heartfelt and superficial. Perfect if you want smart banter, gorgeous clothes, and characters who feel like real friends—even when the plot lurches toward melodrama.

TMDb rating3.3

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Bridesmaids2011

Four women at the centre of a wedding story; equally funny and touching, with real chemistry between the cast and a screenplay that finds humour in intimacy and chaos alike.

But Messier and cruder than Sex and the City. If you want glamour without bodily functions, this won't do.

Bridesmaids poster

27 Dresses2008

Two leads with genuine comic timing trapped in an impossible situation. Light, charming, built on the kind of dialogue that makes you want to rewatch it just to hear the jokes again.

But Aggressively plot-driven rom-com that doesn't pretend to be anything else. Some will find it empty calories.

27 Dresses poster

The Devil Wears Prada2006

Fashion world backdrop, female friendship at its core, and a razor-sharp script about ambition and loyalty. Meryl Streep devours every scene. It's smarter and meaner than it pretends to be.

But Focuses on professional life rather than romance. If you came for love triangles, you might feel slightly short-changed.

The Devil Wears Prada poster

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Entourage2004

Same foursome structure; same devotion to friendship as the engine of the story; same glamour-world setting; same refusal to believe the story matters without the banter.

Four men in a tight friendship circle in Los Angeles; the structure mirrors Sex and the City exactly, but replaces romance and fashion with power and ego. Same warmth, completely different register—and wildly underrated.

But Aggressively male and occasionally ugly in its attitudes toward women. The show aged poorly in places where it felt edgy at the time.

Entourage poster
More like this (7)

Lipstick Jungle2008

Three glamorous women in media and fashion dealing with love and ambition. Built directly from the same DNA as Sex and the City but with a sharper focus on their careers.

But Cancelled after two seasons. You get an incomplete story, and there's a reason it didn't catch on.

Lipstick Jungle poster

Confessions of a Shopaholic2009

Isla Fisher is irresistible in a lead role about a woman drowning in debt and fashion obsession. Sweet, fast-paced, genuinely funny without feeling mean.

But Slight and inconsequential. The plot resolves tidily in ways that feel earned by nothing but wishful thinking.

Confessions of a Shopaholic poster

Legally Blonde2001

Pink-soaked fun about a woman who knows exactly who she is and refuses to apologize for it. Smarter than it looks, with warmth and bite in equal measure.

But A comedy about sorority culture that's now over two decades old. Some references and attitudes have curdled.

Legally Blonde poster

Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie2016

Ageing British women who refuse to grow up on holiday in the South of France. A love letter to friendship, fashion, excess, and never learning your lesson.

But In-jokes from a British TV show that ran for years. Without that history, you might feel like you're sitting outside someone else's private joke.

Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie poster

Scenes from a Marriage2021

Both are romances that refuse to simplify love into happy endings. Both believe the complicated middle—the fighting, the compromise, the staying—is where the story actually lives.

Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain in five episodes that dissect one marriage across decades. Minimal plot, maximal emotion; the entire point is two people talking and changing and hurting each other.

But Deliberately slow and claustrophobic. Unbearably intimate in a way that might feel less like entertainment than emotional archaeology.

Scenes from a Marriage poster

Nights in Rodanthe2008

Both were released the same year and share a belief that New York (or a coastal town) romance is the gold standard. Both will betray their own irony for a genuine emotional moment.

Richard Gere and Diane Lane in a two-character chamber piece about two strangers finding connection in a beachside inn during a hurricane. Stripped-down, genuinely romantic without irony, built entirely on chemistry and conversation.

But Aggressively earnest in ways that feel uncool. No banter to hide behind, just feeling. Adapted from Nicholas Sparks, which tells you everything.

Nights in Rodanthe poster

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