Girls Can't Swim

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Ultimately lacks the epic dimension of "Y Tu Mamá También," but its vision of that awkward age when sex threatens to overwhelm everything else is acute enough to make everyone who has been there squirm with recognition.

LA Weekly Paul Malcolm

The film's intimate camera work and searing performances pull us deep into the girls' confusion and pain as they struggle tragically to comprehend the chasm of knowledge that's opened between them.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

"Adolesence can kill you," Birot has said in an interview. In a film that leaves the "you" intentionally vague, moment after moment she shows how.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Sensitive and thoughtful coming-of-age story.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

There is a ton of psychology and inference in this intriguing first feature by French director Anne-Sophie Birot.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

It includes abundant sex and full-frontal nudity, not to titillate but because it's needed to convey the inner sexual turmoil the girls are going through.

Village Voice Leslie Camhi

Falters when it takes a final, violent turn into melodrama.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Birot is an engaging storyteller who can inspire luminous, spontaneous portrayals, but her ending is so drastic that it feels unearned, a note of bleakness struck merely for its own sake.

Chicago Tribune Loren King

Despite its shortcomings, Girls Can't Swim represents an engaging and intimate first feature by a talented director to watch, and it's a worthy entry in the French coming-of-age genre.

Boston Globe Leighton Klein

While not all transitions to adulthood are so fraught, there's much truth and no small amount of poetry in Girls Can't Swim.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Sensitive, extraordinarily well-acted drama.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

It's a cynical way to pass time, the cynicism that comes from being presented with something you've seen a hundred times before.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The phrase "coming of age," when applied to movies, almost always implies sex, but Girls Can't Swim has nothing useful to say about sex (certainly not compared to Catherine Breillat's brilliant "Fat Girl" from last year), and is too jerky in structure to inspire much empathy from us.