Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997)

The other night/morning I had an overwhelming desire to watch this movie, and thank goodness it's on netflix instant! Everything was suddenly ok, even if only for 92 minutes. With characters drawn from her stage play, Robin Schiff focuses on best friends Romy (Mira Sorvino) and Michele (Lisa Kudrow), two lovable but ditzy blondes who've been inseparable for over a decade. They live self-glamorizing lives in LA as roommates, and see their upcoming high school reunion as a way to prove themselves to the popular students who terrorized them as teens living in Tuscon.

Soon after filling out the pre-reunion questionnaire, they realize their lives aren't as great as they'd imagined (Romy works at a parking garage, Michele is unemployed, and both are single: truly the measures of failure). They decide to pretend that they're powerful businesswomen to impress their former classmates, but find that calling up old high school wounds also forces them to re-evaluate their own friendship.

This movie seems to get better every time I watch it, and really just hit the spot the other night so much that I think I enjoyed it more than ever. The script is just so funny- at times quite silly and at others rather clever- and the conversations are conducted in a vaguely self-aware manner. Sorvino and Kudrow completely embody these adorable characters, making us believe so strongly in their relationship that what could have come off as too one-dimensional is actually a very real, and at times very touching, friendship. The sheer joy these women get out of each other's company is palpable, and it really makes the movie so enjoyable to watch. The next day I immediately told my best lady friend how glad I was that we were friends.

Besides the effervescent leads, the splendid cast includes Alan Cumming as a nerd with a crush on Michele, Justin Theroux as an asshole cowboy wannabe, and Janeane Garofalo as a sarcastic chain-smoker. Obviously she's one of the best parts of the film, cracking wise every chance she gets and being laughably unpleasant to everyone around her. Along with the awesomely outrageous fashions displayed by Romy and Michele, Garofalo injects the film with a decidedly 90's vibe, and the film itself is a bit of a testament to how great that decade can be.

With its airhead characters and lightweight storyline, Romy and Michele's High School Reunion can come across as just silly fluff, but it's actually a rather smart and truly funny comedy that's well-suited to multiple viewings. It's got an elaborate dream sequence, a major dance number, and a very endearing friendship at its center. It's a female-dominated comedy that doesn't focus on romance, which is always nice. And Romy's stacked-high hairstyle never ceases to amuse and confuse me.

4.5/5