Our Song

The movie's triumph is that we experience the ending, in which the three girls go mostly separate ways, not as a defeat but as a transition still open to possibilities.

This modest film has virtues that come out of nowhere. It takes familiar material and develops it with such tact and skill that we find ourselves moved and sort of amazed at the same time.

So gently told, so deceptively simple a story, that its considerable emotional power sneaks up on you.

It's more a collection of episodes that build to a complex, richly layered picture of these girls' lives. And the more time we spend with them, the more endearing they become.

Has the courage to work without a net, aware that when you're a teenager, your life is not a story so much as a million possible stories.

The movie sticks with you as few do: It's rewardingly authentic and emotionally real.

One of those movies that you continue to pull for even after it becomes clear that it isn't very good.