Girl (1998)

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

only after having read the book. The other commenter on here stating that these two would never be into each other is just absurd. It doesn't matter what clique you are associated with if two people like each other, and we all know opposites attract. Tara Reid actually is the best part of this film, as oddly as that sounds. If you watch this film you'll appreciate Tara Reid as a real actress, it seems she chooses to not show her skills very often in other films. The book is great, and it is more of a dark book. I think Dominique Swain is just a bit goofier and peppier than the book intends. If you've seen this film and not read the book you should really read it.

I read this book years before they made it a movie. I so loved the book. Years later i was watching TV with my best friend (who also loved the book) and it came on the movie channel. I love this movie. I can understand where a guy might think this a bad movie. But i think you have to be a girl to understand and really appreciate this movie. Give it a chance. Its like a coming of age movie but more. Andrea is this strait a student thats been sheltered and its her senior year and feels like she needs to experience more before going to college. She falls for this beautiful lead singer of a band, the color green. She thinks he will change her life when really in the end she changes his. Its a great movie. I really recommend it to any female, and any guy willing to have an open mind and not be like a total stupid male.

Do yourself a favor and read the book before you try to watch this movie. After watching it I felt like they tried to turn this incredible and moving work of fiction into an episode of My So-Called Life. The book this screenplay is loosely based on is so much more powerful than this bland film version. The main character was heinously miscast, she brings no depth to the role whatsoever. You end up being annoyed by her, instead of identifying with her in any meaningful way. And you never find out enough about the supporting cast to understand what's going on with them. In my opinion the entire point of the novel was completely missed. I was terribly disappointed.

While this is far from brilliant film-making, it's a decent enough coming-of-age film which compares favorably to such entertainments as "Dazed and Confused" and "Heathers". The narration is sufficiently witty to be worth paying attention to, and the characters and situations are all plausible enough, given that we're dealing with fictitious characters and situations! As Andrea Marr, Dominique Swain explores the world of teenage angst brought on by peer pressure, parental anxiety, socio-economic forces, and other equally distressing aspects of life as we think we know it. With its postmodern approach to what it seems to take to feel good about oneself these days, the film should strike a chord with everyone who's ever wondered why ANYONE ever bothers to get out of bed, particularly a high-school senior with no clue who she wants to be when she grows up. What she learns about herself by the end of the film, while hardly profound, is nevertheless a lesson that all too many people fail to comprehend--we all want to feel special and we all want to have fun without having to take responsibility for the consequences of our actions. Sure, it's been filmed a whole lot better a number of times, but it's a cut above "Porky's", "Revenge of the Nerds", and other movies of that ilk! Follow your yellow brick road.