Very Good Girls (2013)

Simply Perfect

Fresh and Exciting

Excellent but underrated film

Better Late Then Never

Emotionally complex. A great, realistic portrayal of the challenges of a troubled family life and of love and friendship. People make mistakes, and mistakes have to be forgiven, is what this movie seems to say. This movie will have you laughing, crying, suspicious, angry and happy until the very end. It didn't really seem to me that the girls actually made a pact. That would be my main complaint about the plot. They did talk about losing their virginity, but didn't really make any plans. Other than that, a really good movie.

A British film critic always used to say that French cinema effortlessly produce movies examining the mores of middle class family life which can be introspective, insightful and amusing. Everyone else struggles to repeat this.Very Good Girls stars Elizabeth Olsen and Dakota Fanning as two middle class New Yorkers who want to lose their virginity during their last summer before embarking on their college years.Olsen's parents seem to be outgoing and more and they are played by Richard Dreyfuss and Demi Moore. Fanning's parents are a little more reserved but there is also friction as their dad has been caught cheating. Ellen Barkin plays the brittle mum and Clark Gregg takes time out from superhero movies.Both girls fall for an ice cream seller in Brighton Beach and budding artist/photographer played by Boyd Holbrook. Fanning makes out with him but later cools off and pushes him towards Olsen when Olsen faces a sudden family crisis. Fanning then has an older, predatory love interest.The film has a female writer and director but you would not actually think that if you see the film. There is nothing interesting about these two teenage girls, I did not like them or cared much about them. The two set of parents were more interesting but they were broadly drawn and wasted with what amounted as cameos.The story is not strong, interesting, edgy or even focused. It wants to be a continental European coming of age drama and fails.

Review: I wasn't that impressed with this dull chick flick about 2 friends who fancy the same man. The two teenagers are desperate to lose there virginity and whilst walking on the beach, they bump into the ice cream boy who they both find quite attractive. One of the girls tries her utmost to get the boys attention while the other girl uses the shy approach. I found the movie quite slow and boring in parts. The acting wasn't that great but I liked the chemistry between the two girls. The director tried to add family elements to try and make it more interesting but I struggled to stay awake. The boy, played by Boyd Holbrook, seemed a bit useless and he kept on popping into to scenes, out of the blue. You also didn't know anything about the boys history so he seemed like a bit of a shady character. Anyway, I didn't really enjoy this film that much but I'm sure that there are many ladies that will get emotional whilst watching it. Unimpressed! Round-Up: Dakota Fanning really had a promising start to her career with movies like Man On Fire, War Of The World's and I Am Sam, but her choice of projects has been her downfall. Movies like Effie Gray, Night Moves and The Motel Life, haven't been that great and it doesn't look like she has anything interesting in the pipeline. Maybe she peaked to early! Her best friend, played by Elizabeth Olsen, is in the new Avengers movie and she also starred in Captain America, Oldboy and Godzilla so she can't complain about her career so far. The problem is that I can't remember seeing her face in any of those movies so she couldn't have made a big impact. Personally I think that she is the best thing in this movie, even though Demi Moore, Richard Dreyfuss, Ellen Barkin and Clark Gregg have cameo roles but they weren't in the movie that much.I recommend this movie to people who are into their emotional dramas about 2 best friends who fancy the same boy. 3/10

Very Good Girls has somehow managed to get a truly noteworthy and remarkable cast in spite of being a most mediocre, humdrum and unremarkable film itself.The movie is about two best girl friends during their last summer together in New York before they go off to two different colleges in the fall. As the title implies, they've been "Very Good Girls" in high school and are not overly experienced in some aspects of life making them conclude that they should lose their virginity before heading off to school. Their friendship is tested over the summer by various things -- work, family, uncertainty, tragedy -- but most of all by their mutual attraction to a handsome street artist they meet and befriend.Dakota Fanning (I Am Sam) and Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene) play besties Lily and Gerry with Boyd Holbrook (Milk) playing their object of affection who ends up favoring one of the girls to the other. Fanning and Olsen are two of the best young working actresses in Hollywood today and I do not question their talent at all; but Olsen's five year age differential is highly apparent here making the casting in this film ever-so-slightly distracting. Richard Dreyfus (Jaws), Ellen Barkin (Sea of Love), Clark Gregg (The Avengers) and Demi Moore (Ghost) play parents of the two girls while Peter Sarsgaard (An Education) co-stars as Lily's boss and Kiernan Shipka (Sally in 'Mad Men') as her younger sister.The first-time director, Naomi Foner, just happens to be the mother of the Gyllenhaal siblings (Jake and Maggie) which most likely helps explain why this talented cast (Sarsgaard is Foner's son-in-law) signed onto such a pedestrian, over-done script. The story is nothing special -- and has been told many times -- but the acting in Very Good Girls is "Very Good" and solid. Everyone involved here is singularly better than the film as a whole.