Girls Town

October Films | Release Date: August 21, 1996

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

64	METASCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

Screen RantAnthony Francis

Lili Taylor's work here is rather brilliant, as she completely inhabits the soul of Patti, a single mother who is close to giving up on any future. It is a striking work in a great example of independent cinema. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

Lili Taylor...gives a superlative, gut-wrenching performance in "Girls Town," a powerfully raw, ultra-realistic drama about a trio of abused teenage girls and their struggle to survive in a rigidly defined, male-dominated society. Read full review

Kevin Thomas

The improvisational method with which this film evolved allows its actors to show us so many sides to their people, so much volatility, that it can take a while for its key figures to involve us. But snare us Taylor, Harris and Grace most surely do. Read full review

Peter Travers

It’s a power house. Read full review

Alison Macor

To paraphrase a passage from one of the character's journals, Girls Town illustrates how these young women express themselves in ways that compensate for the words they do not yet have. Read full review

James Berardinelli

Girls Town does an excellent job of uncovering the angst, pressure, and doubt associated with the late teenage years. Its a refreshing film, not only because it shines the spotlight exclusively on girls (all the male characters are incidental) but because it does so without a whiff of exploitation. Read full review

Jay Carr

Jim McKay's funky, spunky "Girls Town" is a refreshing girls-who-fight-back film that succeeds in being political without ever being didactic. [30 Aug 1996, p.F4]

Richard Roeper

I would like to see another movie in three or four years, about what has happened to these angry, gifted friends. Read full review

Mick LaSalle

This is the movie for anyone who has ever sat around with friends and thought, "Someone should make a movie about this," a film that captures the tenderness and quick humor of hanging out. It's not an easy task. We may find our own friends delightful, but watching other people's friends is a dreary prospect. Read full review

Michael O'Sullivan

Scrupulously unpreachy, it resists all attempts to distill a moral or message, seeking truth in the honesty of its characters and their process of self-discovery. Read full review

Stephen Holden

In celebrating the solidarity of high school girls who refuse to live and die according to the Beverly Hills ideal, the movie raises a hoarse cheer for candor and spunky self-determination. Read full review

Trevor Johnston

A detailed, smartly observed chronicle about growing up, even if the girls' friendship crosses ethnic and class boundaries a little too easily, and the improv framework sometimes makes the plot a bit sticky. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

It’s hard not to like these characters, or to come away without a little more sympathy for the nonlinear ways teenage girls can react to a world that often makes no sense and offers no apologies. Read full review

Chris Kridler

Add McKay's stylish direction (his experience in music videos is evident) and the pounding soundtrack, and you have a movie that young women in particular will really connect with. [20 Sep 1996]

Tim Appelo

Judged scene by scene, Girls Town is often great. Judged as a whole -- it isn't. [06 Sep 1996, p.21]

Staff (Not Credited)

The screen-play was derived from long sessions of improvised acting, and some scenes are more like acting-class workshops than fully developed dramatic episodes. But the material is powerful and most of the performances are excellent. [13 Sep 1996, p.13]

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Not to be confused with the 1959 Mamie Van Doren-Mel Torme exploitation item, this is an uneven first feature (1996) by independent filmmaker Jim McKay about the friendship of three rebellious high school seniors. Read full review

Jackie Potts

Girls Town is a volatile little urban drama spiked with a dose of feminist outrage. [20 Sep 1996, p.6G]

Desson Thomson

The actors tend to think that everything they do in pursuit of character is great, wonderful and worthy of being shown. They're rarely accomplished enough to strut their stuff, nor assured enough to know when to hold back. Read full review

Michael Wilmington

Instead of an escape from Hollywood’s cookie-cutter plots, it’s a retreat back into them, only the sexes have been changed. Read full review