La vida secreta de las chicas

I saw this film at a film festival recently under its other title, "The Secret Life of Girls," and I personally approached the director, Holly Goldberg Sloan, who was in attendance, and I told her: "As a fellow writer/director, I would say that that film is a classic." This film was originally set to be titled "American Pie," but it was changed because that movie came out that was titled that simply because the main character violated an apple pie on-screen. This is a much better film than the naughty, gross-out hit. It is about a 15-year-old named Natalie who suffers from a weird family: A psyched-out mother (played to psychotic perfection by Linda Hamilton) who grooms movie theater carpeting on her driveway, a strange little brother who wears a top hat or any alternative and watches "Family Affair," a burned-out older brother who smokes pot and chucks dirty magazines at Natalie, and a strange father (Eugene Levy in a hilariously perfect role) who believes in free love and bad facial hair styles. Natalie tries to survive this as she grows up in 1970's Oregon. Hilarious frat-house sequence including a not-so-macho seductor. This is beautifully cinematographed, written, and directed. Watch for some psychadelic dutch-angle Steadicam shots. You won't want to miss this one. It's at your local Blockbuster and only there, so GO GET A COPY RIGHT NOW!!!

Sincerely, Mr. Jingles (GreenMile)

In "The Secret Life of Girls", Delfino makes a solid center of gravity as a sober, level headed teen who takes a philosophical approach to the dissolution of her parents marriage while trying to cope with the vicissitudes of teen life. A simple little uninspired comedy which borrows summa-dis and summa-dat from every kookie comedy ever made, "...Girls" is a chick flick with the fingerprints of a female auteur all over it. The flick deserves credit for avoiding the hackneyed issues of teen angst while trying to replace them with a softly feminist attitude. An okay little no brainer for the ladies but not one for the guys. (C)

Good cast -- Linda Hamilton, Eugene Levy, Andy Ducote -- in standard coming-of-age story. Entertaining enough, but strictly by the numbers. Majandra Delfino is the best reason to see this movie -- a strong performance in an otherwise perfectly ordinary movie. Lots of plot contrivances, big set-ups for "clever" lines that get telegraphed hours in advance. The writer apparently thinks putting someone in a weird outfit qualifies them as a genuine eccentric.

I rented this movie 2 days ago from Blockbuster because I really wanted to see a movie Majandra Delfino has done other than her work on the WB's Roswell. This film wasn't the best I've ever seen but it was pretty good. I recommend this movie for any huge Majandra Delfino fans out there like me! Fans will be looking forward for a scene where her and Kay are in the fountain because during that scene they play a song Majandra Delfino sings called "Superstar"!

Another tedious, self-indulgent, moaning "how terrible it was to be a teenager in my family" movie. And as if the exaggerated and overbearing characterisations weren't enough, the saintly and put-upon heroine also gets to hammer home her points in voice-overs. The acting talent (which is considerable) really doesn't stand a chance, given the narrow-mindedness of the script (and the writer directed also - so no added perspective there). I'd strongly advise skipping this one... see "Girl" instead - a far superior film covering very similar ground, but possessed of the kind of breadth of vision and generosity of spirit which Unglued so conspicuously lacks.