Film

The First Wives Club

Three college friends reunite after one of their own is dumped and remarried off, and discover they've all been discarded by husbands trading up for younger models. What starts as a wake becomes a caper: they plot to take back the money, status, and dignity their marriages cost them. It's glossy, big-hearted revenge comedy, buoyed by three stars clearly having the time of their lives.

TMDb rating6.7

If you liked this

The Other Woman2014

The most direct modern descendant: a wronged wife teams up with her husband's mistress and side piece to systematically wreck his life and finances. Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann and Kate Upton clearly relish it.

But Broader and slapstickier, with a laxative subplot that tells you exactly how subtle it's willing to be.

The Other Woman poster

Waiting to Exhale1995

Four women, all burned by men in different ways, hold each other up through fury and heartbreak with real warmth and a killer soundtrack. Whitney Houston anchors it beautifully.

But Leans more into drama than comedy, so if you want farce and scheming this plays it straighter.

Waiting to Exhale poster

Nine to Five1980

Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton fantasize their way into actually overthrowing their sexist, thieving boss. It's the original workplace-revenge-comedy blueprint, sharp and giddily satisfying.

But Very much of its office-politics moment; some of the gender dynamics read as broad rather than sly now.

Nine to Five poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Women1939

This is the direct ancestor: same Manhattan-wives-wronged premise, same delight in cutting dialogue, made fifty-seven years earlier when the idea was already sharp enough to sting.

George Cukor's all-female classic, sharp as a blade, about Manhattan wives navigating divorce, gossip and betrayal decades before this film existed. The dialogue crackles in a way modern comedies rarely attempt.

But Black-and-white, stagey, and steeped in 1930s manners — patience for old Hollywood pacing required.

The Women poster
More like this (8)

Death Becomes Her1992

Goldie Hawn again, this time locked in a vicious, vain rivalry with Meryl Streep over youth, beauty and a man neither really wants. Wickedly dark and very funny.

But It's a full swerve into gross-out fantasy horror-comedy, tonally much nastier than anything here.

Death Becomes Her poster

Book Club2018no page yet

Four lifelong friends, all past sixty, shake up their lives after reading a certain steamy novel together. Gentle, warm, and stacked with actresses clearly enjoying each other's company.

But Low stakes and cozy pacing; there's no scheme here, just friendship and mild scandal.

How Stella Got Her Groove Back1998

A divorced, successful woman rebuilds her sense of self and romance on her own terms, with her best friend cheering from the sidelines. Angela Bassett is magnetic.

But It's a romance first, revenge comedy never — the ex barely factors in once the story gets going.

How Stella Got Her Groove Back poster

Bridesmaids2011

A messier, rawer take on female friendship under pressure, with Kristen Wiig unraveling in real time as her best friend's wedding threatens to leave her behind. Enormously funny and surprisingly tender.

But It's about friendship fraying, not marriages ending — the engine here is envy, not exes.

Bridesmaids poster

Sex and the City1998

Sarah Jessica Parker, minus the wide-eyed innocence, presiding over decades of Manhattan friendship, bad men, and glorious clothes. If you want more of her and this world, this is the mother lode.

But It's a long-haul commitment across six seasons, and its politics and humor have aged unevenly.

Sex and the City poster

Private Benjamin1980

Goldie Hawn, sixteen years earlier, playing a pampered widow who reinvents herself from scratch in the Army. Same star, same theme of a woman discovering she's tougher than anyone gave her credit for.

But It's a solo journey rather than an ensemble caper, and the military-comedy setting is a big tonal shift.

Private Benjamin poster

The War of the Roses1989

Same engine — marital betrayal turned into open combat — but run through pitch-black tragicomedy instead of crowd-pleasing revenge, showing you the version where nobody wins.

Danny DeVito directs Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas as a couple whose divorce escalates into full domestic warfare over their house, their possessions, everything. Vicious, brilliant, genuinely alarming comedy.

But There's no triumphant sisterhood here, no satisfying comeuppance — just two people destroying each other and everything around them.

The War of the Roses poster

Trophy Wife2010no page yet

Same reversal — the underestimated wife seizes power from the man who dismissed her — but recast as European satire, trading American caper energy for dry political mischief.

Catherine Deneuve, glorious in a French satire, plays a dismissed trophy wife who quietly takes over her husband's umbrella factory and turns out to be brilliant at it. Stylish, funny, unexpectedly political.

But French-language and steeped in specific 1970s French social satire, so some of its targets won't land the same way.

People

Cast

Directing

Writing

Production

Recommended by