Curator Watchlist
A glossy, aggressively camp revenge comedy with a strong sense of style and a memorable central performance from Meryl Streep, but the humor is broad, uneven, and often dated in its treatment of women’s bodies and relationships. It’s worth a look if you enjoy late-80s studio satire that swings hard for absurdity… Read more
Where to watch: Buy
Fri · 1h 39m
Director: Susan Seidelman
Starring: Meryl Streep, Roseanne Barr, Ed Begley Jr.
A cunning and resourceful housewife vows revenge on her husband when he begins an affair with a wealthy romance novelist.
Susan Seidelman
Meryl Streep, Roseanne Barr, Ed Begley Jr.
A glossy, aggressively camp revenge comedy with a strong sense of style and a memorable central performance from Meryl Streep, but the humor is broad, uneven, and often dated in its treatment of women’s bodies and relationships. It’s worth a look if you enjoy late-80s studio satire that swings hard for absurdity more than precision.
She-Devil is a weirdly durable artifact: part revenge fantasy, part pastel nightmare, part studio comedy that keeps stumbling into genuine bite. The premise is simple and satisfying, but the movie’s real hook is how hard it commits to its own artificiality, especially in the way it turns wealth, romance, and domestic humiliation into a garish pop-art battlefield.
Meryl Streep is the reason to watch. She plays against type with a precision that makes the movie feel more alive than its script often deserves, and the design around her is so committed to pink excess that the film becomes a kind of visual joke in itself. Roseanne Barr gives the movie its blunt-force energy, though the chemistry is uneven and the satire doesn’t always know whether it wants to mock or endorse its own nastiness.
What lingers is the movie’s odd mix of cruelty and liberation. It’s dated, messy, and sometimes mean in ways that don’t age gracefully, but it also has a proto-First Wives Club sense of women reclaiming power by refusing to center men at all. If you’re in the mood for a campy, low-simmer revenge comedy with a killer costume palette, it has enough personality to justify the detour.
a (4★) · 1491 likes
roseanne: "i have a plan" *cuts to a shot of the twin towers*
👽 Zara 👽 (4★) · 1058 likes
i think this might be one of my favourite meryl streep performances, they told her she couldn't do comedy and she snapped
Andampers (3★) · 904 likes
While I am anti- blaming the other woman for the affair I am very pro- cooking the hamster- mixing up old people's pills- dramatically rolling off pool floaties- First Wives Clubbing Ed Begley Jr
eely (3★) · 706 likes
watching meryl streep roll around on her giant round pink bed in her pink satin pajamas is the antidote for pandemic depression.
Betty (2.5★) · 586 likes
meryl streep dressed head to toe in pink in a pink palace with a pink velour headboard to match her pink bedding, she is the moment
A sharper, more extravagant cousin in the same lane of glossy female rivalry, revenge, and body-image satire.
Shares the pleasure of women turning betrayal into collective power, with a more crowd-pleasing comic rhythm.
Another darkly funny story about ambition, image, and a woman weaponizing charm against a shallow world.
For viewers who like their domestic comedy warped into gleeful, transgressive revenge satire.
A late-80s comedy about female self-invention, class performance, and taking control of the narrative.
A nastier marital breakdown comedy with escalating absurdity and a strong streak of spite.
A broad, high-concept revenge comedy that thrives on greed, humiliation, and comic escalation.
Another Susan Seidelman-era adjacent crowd-pleaser with pop energy, style, and social satire.
If the appeal is fashion, attitude, and female reinvention, this is a natural companion piece.
A classic ensemble of female social warfare, gossip, and status games that still feels pointed.
For viewers who enjoy sharp, character-driven comedy with greed, manipulation, and chaos.
Less caustic, but similarly interested in women pushing back against prescribed roles and expectations.
revenge, female rage, marital betrayal, camp, gender politics, consumer excess, identity reinvention, satire
camp comedy, revenge fantasy, female-led, 1980s, satire, marital infidelity, gender politics, fashion-forward, broad humor, studio comedy