User reviews

This movie is one of the best i've seen. Dramatic and heart-breakingly funny. 'Girls Town' is the tale of three teenagers girls from the wrong side of town, there's Nikki, who has the cahnce to attend at Princeton, Patti a single teen mother, Angela who has to deal with an overbearing mother and Emma who has the problem of dealing with over shallow boyfriends. But one day, out of the blue, Nikki doesn't turn up to school, she's killed her self. After the other girls steal her diary they find out that Nikki has been raped, thus the girls set out on a journey of self-discovery to make the men in their lifes that have hurt them, pay big time!.

I feel for all the girls, being a teen my self, it made me think of how life is growing up, especially girls. A master piece of a movie for which Lili Taylor who plays Patti deserved an Oscar. Brilliant!

A character-driven slice-of-urban-life flick which traces the activities of a trio of high school girls in the wake of the suicide of a friend. Not unlike other films which portray urban dwelling, rebellious, socially disenfranchised street kids, "Girl's Town" seems to have no point and no purpose beyond providing a realistic window to an underclass of females. A showcase for good some performances, this film will likely be most appreciated by females and those interested in female issues.

This is one of those movies that I can see over and over again and never get tired of. It's a very realistic depiction of urban life and growing up in the big city. It was shot in my old neighborhood of Astoria, Queens and I was amazed at the accuracy in carrying that "vibe" to the big screen. The story is very moving and believably portrayed with an amazing cast led by Lili Taylor. The soundtrack is also worth picking up and consists of a compilation of some of the greatest female artists in music today (PJ Harvey, Lamb, Queen Latifah, Luscious Jackson).

This is a film that starts out being about one thing and then ignores that and becomes about nothing! Film starts out with a group of high school friends and suddenly one of them commits suicide. After a few weak attempts at trying to figure out why their friend would do such a thing the film goes into another direction of abusive boyfriends and bickering among themselves. These girls have so much attitude that it becomes impossible to feel any sympathy for them. Then at the end of the film they put in some unbelievable plot device to answer the question for the friends suicide. Totally contrived. The only thing worth watching is Lili Taylor as she shows us once again she can play just about any type of character. Here she plays a dumb white girl that grew up in a black neighborhood and inherited all the urban problems. But the script needed a rewrite badly and director Jim McKay and Taylor who help write this film need more of a focus point to the story. This film just stumbles about aimlessly!

I accidentally ran into this movie on the Sundance channel and couldn't stop watching it. Menace and danger plus banality and boredom - high school from top to bottom, and nothing that anyone does or says in this really well-acted film is anything other than exactly what a 17-year-old would do or say. Good moments include the teen mom telling off a guy for dogging her one day and accepting his charm offensive the next; the only visible mom having no ability to say any unangry, unjudgemental thing to her tough, suffering daughter; and the ineffective and heartbreaking confrontation with the guy the three friends think drove their fourth friend to suicide. The girls are p_ssed, resentful, revengeful, smart, excited, violent, and together all in on the right scale - an excellent girls' Dazed and Confused that gets a perfect 10 for realness.

Despite previous reviews, I felt this movie was really well thought out, I saw this movie when it first came out and it definitely reached me. The subject touches but not meant to be a description of urban life at all. If you see the movie, you will understand what the real issue is. I am going to have to disagree with the dude who posted previously, this movie is geared towards anyone who believes in the issues that plague our youth and our young girls of color. It makes you want to break down the ideals that perpetuate class-ism, the gender binary and other issues that separate people. I hope others see it for what it is. Its reflective of the type of role our society and communities play in a developing child's mind. I think it should be shown to a mixed audience of boys and girls so that they can see the perspective of the other sex. I think it speaks a lot about violence in our schools.

i *loved* this movie. it is very realistic and it deals with very realistic issues that are difficult to deal with. what i liked most about it, was that rather than everyone getting shot or something which is typical with "urban" movies, this one even tho times were difficult, the characters still plodded onwards towards school. nice1.

I'm a 62-year-old white male in Northern Michigan, and I liked this film. Rightly or wrongly, I felt that I was getting a good inside look at a culture that I have never brushed shoulders with. Lili Taylor, for a 30-year-old gal from Illinois, seems to have captured the spirit of Patti in a very convincing way, and her body language showed that she really had rapport with her friends. Under ordinary circumstances, I would not choose to watch a film about the subject of school kids in Brooklyn or Hackensack or wherever, but I liked these kids. It's a nice piece for older people to watch, and be entertained by people telling you things you probably didn't know. Rightly or wrongly. I'm not in a position to judge the authenticity of the cultural overview that the film presents. Warning to old fuddie-duddies: The F-word uccurs 31 times in a 51-second scene (Is this a new record?) so don't watch if the grand-kids are around!

Lili Taylor is excellent in this film (as per usual). After watching this film I only wish that we could see more of the other two female actors (Bruklin Harris and Anna Grace) in this film do more work. A dark film that hits home because of the solid in the moment acting. A special film. The film credits these three fine women actors with writing credits a long with the director and Denise Casano. When watching the film you feel as if you are there due to the fine acting and excellent editing. I wish we could see more from the other two actors because they were really good in this film... it seems that this film is a lost gem.

Is this movie on dvd or anything? My wife really loves this movie just can't find it anywhere.

At the center of this largely improvised, sometimes moving, mostly flat cinema verite-style drama about three young women who are dealing with the suicide of one of their friends, there is a mesmerizing performance by 29-year-old Lili Taylor as the Latino, single mother, high school student Patti. I've seen only a few movies with Taylor, "Short Cuts," "Say Anything..." and "Ransom," and in each she was upstaged by actors with more screen time and juicier roles, but I know she's received rave notices for her turns in "Household Saints" and as the "I" in "I Shot Andy Warhol." Here she gives an astonishingly vibrant performance that will have you guessing her age, her ethnicity, and whether or not she's really Lili Taylor. She looks the part with just some rudimentary makeup, yes, and that's nothing to sneeze at, but she also oozes authenticity -- she plays her part better than those other actresses who are just playing themselves.

The rest of the movie has a few moments of truth and also a few choice repeats from High School's Greatest Hits (no small feat either; is the independent market where we must go to find realistic portrayals of public education?), but mostly it features some uninspired improv jobs and a rather sloppy directing job by Jim McKay -- he seems unwilling to exercise any discipline over any of the actors, probably too enamored with the improv style, and as a result the difficulty in framing their more kinetic scenes becomes too much.

Add to this the fact that McKay fails to visibly conclude a story where no real story exists. Malick could end his storyless films properly; Kubrick, too. This is Sundance territory, though, the tightrope upon which films must be made that are daring enough to seem "new," but with enough of a conventional structure to sell tickets. Judging by the rejection of most Sundance releases (with a few notable exceptions) by critics, distributors, and audiences, the festival seems to be hurting itself by playing both sides. So, in a microscopic sense, does "Girls Town."

Overall, I loved it and absolutely think it's worth watching. I wish it was available on DVD. But there were moments that could've been executed better, and I wish there was a little more background on Nikki before she committed suicide - other things she was dealing with, and the assault being the final straw. Her father didn't support her major, but was it deeper than that? Did she have feelings for Emma/was she struggling with her sexuality? I wish we would've known more about Angela as well.

What makes this movie amazing is the simplicity. The realness of the actors (thanks to an amazing sense of improv by the three leads) is what makes this my all-time favorite movie. It is the only film I can watch consecutively and never get tired of it. Jim McKay is an amazing director, as he has come out with some other good films, but, to me, none have topped this one. Lili Taylor is phenomenal as a "street-wise" single mother still in high school. Bruklyn Harris' AngelA! is a character I would personally love to be friends with and Anna Grace's style is perfect for a teenage girl. For anyone who grew up in Queens, Brooklyn, or the Bronx, this movie brings much familiarity. For those who've never been, this film will take you there.

GIRLS TOWN is another gritty and vulgar look at adolescent matters based on society's true and controversial problems, and it does not intend to be humorous. Shot in a documentary style like other recent independent movies, it provides a crude edge to build up its harsh reality, and the acting performances are too real from amateurish. Much is kept simple and basic enough to create a strong view of the world today. Other highly acclaimed docu-dramas like KIDS and ALL OVER ME involve a similar formula, only with different and serious issues facing the Generation X gap. Lili Taylor has the chance to blast into Hollywood stardom before too long, and you can tell by her vivid personality in this one. Before viewing GIRLS TOWN, I had numerous flashbacks of my past experiences prior to and during high school, and the end result is that we're not immune from a troubled, depraved society. Here's one movie that you will never get out of your chair! It's something we all have to regret! Another strong recommendation from yours truly.