Claudia Weill’s 1978 comic tale of a photographer trying to make it in
New York is a gem whose emotional force comes from the female friendships at its heart
Claudia Weill’s insouciant New York
comedy from 1978 is now rereleased: a little indie gem and lo-fi miracle whose emotional force catches you glancingly. Girlfriends now looks like a pop-cultural ancestor to any number of romcoms, as well as to Single White Female, TV’s thirtysomething (in which Melanie Mayron also starred) and Sex and the City, and Emma Seligman’s recent movie Shiva Baby.
Mayron stars as aspiring young photographer Suzie Weinblatt, an unassuming mix of Annie Hall and Alvy
Singer. Suzie has to deal with a restless singleton life after her best friend and roommate Anne (Anita Skinner) moves out to get married to a supercilious guy called Martin (Bob Balaban) that Suzie doesn’t like very much, perhaps for boring her with his slides from the couple’s vacation in Morocco and the ill-fitting top he and Anne bought for her there and embarrassingly made her wear. (“When we go to
Italy we’re going to write down everyone’s size!” he trills.)