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2. Mean Girls (2004)

Before you had Juno, of course, you had Regina George and Gretchen Wieners, you had the simpleton Karen Smith, and the sweet but corruptible Cady Heron. Before Lindsay Lohan was a train wreck and Amy Poehler was a household name, you had Mean Girls.

Mean Girls is arguably the first female-driven comedy of the new century. What Clueless was as the end of its era, Mean Girls was at its beginning - timeless, classic, masterful. Sure, you had the high school dramas like Bring it On, but it was Mean Girls that really set the bar and the stage for movies from Bridesmaids to Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. And none has been able to quite live up to it.

As discussed, a sure sign of a good female-driven comedy is the zingy one-liners, the outrageous outfits, the catty comments, and the unforgettable moments. “We wear pink on Wednesdays” and “My boobs can tell the weather,” are two that come to mind immediately. There are others, and who can forget, of course, the burn book, which undoubtedly generated many an unfortunate and ill-conceived real life imitation.

But the brilliant core of Mean Girls is something that is arguably lacking in lesser female-driven comedies - the ability to tap in for real into female anxieties of the time and thus connect with the public. The Devil Wears Prada was, after all, about a small world. Juno, to be sure, addressed the important issue of teenage pregnancy but in an unrealistic way. Mean Girls, by contrast, for all its outrageousness, captures arguably well the zeitgeist of high school - the stereotypes, the feeling of being new and the desire to fit in and not be left out.

Never has a high school prom been so memorable. Other female comedies, from the adorable Saved to even Pitch Perfect are without a doubt inspired by and derivative of this brilliant comedy.

1. Heathers (1988)

But the original Mean Girls, and those most deserving of the top spot today, are undoubtedly Heathers. Heathers is, first and foremost, the original Mean Girls. It is arguably also the original Diabolique or Death Becomes Her, and everything in between. Heathers is, to be fair, a hilariously dark, female-driven comedy. What else do you expect from a movie starring Winona Ryder?

Ryder is a popular girl - the Cady of her film - and has the most desirable boyfriend. Remember when Christian Slater was young and hot? Before she realizes it, they have accidentally poisoned the leader of the Mean Girl clique, Heather Chandler. Is her boyfriend doing it on purpose? The other two Heathers - one of them played by the exacting Shannon Doherty - remain as part of the clique. But, they will face Slater's mysteriously evil character and Ryder's increasing ambivalence. Oral sex, gay sex, bulimia, and more “accidental” deaths follow.

And, yet, somehow, the movie remains unforgivingly funny, unforgettably disturbing, and unmistakably influential. It may seem like a copout to place as the top two movies two films that are most obviously a copy of each other. But give credit to Tina Fey for adapting and reinventing the dark Heathers to a lighter-hearted time or humor, and give credit to the people behind Heathers (mostly unknown industry people), for making a movie that capture both that high school acceptance anxiety that can be ominous in female-driven comedies, as well as the pulse of the culture and what makes it tick.

In a way, this brings us full circle to today. From the upcoming The Boss to the summer blockbuster Ghostbuster, these female-driven comedies arguably are at their best when they put their finger on that pulse. Women executives and women leaders, of course, were discussed but tragically under-represented in the 1980s. Today, they are arguably still so, but decidedly less so, and these comedies are reimagining the different ways in which old scenarios can give way to new laughs.

Onward.

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