Film

Wine Country

Name: Wine Country
Genre: Comedy
Released: 2019
Cast: Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Rachel Dratch, Ana Gasteyer, Paula Pell

Buddy comedy
Light-hearted

A birthday trip to Napa Valley for a group of middle-aged friends becomes an excuse to examine the particular messiness of long female friendships. It's warm and rambling, built on genuine affection between its cast. Not about the wine—about the hangovers, the resentments, the laughter that survives them.

TMDb rating

2.8

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love loose, improvised-feeling comedy where a tight group of old friends bicker, overshare and blow up a simple trip, and you'd rather laugh at their chemistry than at a plot.

Skip it if you want sharp jokes landing every few seconds; much of the humor comes from meandering scenes and awkward silences, and the jokes can feel thin or repetitive.

What it asks of you: It runs about an hour and forty minutes and stays easygoing rather than frantic, so you need patience for scenes that wander before they pay off.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Bridesmaids2011

The DNA is identical: women in their 30s and 40s, real comedy from real tension, a trip that becomes therapy. Features the same blend of gross-out humour and genuine emotional stakes that Wine Country reaches for.

But It's a decade old now, and the more elaborate set pieces can feel laboured on rewatching. Some jokes have definitely aged out of favour.

The Glorias2020

Directed by Julie Taymor, another film about women reconnecting and reckoning across decades. Far more stylish and experimental, but shares the warmth and the willingness to let arguments breathe before resolving them.

But It's much more formally ambitious, which makes it slower and sometimes harder to engage with. Not everyone wants their comedy mixed with serious biographical drama.

I'll See You in My Dreams2015

Blythe Danner and June Squibb anchor a small, tender film about women in their 70s finding joy and friendship. It has Wine Country's gift for letting awkwardness become affection without rushing or sentimentalising.

But It's deliberately quiet and paced for reflection. If you want proper comedic structure and escalation, this will feel thin.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Wine Country

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Nights in Rodanthe2008

Both films argue that the point of relationships is choosing to be present. Wine Country does it through laughter; this does it through heartbreak.

Diane Lane and Richard Gere in a film about people showing up for each other across age and circumstance. It's a romantic drama, not a comedy, but shares Wine Country's fascination with how people choose to stay in relationships despite everything.

But It's a straight Nicholas Sparks adaptation—melodramatic, earnest, designed to make you cry. If you want humour and lightness, this is the opposite.

Rough Night2017

Scarlett Johansson, Kate McKinnon, and friends on a weekend away. It's broader and sillier than Wine Country, but obsessed with the same question: why do old friendships resurface all the anger?

But The plot mechanics are contrived and the energy occasionally desperate. Some jokes genuinely don't land, and the film knows it but keeps going anyway.

Horse Girl2020

Alison Brie in a film about women, friendship, and watching someone you love unravel. It's bizarre and unsettling in ways Wine Country explicitly isn't, but shares its genuine interest in female relationships.

But It's intentionally weird and increasingly dark. If you want to sit with a character's mental breakdown, fine; if you want light entertainment, this will alienate you.

Thelma & Louise1991

Two women, a road trip, the slow dissolution of loyalty and the bonds that survive it. It's the ancestor of everything Wine Country owes. Still propulsive and angry and funny when it wants to be.

But It ends in tragedy, which changes the emotional register entirely. Also a 1991 film, so some elements will read differently now than they did then.

Mamma Mia!2008

Similar cast energy—established comedians and actors having visible fun together, with real affection between scenes. Less interested in conflict, more in celebration, but the warmth is identical.

But It's essentially a jukebox musical. If the ABBA songs don't delight you, there's not much underneath holding it together.

The First Wives Club1996

Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, and Barbara Hershey as women in their 50s and 60s reckoning with being discarded. It's louder and broader than Wine Country, but the core—older women as the centre of their own story—is identical.

But It's aggressively 1996 in ways that can feel dated. The plot is fairly conventional and sometimes the comedy tries too hard to wink at the audience.

Minari2021

Both centre on women who seem marginal to the story but turn out to be the load-bearing walls. Both suggest that attention and presence is a form of love.

A grandmother holds a family together across language, culture, and misunderstanding. It's in Korean and English, spare and devastating. Utterly different from Wine Country in every genre sense, but about the same thing: women keeping people tethered.

But It's a slow, serious film about economic precarity and cultural displacement. The tone is elegiac, not comedic. Asking someone to leap from Wine Country to this is asking a lot.

On Her Shoulders2018

Wine Country ends with the women having told their truths to each other. This film is about what it means when the truth is almost unbearable, and who stays to listen.

A documentary following Nadia Murad, a Yazidi genocide survivor. It's radically different in subject and form—intimate cinema-verité, not comedy—but fascinated by how women's friendships survive trauma and bear witness to each other's testimony.

But It documents horrific violence. You are watching someone recount atrocity. This is not escapism and it is not meant to feel good to watch.