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 "For a long time the film succeeds with its dark, delicate treatment of these characters and its unerring respect for them."
-- Jeffrey M. Anderson, SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER
"A stormy French adolescent drama about friendship, family, and sexual politics."
-- Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, SPIRITUALITY AND HEALTH
"For the most part, director Anne-Sophie Birot's first feature is a sensitive, extraordinarily well-acted drama."
-- Ken Fox, TV GUIDE'S MOVIE GUIDE
 "Yes they can swim, the title is merely Anne-Sophie Birot's off-handed way of saying girls find adolescence difficult to wade through."
-- Ed Gonzalez, SLANT MAGAZINE
"This film seems thirsty for reflection, itself taking on adolescent qualities."
-- Jon Lap, APOLLO GUIDE
"...a well-observed and disturbing little movie"
-- Philip Martin, ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
"Birot is a competent enough filmmaker, but her story has nothing fresh or very exciting about it."
-- David Noh, FILM JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL
"Gives an intriguing twist to the French coming-of-age genre."
-- Ed Scheid, BOXOFFICE MAGAZINE
"The heedless impetuousness of youth is on full, irritating display in [this] meandering and pointless French coming-of-age import from writer-director Anne-Sophie Birot."
-- Brent Simon, ENTERTAINMENT TODAY
"Très bleak, but worth it."
-- E! ONLINE
Click to read the article.
-- REEL.COM
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FRESH 79%
Avg. Rating: 7.1/10 |
"Birot creates a drama with such a well-defined sense of place and age -- as in, 15 years old -- that the torments and angst become almost as operatic to us as they are to her characters."
-- John Anderson, NEWSDAY
"A sensitive and astute first feature by Anne-Sophie Birot."
-- Leslie Camhi, VILLAGE VOICE
"Birot has succeeded in making a movie that has some laughs, low points and high ideals."
-- Jonathan Curiel, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
"I felt sad for Lise not so much because of what happens as because she was captured by this movie when she obviously belongs in something lighter and sunnier, by Rohmer, for example."
-- Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
"Its vision of that awkward age when sex threatens to overwhelm everything else is acute enough to make everyone who has been there squirm with recognition."
-- Stephen Holden, NEW YORK TIMES
"Despite its shortcomings, Girls Can't Swim represents an engaging and intimate first feature by a talented director to watch, and it's a worthy entry in the French coming-of-age genre."
-- Loren King, CHICAGO TRIBUNE
"While not all transitions to adulthood are so fraught, there's much truth and no small amount of poetry in Girls Can't Swim."
-- Leighton Klein, BOSTON GLOBE
"Compelling, beautifully photographed French import."
-- Glenn Lovell, SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
"A coming-of-age movie that Hollywood wouldn't have the guts to make."
-- V.A. Musetto, NEW YORK POST
"What sets Ms. Birot’s film apart from others in the genre is a greater attention to the parents -- and particularly the fateful fathers -- in the emotional evolution of the two bewitched adolescents."
-- Andrew Sarris, NEW YORK OBSERVER
"A sometimes incisive and sensitive portrait that is undercut by its awkward structure and a final veering toward melodrama."
-- Frank Scheck, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
"Evokes the frustration, the awkwardness and the euphoria of growing up, without relying on the usual tropes."
-- Rasmi Simhan, DALLAS MORNING NEWS
"Everything about Girls Can't Swim, even its passages of sensitive observation, feels secondhand, familiar -- and not in a good way."
-- Charles Taylor, SALON.COM
"A typically observant, carefully nuanced and intimate French coming-of-age film that is an encouraging debut feature but has a needlessly downbeat ending that is too heavy for all that has preceded it."
-- Kevin Thomas, LOS ANGELES TIMES
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* Who are the Approved Tomatometer Critics?
* Mouse over a tomato icon for a publication's original rating. Original rating not available for every publication.
* In fairness to critics whose last name begins with a letter at the end of the alphabet, certain pages are sorted in reverse order, z-a.
* Certain "Girls Can't Swim" article data provided by the Movie Review Query Engine.
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mikecandance
| In my bedroom, you'll find: "Plates and cups from midnight snacking, taped episodes of the Golden Girls and a body pillow shaped like a catfish." |
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