21 Perfect Galentine’s Day Movies

Screengrab via New Line Cinema.

Now and Then

This movie is somehow like stepping into a time machine but also into an era you never got to live in but also into a daydream but also into your actual childhood??? Packed with nostalgia and filled to the brim with girlhood summer magic, Now and Then is a movie that explores, with both levity and intense resonance, what it means to grow up, what it means to be a grownup, and the blurred line between the two.

We follow four female best friends, each uniquely lovable, as they navigate a teenaged summer during which their bodies, their emotions, their families, their relationships, and, ultimately, their lives change drastically. As they try to pass the time, the girls get caught up in what seems to be a supernatural mystery sparked by a nighttime cemetery visit gone awry mixed with local town lore. As they investigate, they discover secrets about their town’s past, as well as some secrets about their own. And the best part? We get to experience these little ladies in all their grownup glory, too. With a dual narrative that highlights their girlhood turned womanhood, a cast of incredible actresses in both the Now and the Then, and a simultaneously heartbreaking and feel-good story about love, loss, and ladies, this movie is perfect for all sleepovers and post-brunch pj parties alike.

Best lady moment: Really, whenever the girls discuss their bodies, or the bodies of their rival foil boy-gang, The Wormers, it fills me with such natural recognition for the conversations of girlhood, and such mature delight that I no longer feel the need to have them in that way.