Letterboxd

Girls Like Girls feels less like a finished feature film and more like a first draft that somehow made it to release. For a first-time director, there is often an expectation that technical imperfections will be balanced by passion, vision, or a unique perspective. Unfortunately, this film struggles to deliver any of those qualities **** most glaring issue is the lack of directorial control. Scenes frequently feel unfocused, with performances varying wildly in tone and intensity from one moment to the next. Strong direction should guide actors toward believable, emotionally grounded performances. Here, many conversations feel stiff, awkward, and disconnected, as if the cast was never given a clear understanding of the emotional stakes.Pacing is another major problem. The film repeatedly lingers on moments that add little to the story while rushing through key emotional developments that should have formed the foundation of the narrative. As a result, relationships never feel fully earned, conflicts lack impact, and climactic moments arrive without the emotional weight the film clearly intends them to **** screenplay certainly deserves criticism, but a director’s job is to recognize weaknesses in the material and elevate it through performance, visual storytelling, and pacing. Instead, the direction often amplifies the script’s shortcomings. Scenes that should feel intimate become melodramatic. Moments that should feel dramatic become unintentionally flat. The film rarely trusts its audience to interpret emotions naturally and instead relies on obvious cues and repetitive storytelling beats.Visually, there are occasional flashes of competence, but attractive framing alone is not enough to sustain a feature. Many shots feel designed for promotional clips rather than storytelling. The result is a film that often looks polished on the surface while lacking the substance and narrative discipline required to make those images meaningful.Perhaps the harshest criticism is that the film never demonstrates a strong directorial voice. Great debut films often reveal a filmmaker’s unique perspective, even when they are rough around the edges. Girls Like Girls instead feels derivative, chasing familiar coming-of-age tropes without bringing anything fresh or insightful to the genre. The emotional arcs are predictable, the dramatic turns are telegraphed well in advance, and the overall experience becomes increasingly difficult to invest in.A first feature does not need to be perfect. Many great directors began with flawed debuts. The problem here is that the film rarely shows the underlying strengths that suggest greater potential. Rather than feeling like the work of a promising filmmaker finding their footing, it feels like a project that was released before the fundamentals of directing—performance management, pacing, narrative cohesion, and emotional storytelling—had been fully mastered. Final Rating: 0.0/10 Not because the film fails in one area, but because it consistently falls short across writing, directing, pacing, characterization, and emotional execution, resulting in a feature that never justifies the time invested in watching it.