Guy Friends is more a movie about friendship than a rom-com, though that it manages to be a little bit of the latter while mostly being the former is a testament to a delightfully well-written script and a charming cast. The movie, which has shades of the most charismatic 90s rom-coms, but always feels very much like a movie set in the 2020s, doesn’t pontificate, but still manages to be a clear rebuke of toxic masculinity.
In the film, Jamie, the typical “guy’s girl” with a lot of male friends, a great boyfriend she adores, and the typical everything is perfect life ends up finding out that all of her friends are not so secretly into her as soon as she and her boyfriend break up. No, seriously, like as soon as they do. It’s like they’re on a race or something. It might seem absurd, but I once had someone hit on me on the notification of my Facebook status change from In a Relationship to Single.
So basically, what I’m saying is, as a woman, no part of this feels unbelievable. It’s somewhat hilarious to see from the outside and to be able to see the movie treat it as the ridiculous thing it is, but that’s mostly because every woman on Earth has either lived it or knows someone who has.
Despite the movie being called Guy Friends and the setup, however, this is mostly a movie about friendship.
No, it’s mostly a movie about female friendship and how, when your “guy friends” are being ridiculous, it’s always great to rely on your female friends.
Basically, what I’m trying to say is, get yourself some female friends. You might not think you need them, but if this movie proves something is that you really, really do.
Ironically, entertainment has often presented relationships between women as adversarial, and forgotten to give us depictions such as the ones in Guy Friends, that are pure comfort. Sure, sometimes, you can have those guy friends. And, jokes aside, it is unlikely they will all turn out like the ones in this movie. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a level of understanding and comfort to be had from female friendships, and Guy Friends is very good at transmitting just why those relationships are important.
Movies, however, aren’t just about the messages and Guy Friends is more than what we can learn about either sex or about relationships between men and women. Instead, it’s a smart, light-hearted, fun story about moving on and finding yourself outside of your romantic relationships. That’s a pretty good story, any way you want to look at it.
Guy Friends is in theaters in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Phoenix, and Sarasota, and is available to stream in home entertainment.