Support the Girls
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: August 24, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
85
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
32
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Original-CinLiam LaceyAug 23, 2018
One of the pleasures of Support the Girls is that it explores the constant fender-benders of sex, race, class, and age without ever coming off as preachy or lecturing. Read full review
100
SlateSam AdamsAug 23, 2018
It’s a movie whose minor characters are cleanly etched without resorting to types, so richly detailed that you can imagine them living full lives off-screen, yet it reminds you that one of the virtues of movies is, or at least can be, their conciseness. Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonAug 23, 2018
The unlikely, bittersweet, bristling comedy Support the Girls is easily one of the best films of the year, and the most sympathetic to women, despite having been made by a man. How can this be? Luckily, Andrew Bujalski’s remarkable movie — with its killer performance by Regina Hall — is not just about women. It’s about men being idiots. And no one is arguing ownership of that narrative. Read full review
91
The PlaylistCharles BarfieldAug 23, 2018
A rare film with a heart of gold and a fresh perspective on the lives of marginalized people, Support the Girls effortlessly but sincerely sways sympathies for the lives of those one would otherwise never consider. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloAug 21, 2018
Set in a tacky Hooters-style sports bar called Double Whammies, Andrew Bujalski’s delightful new comedy, Support The Girls, more than lives up to its winking/earnest double entendre of a title. Read full review
91
The Film StageJohn FinkMar 20, 2018
Bujalski as a filmmaker has created a film as fascinating as anything in his previous output Read full review
91
IndieWireEric KohnMar 16, 2018
Support the Girls is a humble, restrained movie, at times aimless as it moves along, but never devoid of keen observations. Read full review
90
The AtlanticDavid SimsAug 24, 2018
It’s difficult to make a work that confronts, or even acknowledges, the rusting but seemingly immovable structures of institutional sexism. It’s even harder to do that and address how race and class are inextricably bound up in those oppressive systems, and it’s even harder still to accomplish that without delivering a hectoring lecture to the audience. Support the Girls somehow manages to do it all, and in the form of a breezy, heartwarming workplace comedy to boot. Read full review
90
Rolling StoneDavid FearAug 24, 2018
This is an actors’ film, one that proudly wears its women-run-the-world bona fides on its sleeve. They provide the sisterhood and the sense of boiling over. After a full-circle callback to its beginning, Support the Girls ends, pitch-perfectly, with a primal scream therapy session on the top of a strip-mall building, female voices being heard above highway noise. Read full review
90
The New York TimesManohla DargisAug 23, 2018
Mr. Bujalski, who wrote as well as directed, doesn’t lean on shocks and big moments to spark tension or spur the narrative. A fine-grain realist, he creates modest, layered worlds and identifiably true characters, filling them in with details borrowed from life rather than the multiplex. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangAug 23, 2018
At a little over 90 minutes, Support the Girls has the brash trappings, if not the longevity, of a “Cheers”-style sitcom, and its generous humor is always in productive play with a tough, flinty realism. Read full review
90
Village VoiceDanny KingAug 21, 2018
Bujalski frames most of Support the Girls as an almost real-time delineation of chaos, but his storytelling elegance — delicate, nearly invisible foreshadowing; cogent evocations of backstory — adds reflective layers to the surface anarchy. Read full review
90
VarietyAmy NicholsonMar 16, 2018
Hall’s performance — tender, tough, empathetic, controlled — crumples from tears to laughter in a blink. It’s phenomenal. Read full review
88
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenDec 10, 2018
An amusing and heartfelt exercise in boots-on-the-ground feminism, Support the Girls takes place in an unlikely location for such an endeavor. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comAllison ShoemakerAug 24, 2018
In Andrew Bujalski and Regina Hall’s extremely capable hands, empathy becomes as active and compelling as any car chase, sword fight, or knock-down, drag-out fight. A simple thing, yes, but one well worth a valiant battle. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeAmelia NierenbergAug 23, 2018
Herein lies the quiet magic of Support the Girls — the reason to see it, the reason that keeps it coming back from the recesses of a reviewer’s psyche: Lisa is kind. That’s the secret, the reason the film is a little diamond. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshAug 23, 2018
The perfect bait-and-switch of a film. Its light, sweetly frisky exterior and easygoing pace camouflages what a subtle and brilliant piece of bracing social commentary it is; a deft portrait of sisterhood existing under the thumb of capitalistic patriarchy. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineCarson LundAug 20, 2018
The film celebrates the unrecognized willpower and perseverance that undergirds low-wage service work in this country. Read full review
85
Vanity FairK. Austin CollinsSep 10, 2018
Support the Girls is not a comedy merely because it’s funny (which it is), or because its tumultuous rhythm throws these women’s lives out of whack. It’s a comedy because, without laughter, there’d be no getting by. Read full review
83
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeAug 24, 2018
While the movie is simultaneously a day-in-the-life farce, a cri de couer for working-class women and a testament to the strengths (and the limitations) of created families, it is more than anything an opportunity for the great Regina Hall to shine in an all-too-rare leading role. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeJun 30, 2019
Under the party whoops and confetti cannons there’s a deceptively complex and layered portrait of female solidarity in the face of ingrained sexism, racism and general male shittiness. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawJun 29, 2019
Support the Girls is a shrewdly observed, day-in-the-life-style portrait of a woman under pressure. It’s way too early to be thinking about awards season, but Regina Hall could be in line for some silverware. Read full review
80
EmpireBeth WebbJun 24, 2019
A scrappy but soulful delight. Regina Hall brings everything to this nuanced and loving portrait of working women whose stories seldom make their way into the foreground of film. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeMar 29, 2018
An easygoing hangout film that will ring true for anyone who has worked in the service industry, it continues the filmmaker's streak of making movies that have few obvious common denominators besides empathy for types of characters who rarely get it. Read full review
75
ConsequenceDominick Suzanne-MayerAug 26, 2018
Support the Girls is the kind of film that sneaks up on you as it’s going along. Read full review
75
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiAug 23, 2018
Support the Girls is one of the sneakiest bait-and-switches at the movies this year. You come for the cheeky title and stay for the relevant, empathetic story about working-class women. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisAug 23, 2018
This is a clever comedy about working-class women, and a sly, entertaining commentary on the insidious effects of gender inequality. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Johanna SchnellerAug 23, 2018
Bujalski (a member of the indie cabal known as mumblecore) sticks to the truth of Lisa’s life – there’s no air-punching triumph at the end. Nevertheless, she persists, and that feels like victory enough. Read full review
75
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonAug 22, 2018
This is another fine performance from Hall, who's given a good character to play by writer-director Andrew Bujalski. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattAug 22, 2018
To see a black female over 40 holding the center of a story about ordinary, unsung lives makes Support a low-key pleasure; one that transcends its own shaggy narrative. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 22, 2018
If there’s a compelling reason to see the film, it’s Regina Hall. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 13, 2018
The movie feels lived in, greasy and real. [Bujalski] just needed more funny lines and help figuring out the most promising thread among the many he introduces to pursue. Read full review
60
CineVueTom DugginsMay 30, 2019
For all its heart and warmth, the desire to offer as many contrasting viewpoints as possible leads to a sense that the biggest elephant in the room isn’t really being dealt with. Support the Girls, ultimately, is a film about an industry built on sexism, that prefers not to dwell too long on the question of sexism itself. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleDanielle WhiteAug 22, 2018
Maybe it wouldn’t be so confusing if what passed as the film’s “resolution” involved something more than the antics of bratty anarchy. It’s impossible to support the girls on such shaky ground. Read full review
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