User reviews

Just watched it today, and It was a nice film that involved great acting. It could've been a lot better, but I just watched it because of Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen. They are a young and talented. I've seen many films that do the "let's lose our virginity" topic. Those others films were kinda comedic in a way but this one is kind of realistic and you feel as if a person would actually do something for their own benefit. That's the real world, trust is very hard to find and the purpose of this movie is to show young teens that losing your virginity just to get over with it might not turn out the way you want it to. It's better to have patience and wait for the right person instead of grabbing anyone nearby . Clark gregg was in the movie playing a doctor and father of Dakota F. character. She see's something she shouldn't have and she also has a broken relationship with her parents. Overall this movie is good but had potential to be great so give it a go. :)

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.

I was expecting much more from this than I got when I finished watching it.

Being a long time fan of Dakota Fanning, as I suspect her performances are far above the average from girls her age and especially from her era, I was very excited to see her in a more 'mature' type of movie.

Well, I can't really say I was disappointed with the acting from the cast. I guess even that guy who played the street artist was o.k. but I was not satisfied with the development of the film. The movie was slow and then when it was almost finishing they threw it all at once and maybe it was a ~surprising~ ending once I wasn't expecting it but I was not pleased as I thought it rather silly, to be quite honest.

They were dealing with an adult theme at first which requires an adult reaction from all of the circumstances dealt in the movie and then at the very ending of it they just decided to wrap it all up with a rather silly reaction from the characters so us 'the public/audience' would be happy and content. Just typically clichè Hollywood ending while I would have preferred a million times a more realistic type of closing I guess.

And I just say so because this looks to me as an Indie film in which we generally get a more human response to human emotions played on screen (as well as in foreign films).

Of course, I know the old saying 'you can't always get what you want' but I think it's unfair to the public if they promote the movie a certain way and the final result is completely different from that. I mean that even in what concerns the trailer, the poster, every single advertising thing they do. It just has to be fair to their final public otherwise you can't even trust the filmmakers anymore because they are obviously just thinking about an easy way to cash in at your expenses.

I can't really give you more details because I'd have to tell you how it ends but watch it if you really feel like, it's NOT a complete waste of time because as I've said the characters are well portrayed by the whole cast and I can positively say now that I'll keep looking for more Dakota Fanning and Liz Olsen works in the future, they are far above the average and always deserving a much larger recognition for their roles in almost everything they do. 6/10

"I just wanted to make you feel better. You liked him so much." Lilly (Fanning) and Gerri (Olsen) have been best friends for years and have just graduated high school. Both are on their way to college and neither want to go there as virgins. They decide to make a pact with each other that they will both lose it before they leave. Things are going along fine until they meet and start to like the same boy. This is a plot that has been done to death. Usually though the movie is a comedy and this is a drama. The one thing this does have going for it that the others don't is great actors. The acting alone is enough to keep this from becoming too cheesy or cookie-cutter like. The movie is very predictable and again is something you have seen a hundred times but Fanning and Olsen together are a great team. There are moments that make you cry and make you angry but overall this is a movie that will give you a good feeling. Overall a movie that who's plot has been done to death but the acting makes it feel fresh. A very good coming of age movie that teen girls should watch to show what is really important in life. I give this a high B+.

Is it about the good girls? Looks like that way until the summer break before these two friends get going for the freshman year college. So they decide to lose their virginity, but they both fall for a same boy. Their's long standing friendship will be tested, the remaining film tells who lose the bet and how.

Good cast, but the story was from the Lily's perspective that played by Dakota Fanning. The boy and Elizabeth Oslen were kind of in the support roles. A simple love triangle story, but the actings were good. 'Little Birds', 'Ginger & Rosa', 'Violet & Daisy', 'Ghost World', 'Thirteen' name it. This kind of two thick friends theme is quite popular, but mostly average ones like this.

Well, it was not one of those movies of the year that I was expecting, so enjoyed what it provided in a limited scale. A few times I was annoyed too, for the turns in the narration, but the way it ended compromised my overall thought. This is a decent coming-of-age movie, which is not worth to suggest anyone openly, but you can give it a try if you get a shot.

6½/10

Yes, I have. We all have.

Two regurgitated caricatures of the stereotypical American teenage girl, Lily and Gerry are sooooooo different yet so alike. Both fall in love with the same part shady stalker, part brooding troubled artiste~ who wants to travel the world but his list of places to visit is, like, "Rome... (d-uh)Paris..." Daddy issues are, of course, played up wonderfully, because what is any worthy female teenage protagonist if not the product of her father's neglect? What possibly can one expect when the preppy rich teenage daughter of a straight-laced household made up of detached parents and siblings goes to her dad's office to ask him to get through with this patient already they're getting late for dinn- *gasp* and henceforth a series of incredibly stupid decisions are made by two girls we initially assume to be a lot smarter, wittier, braver and mature than they turn out to be. Every trick in the book for a deep and wholesome young-woman-coming-of-age film is not simply used, but abused in the most blatant schticky manner possible; I promise you, there is more than one cameo made by Sylvia Plath.

This film is a true example of lazy filmmaking in an industry where ~gratuitous-yet-modest~ sex scenes and summertime virginity pacts are more important than honest *portrayals* let alone discussions about teenage turmoil and female sexuality. Not even that awkwardly long shot of Dakota Fanning kinda-sorta running-jogging could redeem this movie.

Don't watch it. You've already seen it. And you've seen better.

Alright that might be exaggerating it a little (or a lot), but Dakota and Elisabeth have a very nice chemistry going on. Their problems and issues seem real (even though it's more or less one major issue and the plot does not seem to move along fluently at times), but we do get the usual clichés thrown in for good measure.

Again the cast kind of saves the day, because they give it all and make this feel like something that happened (it's not too far stretched and takes notes from recent YA novels and movies, without all the action of course). Drama can be tough and this is no different. Your liking of the main characters and their sometimes foul play or rather rash and stupid decisions will determine whether you enjoy this or not

"We got to get over this hump."

Very Good Girls was on my radar ever since I heard it was debuting in last year's Sundance Film Festival. The reason I was attracted towards this despite not knowing anything about the plot was the cast. It starred Elizabeth Olsen who I've been a fan of ever since Martha Marcy May Marlene and Dakota Fanning who I think hasn't matched that same potential she had as a child actress. The supporting cast included Demi Moore, Peter Sarsgaard, Clark Gregg, and Richard Dreyfuss so I was really looking forward to what they could do. This was also the feature film debut from director Naomi Foner who had written a couple of screenplays in the past, but is best known for being the mother of the talented actors, Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal.

You would never guess this screenplay was written by a woman considering these young teenage girls have no personality and their entire lives seem to revolve around this guy they met at a beach. He is the only thing they talk about and both girls end up falling for him, which is pretty much the basic theme of this film as their friendship is tested by their personal feelings towards him. Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen play these young girls who want to lose their virginity before going to college. The guy they both fall for is played by Boyd Holbrook and I really wasn't a huge fan of his performance. I couldn't see why these girls would fall for him as he lacked personality and wasn't really charming either. Both Fanning and Olsen come from very different families. Olsen's parents are played by Richard Dreyfuss and Demi Moore who are very talkative and liberal, while Fanning's parents are played by Clark Gregg and Ellen Barkin and they are much more reserved. The parents don't get much screen time so they weren't really developed very well and all the information we gather from them is through the conversations the two girls have about how they view them (which is almost entirely negative). So that was a big let down for me because I was interested in what these actors could bring to the drama. There is nothing really that engages the audience since none of the characters have any personality whatsoever and not even the love triangle seems too appealing due to the lack of romantic chemistry. The film is only 90 minutes long but it seemed to drag forever and the score didn't help out either. I was hugely disappointed by Very Good Girls and I understand now why it took so long to reach a wider audience after the Festival.

Unfortunately the talented cast is wasted in this film and not even my appreciation for Elizabeth Olsen engaged me. I didn't even like her character very much here and much less the rest of the cast. Olsen has to find better roles because her latest films haven't exploded her potential very well. I was amazed to see how little Demi Moore and Richard Dreyfuss were used in this film; there could have been a better movie somewhere if they were given more importance. The lack of personality from any character just makes this film even more boring and tedious. There have been so many good coming of age films over the past year that this film simply fails to reach the bar that was set so high by Kings of Summer, The Way Way Back, and The Spectacular Now. This could have been an opportunity for two strong female leads but they simply didn't have much to work with.

In one word: pretentious!

I don't know why every screen writer thinks that only screwed up people deserve to be the focus of a story or that they are the only ones troubled by the challenges and hardships of life; it's banal, predictable and trite.

I also do not understand why depth of character in movies is inextricably linked to quiet, antisocial, weird or quirky characters that exist in the outskirts of society, preferably with an artistic streak.

There was a lot of still frame so that the focus was on the characters and a discrete music carpet which I'm guessing was to convey the characters' emotional turmoil or something...but the thing is that the characters' weren't strong enough for all this.

Fanning's character was very unlikable. Her relationship with David wasn't very convincing, nor was her friendship with Olsen's character.

No matter how good Fanning is she can't carry an entire movie by herself (and she wasn't very good in this one) and while Elizabeth Olsen's acting was amazing she wasn't given enough screen time.

Fanning's portrayal of Lilly was so stiff. She was like an emotionless doll for the most time, and when she reacted I couldn't understand or relate. Why was Lilly so angry and distant with her mother? I didn't see her do anything wrong. Why didn't she even try to support or understand her? Why was Lilly so close with her father? How come she forgave him his transgression just like that? It felt like Lilly had lost her grip with reality, especially when she was mad because her father was trying to resolve his marital problems with his wife instead of doing as his daughter asked.

She was lying and misleading her best friend and she was petty and vengeful with David. There is nothing great about this character and Fanning's portrayal of her was like she was dead inside. Seriously, it was scary.

Olsen was amazing though!! She did an ingratiate job with Gerri!! Loved her to bits and I hope she was more in the movie. Olsen is scary good with character driven parts.

Another problem with this movie was the dialog. It was scarce and weak. In a movie where there is no action, no complicated plot or twists but it's all about a person's journey it feels like there should have been stronger dialog.

The summer before college for two close friends provokes some pretty predictable life lessons in "Very Good Girls," a romantic drama that features likeable performances from Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen but can't overcome the story's lack of emotion. In her directorial debut, Oscar-nominated screenwriter Naomi Foner (Running on Empty) shows a true understanding of the complexity of female friendships, but we wish there was a little more liveliness to the proceedings.

Lilly (Dakota Fanning) and Gerri (Elizabeth Olsen) are longtime friends who are spending their last summer together before heading off to college. Lilly's world is turned upside down when she catches her father (Clark Gregg) cheating on her mother (Ellen Barkin). A few days later, she ends up being pursued (but in a romantic way!) by David (Boyd Holbrook), an ice cream seller she met on the street with Gerri. Both girls are determined to lose their virginity by the end of the summer, and while Gerri is busy trying to win over David, the guy is busy winning over Lilly. Lilly feels the need to hide her relationship with David from Gerri, but more anguish sets in, and Lilly continues to act clumsy.

The two girls' families couldn't be more different. Norma (Ellen Barkin), Lilly's mother, is a stern psychotherapist, and her father Edward (Clark Gregg) is a doctor, both practicing in their beautiful home. That is until Edward is caught flirting with a patient. Gerri's parents are the "granola" type; his father Danny (Richard Dreyfuss) is a jolly old leftist, and his wife Kate (Demi Moore) is a free-souled mother. None of these four have much to develop as characters, and Moore, in particular, is barely present. But they mainly serve to reflect aspects of the protagonists or provide elements for them to rebel against.

Lilly, reserved and introspective, is on her way to Yale University and has a summer job as a river cruise guide, with a boss (Peter Sarsgaard, Foner's son-in-law) who makes unsubtle advances. Gerri is livelier and fun, dressing like a Halloween hippie and singing folk songs. Her songs and others used in the film are by Jenny Lewis, who is also represented by a poster of her old band, Rilo Kiley, on Lilly's bedroom wall. But this attempt to add a veneer of how cool it is to be a hipster is unconvincing in a film that feels frozen in time.

Their biggest problem is that when conflict arises-David only has eyes for Lilly, while Gerri thinks she will be his chosen one-neither girl behaves in a manner believable to 21st-century New Yorkers. Lilly offers her virginity to him on the garage floor, but keeps this news from Gerri. Out of guilt, she limits her dates after discovering that Gerri's family has suffered a tragedy, sending David to comfort her. The predictable pattern of friendships being broken by lies and withheld secrets, only to be repaired in the end, plays out with a numbing lack of urgency. Only one scene in which Lilly confesses the reasons for her break with Gerri to her father evokes anything approaching moving. Fanning, as always, suggests an inner life beneath her luminous delicacy. But none of the performances are memorable, including Olsen's.

There are undoubtedly interesting ideas at the heart of "Very Good Girls." Foner's script doesn't overplay the friends' personality differences, though it's clear that Lilly has always felt slightly inferior to Gerri when it comes to attractiveness. The filmmaker also spends some time examining how Lilly begins to subtly reject her nice-girl persona, in part as an angry response to her father's (Clark Gregg) adultery with her mother. The film's main flaw, however, is that while David is meant to be an inscrutable, sensitive heartthrob who Lilly can't fully understand, as portrayed by Holbrook, he's mostly a good enigma whose interest in Lilly is never completely understandable. In most films, David would pursue the confident and vivacious Gerri, but the production plays with the cliché without really justifying it.

Although the chemistry between Fanning and Holbrook isn't that strong, she and her female co-star skillfully portray teenage friends who know every aspect of each other's lives, which makes Lilly's decision to hide their relationship all the more potentially damaging. As Lilly's relationship becomes more serious and a tragic event occurs in the girls' lives, "Very Good Girls" heads toward the inevitable moment when the truth finally comes out. However, the suspense is dulled by the fact that we never really see the urgency of her bond with David, nor do we realize the depth of pain that the betrayal will bring to Gerri. Despite its delicate observations about young friendships and the looming uncertainty of leaving home, "Very Good Girls" ends up feeling very enjoyable but not very engaging.

Perhaps more disappointing about the film than its usual visual style is that the female leads aren't given ample room to develop as dynamic characters beyond the more urgent confines of the script's settings. At the beginning of the film, Lilly finds her father (Clark Gregg) with another woman. Instead of locating Lilly's response through more indirect and contemplative means, she is swept to the periphery until much later, when she tells her, regarding her parents' separation, "You could just die and none of it would matter.". Such an obvious attempt to explain Lilly's penchant for hyperbole would be less awkward if Foner weren't so gratuitously dark about it, as Lilly stares at the floor as her father walks away, accompanied by the soundtrack's mournful piano (literally, given the next scene).

Some brief moments suggest deeper levels of self-discovery; When Lilly sits on her bed, feeling her breasts as if trying to achieve greater familiarity with her own body, this is drawn from the largely histrionic mode that informs most of the other scenes. Likewise, the opening scene of Lilly twirling and dancing, separate from the film's immediate narrative events, offers unbalanced emotions in exposition. However, Foner often insists on convoluted subplots, notably one involving Joe (Peter Sarsgaard), a co-worker interested in Lilly, whose presence only provides a third-act excuse for the two girls to suspect each other's intentions. Furthermore, his perverted advances are overlooked but then averted by Foner's disingenuous examination of the less than decent motivations that drive Lilly's sexual awakening and, in turn, the male gaze she seeks to exploit her vulnerability.

Overall, "Very Good Girls" is a pretty poor excuse to subject those of us who have enjoyed Fanning since 2001's "A Lesson in Love" to watching her flash her privates, fondle herself provocatively, and have fun in lingerie without no dramatic purpose. Yes, she should be allowed to grow on screen. But without a backstory to justify it, it just seems sad and desperate. Foner portrays how women should relate to each other in these circumstances. Lilly and Gerri don't have to be sympathetic characters, but they should be believable characters whose lives and actions are not completely dependent on the men in their lives (men who deliver lessons that are cloying, like "Sometimes it's easier for others to forgive us than to ourselves"). The production wants to highlight female friendship, but Foner's clumsy and forced approach seems to have more affection for a fake love story. The empty and clichéd script, together with the criticism of the casting choice, highlights the lack of depth and originality in the film. It seems that the experience of watching the film may lead viewers to become distracted by thoughts such as Fanning's paleness or inappropriate costume choices. The supposedly moving tone of the ending, which simply offers the characters another opportunity to undress, seems to be yet another criticism of questionable artistic decisions.

"Very Good Girls" is a dull drama that finally intensifies into some angry moments, but it's still not enjoyable. The film had a very dull look; even on sunny days it looked dull and gray. Reflecting the girls themselves, but this does not make the experience pleasant to watch due to the lack of gravity, urgency and cause-effect of its events. But then again, they are not good girls. Maybe teenagers who are going through the same emotions as our young heroines and who are looking for something more serious than their usual options might enjoy this, but that's a pretty limited audience.

This is my very first Dakota Fanning film. I knew Kota since 2015 but didn't watch any of her movies before this. The actings of Kota and Lizzie were good. I love the end of the story which made the story remarkable. It's fun. The story is good. Loved background score and the two songs. After all it is good movie.

"Very Good Girls" is a charming, honest, but woefully misunderstood film that tells the story of Dakota Fanning's Lilly and Elizabeth Olsen's Gerry as a pair of best friends in New York City who initially agonize over the fact that neither of them has lost their virginity. But when they both eventually fall in love with David Avery (Boyd Holbrook), their longtime friendship gets a major run for its money.

What I took away from this film is that people should never confine their thinking to some sort of overidealistic rosy picture of life.

Lilly, the more bookish of the pair, has been so busy with her academics and summer job as an NYC boat tour guide that she very seldom worried, or even wondered, about her love and/or sex life while also dealing with a sudden rift in her family stemming from her parents' separation.

On the other hand, the much more outgoing Gerry lives in an environment with two outspoken hippie parents who encourage freedom, and with it, a more open discussion of love and sexuality. I enjoyed the two girls' dynamic, despite the fact that they're very obviously polar opposites.

Other reviews skewered this film, saying that the talents of the cast were wasted on a bland story. However, I think the storyline wasn't bland or boring at all, just muddled by the somewhat forced love triangle scenario. As good as the film was, the triangle (in my opinion) weighed things down a bit as opposed to driving the narrative.

All in all, "Very Good Girls" is a cute yet misunderstood movie that one must watch with an open mind. Olsen and Fanning's performances were great, and appearances from well-known actors such as Demi Moore, Richard Dreyfuss, and Ellen Barkin (among others) make it that much more interesting.

If this movie was supposed to irritate you from start to finish with the plot, then it was a great movie. I just can't get over how bland the story was. It felt strung out and not thought through well enough.

First-time directors don't typically draw a cast with this much potential and talent. For Very Good Girls, Naomi Foner has managed to snag two of the hottest young actresses in the business right now - Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen - and surrounded them with the likes of Richard Dreyfuss, Demi Moore, Ellen Barkin and Clark Gregg. The more cynical among us would put this casting coup down to Foner's Hollywood connections: she's penned a few screenplays in her time, but is best known as the mother of thespian siblings Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal. It's a shame that the final product doesn't dispel these suspicions. The film's awkward love/lust triangle never really convinces, and Very Good Girls spends most of its running time meandering aimlessly through the lives of characters who remain stubbornly opaque and unlikeable.

Lilly (Fanning) and Gerry (Olsen) are best friends who've grown up together, taking refuge in each other's houses when life gets too complicated in their own homes. It's their final summer together, and both girls make a pact to lose their virginity before Lilly goes off to college. Enter David (Boyd Holbrook), an artist who enchants both girls with his good looks and charm. As Gerry develops an outsized crush on David, Lilly plunges into a relationship with him - one that she awkwardly keeps a secret from her best friend. When tragedy strikes, Lilly is overcome by guilt, and the life-long friendship that binds the two girls together is sorely tested.

The trouble with Very Good Girls is that it's built around a tired old trope - two girls fight and fall out over the love of one guy - but fails to find anything refreshing to say about it. Foner's screenplay, for all that it's written by a woman, gives little to no real insight into either girl. Lilly, in particular, feels like a hollow shell drifting through the paces of her narrative, never really connecting with either David or her sketchy, amorous boss Fitzsimmons (Peter Sarsgaard - Foner's son-in-law). It doesn't help that David, as played by the stoically colourless Holbrook, is a walking cliché - in a scene meant to pass for deeply romantic, he actually makes Lilly read him poetry by Sylvia Plath in his dingy artist's loft.

Far more interesting are the home lives Foner has constructed around the two girls. Lilly struggles to come to terms with her father Edward (Gregg) cheating on her uptight mother Norma (Barkin), and migrates to Gerry's considerably more cheery, argumentative home, presided over by the loving but loud Danny (Dreyfuss) and Kate (Moore). There's so much more here to be explored: the way the two families intersect, and how these connections feed into the girls' friendship, lives and personalities. Unfortunately, Foner shoves it all into the background, focusing instead on the unfortunate love/lust triangle that's sprung up around Lilly, Gerry and David.

Foner's cast is, at least, worth the watch, although they don't quite manage to completely salvage the film or their characters. Fanning plays Lilly as tremulously lost, and Olsen lends her own charms to an otherwise paper-thin character who feels more like a plot device than a person. Barkin comes off best out of the entire adult cast, unearthing a little of the sorrow that haunts a woman whose husband has been conducting an affair in their own home.

It should come as no surprise to anyone who watches Very Good Girls that the movie was written twenty years ago. In many ways, the film feels hopelessly outdated. Foner makes minor edits to the script to update it to the present, which largely involve Lilly never charging her mobile phone so that she can only be contacted on a landline. But, in the larger scheme of things, the film seems out of touch with the girls of its title, miring them in adolescent angst over the same boy while failing to make them stand on their own as characters.

Silly movie about two girls who throw themselves at a boy they barely know.

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.

Lilly (Dakota Fanning) and Gerri (Elizabeth Olsen) are two best friends on their last summer before college. They meet David (Boyd Holbrook) selling ice cream at the beach who takes Lilly's picture as they walk away. Lilly catches her father cheating with one of his patients. Gerri is infatuated with David. Lilly also likes David but she can't tell Gerri. Lilly works on a ferry tour under the lecherous eyes of her boss Fitzsimmons (Peter Sarsgaard).

I want to like this movie for the two leads. There is just something unoriginal and outdated about this movie. In fact, I thought this is a period piece at first. The writing is so uninspired. Naomi Foner is the writer and director. I don't really have any big problems with her directions. It looks fine especially for her debut. The writing doesn't have anything compelling to say. The story meanders. There is a tired feel about everything in this movie. This should be a better coming-of-age movie for two skilled actresses. The story throws a lot of stuff on the screen but nothing actually sticks.