Movies You Might Have Missed: David Mirkin’s ‘Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion’

The last few years has seen a renaissance in female-led comedy, ranging from Fleabag, Chewing Gum and Girls on the small screen to Obvious Child, Appropriate Behavior and Frances Ha at the movies. In fact, just last week, stand-up Hannah Gadsby was announced as the joint winner of the top prize at the Edinburgh comedy festival. Until recently, such female voices were seldom heard in comedy – with a few notable exceptions. Which brings us to Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997); a movie that deserves a place in the pantheon of quintessentially Nineties comedies alongside Clueless.

In perhaps the most unlikely film to have been based on a stage play in cinema history, Mira Sorvino and Lisa Kudrow star as the eponymous heroines. Romy and Michele are dim-witted pals in their late 20s who are single, unambitious but happy together in their Los Angeles apartment. A former classmate played by the great Janeane Garofalo informs Romy about the upcoming 10-year high school reunion back in Tucson, Arizona but the friends become concerned that they haven’t achieved anything in the previous decade. Scarred by the bullying they suffered at school, a plan is concocted in which the pair will attend the event in an expensive car and business suits while claiming they made a fortune inventing Post-it notes.

Pitched as a kind of female Dumb and Dumber, the leads in Romy and Michele... took great pleasure in nicknaming each other “Smart” and “Smarter” on set since Kudrow studied Biology at Vassar College and Sorvino received a degree in Asian Studies from Harvard. The latter was in a relationship with Quentin Tarantino at the time resulting in an onscreen nod to Pulp Fiction in the form of a take-out bag from Big Kahuna Burger.

This is a slight and silly movie that is nonetheless utterly charming. The narrative flits between the present day, 1987 flashbacks and fantasy sequences, all held together by the endearing chemistry of the leads. Director David Mirkin, responsible for writing arguably the funniest Simpsons episode of them all (Deep Space Homer) maintains a frenetic pace while Robin Schiff’s screenplay (adapted from her own theatrical work) is positively brimming with gems like, “You look so good with blonde hair and black roots it’s like not even funny.”

One thing that is most certainly funny, however, is Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, essential viewing for anyone who ever felt out of place during their teenage years. In other words, the best of us.