Girlhood

Name: Girlhood
Genre: Crime, Documentary
Released: October 29, 2003
Duration: 82 min
Rating: 69

2003

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 12 Ratings

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7.2	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 12 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Release Date: October 29, 2003

Summary: A story of mothers and daughters, crime and its consequences, and ceaseless striving in the face of inconceivable adversity, girlhood is a testament to the faith and struggles of two young girls just trying to grow up. (Moxie Firecracker Films)

Director: Liz Garbus

Genre(s): Crime, Documentary

Runtime: 82 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

Elizabeth Weitzman

Garbus spent three years patiently mining for beauty in the ugliest of environments. The remarkable result stands as a challenge to anyone who would have seen only the worst and walked right by. Read full review

Laura Sinagra

Despite similar excess, Garbus's follow-up to 2002's "The Execution of Wanda Jean" provides another powerful glimpse inside the American justice system. Read full review

David Sterritt

Detailed, compassionate, humane. Read full review

Michael O'Sullivan

Sobering yet faintly optimistic documentary. Read full review

Noel Murray

Garbus knows how to catch people at their most open, as they define their own types and simultaneously transcend them. Read full review

Michael Sragow

In an era of exploding documentary innovation, Girlhood simply follows unfamiliar characters down familiar paths. It's not a negligible experience, but it's not an eye-opener, either. Read full review

Manohla Dargis

The impulse to end on an "up" note, to turn complex and contradictory lives into palatable narratives, is one of the least-examined pitfalls in nonfiction filmmaking. But in her attempt to give their lives a shape that the girls themselves seem to resist, this talented filmmaker has done both herself and them a disservice. Read full review

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User Reviews

CrystalY.

Nov 22, 2005

This movie was so touching and made you appreciate your mother and your own life.

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Ericka

Dec 3, 2005

Excellent visioning of the life of girls in the prison system. Honest look into the roadblocks that they face while in lock up and after being released. A truly touching and inviting story.

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Apr 27, 2007

Perhaps if the girls were caucasian, this documentary would have gotten better reviews. I like how straightforward it is. It just tells the girls' story. There is no upside to the endings. One girl's mom died and the other's walked away to get another fix. The girl who Perhaps if the girls were caucasian, this documentary would have gotten better reviews. I like how straightforward it is. It just tells the girls' story. There is no upside to the endings. One girl's mom died and the other's walked away to get another fix. The girl who murdered someone was gang raped at 11 and is cut off emotionally from her pain. The other girl feels her pain from neglect and acts it out. Foster care and 8 homes in 8 months isn't necessarily an "up" ending. Their futur's are as much a mystery to us as it is to them. The LA Times review is wacked.… Expand

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