Girl (1998)

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

I read the book Girl (and loved it) before I saw this movie, so when I rented it I already knew that there would be certain things about it that would bug me. But I don't understand how anyone could like this movie, regardless of how much they disregarded the plot line and everything the book was about.I definitely understand how it would be difficult to turn this book into a movie, as it goes from the beginning of Andreas sophomore year to the end of her senior year, and there really isn't a set plot line. It's simply about her life, and how she grows and changes just as everybody does in the real world.The movie starts out with her in her senior year, and the main character Andrea is really nothing like she is in the book. She's just... annoying.Todd Sparrow seemed kind of old, and I couldn't really find much charm in him. Their relationship with formula and not very interesting.Also, when you see this movie Andrea constantly talks about groupies, and how she never understood them, but then she became one and how great it was. Like, how it was some huge step in her life, becoming the groupie of this guy in some band who wasn't even that interesting.I never thought that being a groupie was some great, liberating thing. I'm not dissing groupies or anything, but the way Andrea goes on about it is a little weird. She just seems kind of slutty and clingy in this movie, and, well, it's a bit difficult to watch.There are many things I could say about this formulated, clichéd, so-so acted and so-bad-its-kind-of-funny movie, but I guess I'll leave it up for the viewer to decide.

When this movie showed in Australia, I automatically fell in love. I loved the fact that the characters weren't over-scripted. made it seem more real. I liked that it seemed so low budget, and mostly I liked how it mirrored real life....well a life i was familiar with. maybe for some people this is a tired old story, girl gets smitten by a guy, yada yada....she has friends that seem to harbor some resentment, that seem to want more and that seem to have an opinion about everything, but thats life. What really tweaked my interest though was the leads seeming awkwardness in her role. it was like she felt like she was pretending to be a 17 year old, awkward in her own skin..... and that felt familiar. I wouldn't recommend this to people who are looking for some amazing scripted masterpiece fresh from Cannes...

I thought Girl was a funny film adaptation of the book. The book, to me, was better because while reading it, I wasn't subjected to the horrible music in the movie. I like the storyline and the concept and the characters, but the songs that were performed in the film are AWFUL, making this a very bad film in general. If you can fast forward thru all the cheesy music, you'll enjoy this film a lot more. I liked the Portland-area setting but the movie was filmed in Los Angeles. I've seen this movie several times at around 4 in the morning on obscure movie channels. Dominique Swain is truly the star of this film and her parents are also incredibly funny. Tara Reid does a good acting job also, but Selma Blair just can't act. Period.

I don't understand why there aren't more movies out there like this. Instead of some out there story that entertains but no one can relate to we have here a film that most people can see themselves in. Everybody was young once, everybody had a crush on someone at sometime. Andrea is spoiled and sheltered yes, but she just wants the same thing we all do. To be noticed, to be understood, to feel great passion and to be moved by something from the inside out. She's the girl in the crowd of many who wants the rock star and guess what? She gets him!!! YAY!!!! I am especially in love with that scene in her bedroom, imagining Todd is there. Just sitting there in that rocking chair watching her with that look. ::sigh:: OK, maybe this is just so thoroughly a chick flick or a young person's movie that it appeals more to certain people than others but I can't say enough good things about it. Everybody loved Dirty Dancing and that was so Hollywood (although my Mom felt like it was very akin to her own youth). This is real, this is our time, our place, in this movie. I especially love Summer Phoenix in this, we need to see more from her.