Girlhood
Release Date: October 29, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
69
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 16 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
New York Daily NewsElizabeth 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
100
PremiereAaron Hillis
Documentarian Liz Garbus masterfully turns her minimalist camera's eye on young girls institutionalized at the Waxter Juvenile Facility near Baltimore. Read full review
80
Village VoiceLaura 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
75
New York PostV.A. Musetto
Gripping and even-handed film. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Detailed, compassionate, humane. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Documentary filmmaker Liz Garbus spent three years shooting two teenagers living in a Maryland juvenile detention center. The completed film is called Girlhood and it feels as much a work in progress as its two troubled subjects do. Read full review
70
Film ThreatMerle Bertrand
By turns chilling, depressing, yet guardedly optimistic documentary. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
A fine example of what a filmmaker can achieve when she takes on a great subject and lets it play out with all the respect and attention it deserves. Read full review
70
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
Garbus knows how to catch people at their most open, as they define their own types and simultaneously transcend them. Read full review
70
The New York TimesStephen Holden
As spare as the juvenile institution in which much of it was filmed. As you watch it, you wish the film would fill in more of each girl's background. Read full review
70
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
Sobering yet faintly optimistic documentary. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
At heart an emotionally rich look at mothers and their daughters. Read full review
63
Baltimore SunMichael 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
60
VarietyJoe Leydon
Grim but engrossing. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterFrank Scheck
An eye-opening sociological examination that is alternately moving and tedious. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesManohla 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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