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Our Song
IFC Films

Our Song reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 77 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
9.3 out of 10
based on 25 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 3 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

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 

What The Critics Said

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.
Read Full Review
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.
Read Full Review
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.
90
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.
90
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.
Read Full Review
88
Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Heartbreaking? Sometimes. Involving? You bet.
Read Full Review
83
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
The three stars communicate the fears and dreams and frustrations of teenage girls with subtlety, sensitivity and dignity.
Read Full Review
80
Village Voice Jessica Winter
The patient camera leans in closely on the three lead actresses -- extraordinary first-timers all.
Read Full Review
80
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.
Read Full Review
80
Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector
One girl's melancholy (beautifully expressed by actress Kerry Washington) is a response to a fractured romance.
Read Full Review
80
Film.com Elizabeth Weitzman
The most faithful cinematic depiction of adolescence in recent memory.
80
LA Weekly Ernest Hardy
So gently told, so deceptively simple a story, that its considerable emotional power sneaks up on you.
Read Full Review
80
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.
78
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.
Read Full Review
75
Miami Herald Connie Ogle
Anyone who understands the subtle shadings of friendship will appreciate Our Song's realistic slice of teen life.
75
San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann
The movie's soul isn't its plot but the relationships among the girls.
Read Full Review
75
Chicago Tribune John Petrakis
Has an assured air, rich with scenes of affection, anger and reconciliation, along with moments of unfeigned humor.
75
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.
Read Full Review
75
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.
70
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.
70
The New York Times Dana Stevens
So unlike most Hollywood coming-of-age stories as to seem downright revolutionary.
Read Full Review
70
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.
Read Full Review
70
TV Guide Frank Lovece
The movie sticks with you as few do: It's rewardingly authentic and emotionally real.
Read Full Review
63
New York Post Jonathan Foreman
A languid but refreshingly real depiction of female adolescence.
Read Full Review
30
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.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!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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