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Our Song
IFC Films


9.3

based on 25 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 3 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

Internet Movie Database

MPAA RATING: R for language and some teen drug use

Starring Kerry Washington, Anna Simpson, Melissa Martinez, and Marlene Forte

This profile of inner-city life follows three teenage girls, best friends and members of their school's marching band, through the hot August streets of Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Jim McKay
DIRECTED BY:	Jim McKay
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: January 14, 2003 Video: January 14, 2003 Theatrical: May 23, 2001
RUNNING TIME:	96 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

It's an astonishing movie, with a real-life feel.

100

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The movie draws us into the illusion that we're simply eavesdropping on the lives of three inner-city black and Hispanic girls.

100

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The movie's triumph is that we experience the ending, in which the three girls go mostly separate ways, not as a defeat but as a transition still open to possibilities.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Directed with such a confident, delicate touch. Nothing is insisted on, yet whole lives are discovered and revealed in vignettes that seem as spontaneous as a laugh or a gasp.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

This modest film has virtues that come out of nowhere. It takes familiar material and develops it with such tact and skill that we find ourselves moved and sort of amazed at the same time.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Heartbreaking? Sometimes. Involving? You bet.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

The three stars communicate the fears and dreams and frustrations of teenage girls with subtlety, sensitivity and dignity.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

The patient camera leans in closely on the three lead actresses -- extraordinary first-timers all.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

It's more a collection of episodes that build to a complex, richly layered picture of these girls' lives. And the more time we spend with them, the more endearing they become.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

One girl's melancholy (beautifully expressed by actress Kerry Washington) is a response to a fractured romance.

Film.com Elizabeth Weitzman

The most faithful cinematic depiction of adolescence in recent memory.

LA Weekly Ernest Hardy

So gently told, so deceptively simple a story, that its considerable emotional power sneaks up on you.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

Best of all is the supporting performance of The Jackie Robinson Steppers Marching Band, a real group of high-school musicians in which the three girls all perform.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

It's too bad the language prevents this independent film from being rated PG-13 because this is the kind of movie that might be capable of realistically reflecting teens' lives to other teens.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Anyone who understands the subtle shadings of friendship will appreciate Our Song's realistic slice of teen life.

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

The movie's soul isn't its plot but the relationships among the girls.

Chicago Tribune John Petrakis

Has an assured air, rich with scenes of affection, anger and reconciliation, along with moments of unfeigned humor.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Has the courage to work without a net, aware that when you're a teenager, your life is not a story so much as a million possible stories.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

That it all seems improvised on the spot (it was not) is testament to the power of a film that trusts its characters, its actors and its ultimate goal.

New Times (L.A.) Gregory Weinkauf

What's most impressive about this is that, if one didn't know better, the naturalism of the performances could be taken for that of a documentary.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

So unlike most Hollywood coming-of-age stories as to seem downright revolutionary.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

iIsn't really much more than a funny, touching little squiggle, but it has a bracing honesty and pays particular heed to the betweenness in people's lives, to how much goes on when nothing seems to be going on at all.

TV Guide Frank Lovece

The movie sticks with you as few do: It's rewardingly authentic and emotionally real.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

A languid but refreshingly real depiction of female adolescence.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

One of those movies that you continue to pull for even after it becomes clear that it isn't very good.

The average user rating for this movie is 9.3 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Liz gave it an 8:
Real life--painfully so. It was disconcerting to have an actress play a hispanic who could not speak spanish well...and a black actress who was playing someone who could!

Margaret H. gave it a 10:
I thought "Our Song" was terrific.

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Our Song IFC Films

Our Song
IFC Films