Well, at least they didn't pretend it was a comedy.
As much as I like Sundance movies, they do fall into a lot of the same habits. There are a lot of contemporary movies about a person, normally a young person, at a crossroads in life. They are dour and have small but varied casts, often filled with actors trying to get cast against type or with meatier roles than they'd normally get. A lot of the time, I refer to the movies as feeling more like short stories than novels: the filmmaker has an idea they want to explore but not really enough for a whole movie. That just about covers Very Good Girls. The only difference that I can find is that a lot of these Sundance movies get called comedies (or dramedies) because they cast funny actors even though the actors aren't being funny in the movie. This film at least commits to being a drama.
I like Elizabeth Olsen (my favorite Olsen) and Dakota Fanning (my second favorite Fanning), and they are why I was curious about the movie. I appreciate any time I can see a female perspective in a movie, so that was nice...I'm struggling to find much positive about the movie though. It was pretty dull and familiar. It's dated in a way that I'd expect from a first time director in her 60s. Granted, that director won a screenplay Oscar in the 80s and gave birth to Maggie and Jake Gyllenhaal. I'm going to cut her some slack.
Verdict (?): Strongly Don't Recommend
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