Girlfriends

Well-done and engrossing drama of a woman (played by Melanie Mayron) who's living with her best friend. Her best friend decides to get married and move out. It devastates Mayron and she goes on a journey of self-discovery...and trying to find a new roommate.

This was a big hit in 1978. It played the art house circuit for quite a while. I saw it when I was 16. Being a guy, I wasn't sure I would like it but I was fascinated. The characters were complex, the story absorbing and showed me what NYC was like (back in 1978). After it died down it disappeared completely. There was a showing on cable back in the early 1980s but that was it. I've asked a few friends who are film fanatics (like me) if they knew about this and none of them had even heard of it! That's too bad. This is a wonderful film for anybody--you don't have to be a woman to understand the loneliness and shock Mayron feels when her best friend leaves. Also it has some casual nudity which was surprising for a PG film. It also has Christopher Guest in an early role (and doing a nude scene--not much is shown).

An excellent film. It is available on DVD. The DVD transfer may look grainy but the film always looked like that, It was VERY low-budget.

Although several reviewers state that that this film is very difficult to find or view, it is included in Turner Classic Movie's extensive library, so it should turn up there from time to time. I highly recommend "tcm on demand" which allows viewers a specific time frame in which to see films, and, thankfully, tcm has expanded these time periods for many, but not all, of the films.

Having personally experienced the New York City singles scene for a very brief period of my life during the 1980's, not a very happy time for me, I admit that I was not inclined to watch this film based on the description alone, but I was pleasantly surprised by the complexity of the characters, their relationships, and the quality of the acting. The only reason why I was drawn to it was to see Eli Wallach in the unexpected portrayal as a rabbi, not knowing that this was not his only appearance in a movie as a rabbi. I have only known him as sleazy, unsavory characters, roles which he mastered beautifully on many occasions. As it turns out, Rabbi Gold does not guide the spiritual fulfillment of the central character, Susan Weinblatt (Melanie Mayron), as much as providing her with a livelihood as a photographer of life events and, eventually, the promise of a risky, romantic relationship, at least for a moment. This is not at all the rabbi that I expected, and I would have liked more Wallach as his role was not very prominent in spite of his high billing.

Both Mayron and Anita Skinner produce fine performances. I couldn't, however, appreciate the male characters, who were very disagreeable to me, perhaps not by accident. Mayron's memorable film debut occurred four years earlier as the young, free-spirited hitch-hiker in "Harry and Tonto", a very different person than Susan Weinblatt, which attests to her excellent acting skills.

i saw this at the theater when it came out, haven't thought about it since and i think very few others have either. it's not even in my 1994 Leonard Maltin guide. but it remained with me regardless, to the point that a chance encounter with the title just now provoked me to come here to say that all these good reviews are well deserved. i'm almost afraid to find and watch it again... no, i'm confident i'll like it just as much, even thirty-five years later. hmm, too bad i have to write ten lines; i thought i had said it all. what to add? that sometimes, as with this review, less is better, and film might be better with less than Woody Allen would have done with more. oh, and that Kubrick called it the best film of 1978.

When Susan's housemate gets married and moves out, Susan (Anita Mayron) realizes she's on her own now. At a party, she meets up with "Eric", played by Christopher Guest, in an early role. She's a photographer, taking bar mitzvah pictures to pay the bills. Bob Balaban is in here also, as the husband of the housemate, Anne ( Anita Skinner) . Pretty slow moving. Was expecting a bit more humor or something to jazz it up, but it DOES have a touch of the 70s hippie flare to it. LOTS of talking. Susan talks about everything before and after she does it. Sort of a month in the life of... story. Comparison of single-life versus married life. Some artsy fartsy art gallery commentary. And I love the NYC street scenes. It's very Woody-Allen-Ish. Directed by Claudia Weill, who directed a whole lot of TV stuff. This one was featured as part of the "Women in Film" week on Turner Classics. Some nudity.

Susan Weinblatt (Melanie Mayron) is a struggling photographer hoping to stop doing weddings and such. She lives with aspiring writer best friend Anne Munroe in New York City. They are moving into a new apartment when Anne tells Susan that she's marrying Martin (Bob Balaban). Susan struggles professionally and personally. She's lonely with less of her best friend. She takes in hitchhiker Ceil and has an aborted fling with Rabbi Gold (Eli Wallach).

It's a New York indie about the single modern girl. It's not a sitcom where the cute blonde just can't find Prince Charming. It's more truthful and yearning than that. Her need to find her place in the modern world is palpable. Mayron has a great sense of a New York girl. The visual work is a bit flat which is excusable for an indie. Eric is a bit of a frustrating nothing. I'd rather have more awkward drama with Rabbi Gold or Ceil. The plot unfolds rather than builds drama.