girls like girls
Directed by Hayley Kiyoko
Written by Hayley Kiyoko, Stephanie Scott, Chloe Okuno
Starring Maya da Costa, Myra Molloy, Zach Braff
Classification 14A; 95 minutes
Released in select theaters from June 19th
Singer-songwriter and actor Hayley Kiyoko brings a new chapter to the decade-long Girls Like Girls saga in her first feature film.
For the uninitiated (or anyone under 40), in 2015 the music video for Kiyoko’s song “Girls Like Girls” hit Tumblr like an atomic bomb. Co-directed by the artist, the film turned a sun-drenched, restless teenage suburb into a touchstone of young queer awakening, calling out the quiet parts of a generation of women and girls who grew up with the subtext of compulsory heterosexuality.
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In the video, Corey, a quiet outsider, watches Sonya, the girlfriend of an unimpressive and controlling man. What begins with prolonged eye contact develops into something undeniable, ultimately forcing a nasty confrontation between the three teenagers over what has been building up between the girls. It’s messy, a little triumphant, and is the norm for young lesbians and suffixes.
Kiyoko later turned this idea into a best-selling novel of the same name in 2023.
Needless to say, this feature of Girls Like Girls arrives like an offering to the die-hards, a rabid online demographic that has treated Kiyoko less like a pop star and more like a patron saint of young lesbian aspiration. For this audience, the film is less an adaptation than an expanded version of a sacred text.
Directed by Hayley Kiyoko, Girls like Girls stars Myra Molloy as Sonya and Maya da Costa as Corey, and depicts the turmoil of queer adolescence.Providing/Providing Focus
Kiyoko and the writing team begin by detailing Corey’s (Maya da Costa) backstory. A year after her mother’s death, a high school student moves to a new town to live with her estranged father. There she meets the cheerful and charming Sonya (Myra Molloy). Her curiosity and apparent romantic interest in Cory live alongside her own self-doubt and self-consciousness.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Girls Like Girls is that the world of the story is moved to the late 2000s. The characters are irrevocably shaped by being the first generation to have intimate relationships mediated and encoded through the internet.
The film exchanges specific kinds of memories: a sunny summer afternoon in the suburbs, the core of isolation in the digital age, and the quiet suffocation of youth trapped in an environment without words or space. Here, in a time before mainstream acceptance, small-town queer desire feels more dangerous and confusing.
An unsettling, heart-pounding chat about Canadian pop group AOL’s Tegan and Sarah’s 2004 album “So Jealous” plays on Corey’s iPod Nano, and Sonya leaves a read-read straight-up message on her Nokia Sidekick. It’s a somewhat effective, nostalgic nod to a cultural moment that was incredibly formative for those of us whose gay teenage awakenings were formed by listening to queer-infused indie pop and the chime of the family computer when a crush logged on to Instant Messenger.
Kiyoko also skillfully depicts the in-between space favored by teens on the brink of both self-discovery and adulthood. Parking lots, corner stores, and deserted railroad tracks are where Cory, Sonya, and their friends navigate intersecting relationships and desires alongside underage drinking and apple bong smoking.
Set in the late 2000s, the characters are irrevocably shaped by being the first generation to have their intimate relationships mediated and encoded through the internet.Providing/Providing Focus
The question for Girls Like Girls is whether it can maintain its existing story over its full-length running time. Unfortunately, the promise of eventually seeing these characters expanded into something bigger often fails, relying too heavily on nostalgia and emotional familiarity rather than developing the necessary narrative depth.
Aesthetically, the film stays true to its music video origins. Soft lighting, lingering close-ups, and a dreamy soft-focus haze occupy nearly every frame. (Think of the sun-kissed cinematography that dominated 2010s youth films.) While this creates a visually consistent atmosphere, it also contributes to a lack of emotional texture, especially in moments when greater tension or contrast is needed.
Similarly, Corey’s journey – her grief, forced migration, and growing attraction to Sonya – unfolds in an overly broad range of emotions. Kiyoko is clearly trying to center interiority over external behavior, but the simplistic narrative leaves the film and its characters feeling under-understood.
There is no doubt that this film will become an instant classic for the young Suffix, but unfortunately it never deepens into something fully realized.Providing/Providing Focus
While the film succeeds in capturing the instability of queer teenage desire with true, split-second precision, there are important aspects that feel underexplored, such as Sonya’s emotional instability. She serves more as a catalyst for Corey’s growth than as a fully realized version of herself.
There’s something admirable about Girls Like Girls and its refusal to clean up the mess of queer adolescence (the film will no doubt become an instant classic for young suffixes), but unfortunately it never deepens into something fully realized. It only shows a feeling or atmosphere of emotional complexity, rather than fully embodying its essence.
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