Film

Working Girl

Name: Working Girl
Genre: Comedy, Romance, Drama
Released: 1988
Cast: Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Alec Baldwin, Joan Cusack

Melanie Griffith's Staten Island secretary borrows her boss's identity, wardrobe, and Rolodex to pitch her own idea back to Wall Street. It's a glossy, big-haired, big-shouldered Cinderella story with real class fury underneath the gloss, and a genuinely great supporting cast making meals of every scene. Funny, romantic, and sharper about ambition than it lets on.

TMDb rating

6.6

If you liked this

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Nine to Five1980

Three secretaries turn the tables on a horrible boss in a comedy that's louder, sillier, and angrier than Working Girl, with Dolly Parton stealing every frame she's in.

But Broader and more farcical — less interested in nuance than in getting even.

The Secret of My Success1987no page yet

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But Thinner and goofier — a fun time capsule rather than a lasting favourite.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

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Same engine — a woman using wit and speed to beat men at their own professional game — nearly fifty years earlier, and arguably funnier.

Rosalind Russell out-talks, out-thinks, and out-hustles every man in the newsroom in a screwball classic that moves faster than anything made since.

But Black-and-white, rapid-fire 1940s dialogue that takes a minute to tune your ear to.

Baby Boom1987

Diane Keaton as a driven executive whose life gets upended, made the same year by some of the same producers, with the same interest in what women sacrifice to climb.

But Softer stakes, and the ending leans more sitcom than satire.

The Devil Wears Prada2006

The modern heir to the genre — an outsider proving herself against a terrifying female boss, with the same question of what ambition costs and who you become chasing it.

But Colder and glossier fashion-world setting if you liked the scrappier Staten Island grit.

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Another glossy late-80s-adjacent fairy tale about someone underestimated who talks, dresses, and bluffs their way into a world that wasn't built for them.

But Trades workplace ambition for straight-up romance — a different itch, if it's the career story you wanted.

Wall Street1987

The same Manhattan money-and-ambition world shot from the shark tank instead of the secretarial pool — Gordon Gekko as the flip side of everything Tess is fighting against.

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Legally Blonde2001

Another underestimated woman using brains nobody credited her with to beat snobs at their own game, with the same sunny confidence that smart and pink aren't mutually exclusive.

But Law school instead of Wall Street, and much lighter on real-world consequence.

Erin Brockovich2000

Julia Roberts as an unqualified woman who out-hustles the professionals doubting her, based on a true story that makes the triumph land even harder.

But Grittier and angrier — this is legal-thriller territory, not romantic comedy.

9to5: The Story of a Movement2020

Working Girl fictionalises a real labour struggle; this shows you the actual women, unions, and grievances behind the fantasy.

A documentary about the real clerical workers' movement that inspired Dolly Parton's song and, indirectly, decades of secretary-fights-back fiction — including the DNA running through Working Girl.

But Talking-heads history rather than drama, slower and more sobering than the movie it's shadowing.

Disclosure1994no page yet

Flips the exact same office-politics-and-power-imbalance premise into thriller territory, asking what happens when charm curdles into threat.

Same corporate-ladder, boss-versus-underling premise curdled into a paranoid erotic thriller, with Demi Moore as the powerful executive turning the tables in a much nastier register.

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