Watch Very Good Girls For Free

The Worst Film Ever

Really Surprised!

Beautiful, moving film.

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

We watched this at home on DVD from our public library.It isn't a great movie but it has some interesting elements. The ages of the main actors were a bit disconcerting, Fanning was 18, Olsen was 23, and Holbrook was 31 during filming.Dakota Fanning is Lilly, good daughter, eldest of three, preparing to graduate and go off to Yale. Her parents are Psychiatrists, with offices in their home, they seem well-off. Lilly has a job, she is a guide for boat tours of the New York Harbor areas.Her best friend, almost like a sister, is Elizabeth Olsen as Gerri. At some point nearing the end of their senior year they discuss not wanting to graduate and go off to college still as virgins.While at the beach in the summer they encounter Boyd Holbrook as David, an aspiring photographic artist, operating an ice cream stand. The two friends talk to him, everyone goes on their way.As it turns out each girl makes contact again with David, but for most of the movie the other doesn't know about it. Lilly gets very involved, she and David sleep together often. Gerri lies about sleeping with David, it turns out he is faithful to Lilly but her doubts cause her to treat them badly.The summer is ending, David decides to head to Paris to pursue his photography, Lilly and Gerri make up, life goes on. Just a slice of life story, teenage girls trying to figure out adult life and where it may lead them.Not a bad movie but not particularly memorable.

A British film critic always used to say that French cinema effortlessly produce movies examining the mores of middle class family life which can be introspective, insightful and amusing. Everyone else struggles to repeat this.Very Good Girls stars Elizabeth Olsen and Dakota Fanning as two middle class New Yorkers who want to lose their virginity during their last summer before embarking on their college years.Olsen's parents seem to be outgoing and more and they are played by Richard Dreyfuss and Demi Moore. Fanning's parents are a little more reserved but there is also friction as their dad has been caught cheating. Ellen Barkin plays the brittle mum and Clark Gregg takes time out from superhero movies.Both girls fall for an ice cream seller in Brighton Beach and budding artist/photographer played by Boyd Holbrook. Fanning makes out with him but later cools off and pushes him towards Olsen when Olsen faces a sudden family crisis. Fanning then has an older, predatory love interest.The film has a female writer and director but you would not actually think that if you see the film. There is nothing interesting about these two teenage girls, I did not like them or cared much about them. The two set of parents were more interesting but they were broadly drawn and wasted with what amounted as cameos.The story is not strong, interesting, edgy or even focused. It wants to be a continental European coming of age drama and fails.

Yes, I have. We all have.Two regurgitated caricatures of the stereotypical American teenage girl, Lily and Gerry are sooooooo different yet so alike. Both fall in love with the same part shady stalker, part brooding troubled artiste~ who wants to travel the world but his list of places to visit is, like, "Rome... (d-uh)Paris..." Daddy issues are, of course, played up wonderfully, because what is any worthy female teenage protagonist if not the product of her father's neglect? What possibly can one expect when the preppy rich teenage daughter of a straight-laced household made up of detached parents and siblings goes to her dad's office to ask him to get through with this patient already they're getting late for dinn- *gasp* and henceforth a series of incredibly stupid decisions are made by two girls we initially assume to be a lot smarter, wittier, braver and mature than they turn out to be. Every trick in the book for a deep and wholesome young-woman-coming-of-age film is not simply used, but abused in the most blatant schticky manner possible; I promise you, there is more than one cameo made by Sylvia Plath.This film is a true example of lazy filmmaking in an industry where ~gratuitous-yet-modest~ sex scenes and summertime virginity pacts are more important than honest *portrayals* let alone discussions about teenage turmoil and female sexuality. Not even that awkwardly long shot of Dakota Fanning kinda-sorta running-jogging could redeem this movie.Don't watch it. You've already seen it. And you've seen better.

I was expecting much more from this than I got when I finished watching it. Being a long time fan of Dakota Fanning, as I suspect her performances are far above the average from girls her age and especially from her era, I was very excited to see her in a more 'mature' type of movie. Well, I can't really say I was disappointed with the acting from the cast. I guess even that guy who played the street artist was o.k. but I was not satisfied with the development of the film. The movie was slow and then when it was almost finishing they threw it all at once and maybe it was a ~surprising~ ending once I wasn't expecting it but I was not pleased as I thought it rather silly, to be quite honest. They were dealing with an adult theme at first which requires an adult reaction from all of the circumstances dealt in the movie and then at the very ending of it they just decided to wrap it all up with a rather silly reaction from the characters so us 'the public/audience' would be happy and content. Just typically clichè Hollywood ending while I would have preferred a million times a more realistic type of closing I guess. And I just say so because this looks to me as an Indie film in which we generally get a more human response to human emotions played on screen (as well as in foreign films). Of course, I know the old saying 'you can't always get what you want' but I think it's unfair to the public if they promote the movie a certain way and the final result is completely different from that. I mean that even in what concerns the trailer, the poster, every single advertising thing they do. It just has to be fair to their final public otherwise you can't even trust the filmmakers anymore because they are obviously just thinking about an easy way to cash in at your expenses.I can't really give you more details because I'd have to tell you how it ends but watch it if you really feel like, it's NOT a complete waste of time because as I've said the characters are well portrayed by the whole cast and I can positively say now that I'll keep looking for more Dakota Fanning and Liz Olsen works in the future, they are far above the average and always deserving a much larger recognition for their roles in almost everything they do. 6/10