It’s a powerful, cerulean-tinged debut from filmmaker Georgia Oakley with timely reminders about the toll of systemic bigotry—the same kind that can be seen today with gender panic.

| Dec 18, 2023

Blue Jean’s real power comes from its examination of the human costs of living in fear.

| Dec 9, 2023

The triumph of Blue Jean is that it takes time showing the queer lives at stake. This is not a dour film. It has hot lesbian sex, sweaty snapshots of queer bars, and, ultimately, portrays the power of community.

| Aug 18, 2023

Aside from its smart writing and grounding in real-world stakes, Blue Jean also has courageous performances. McEwen as Jean is exquisitely torn, giving an impressively internal performance that eventually spills over.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 21, 2023

What I like is how this movie does not got where it might ordinarily have. It walks a more narrow and human path.

| Jun 28, 2023

Understated and feels very lived-in.

| Jun 28, 2023

McEwen, who is in almost every scene, is superb. The rest of the cast does excellent work, but this is McEwen’s show all the way.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 23, 2023

Trenchant and sadly still timely.

| Jun 20, 2023

Recommended.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 16, 2023

A confident, moody and superbly acted debut feature from Georgia Oakley.

| Jun 15, 2023

Oakley’s debut astonishes in every way, a silent scream that should be heard and felt today.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 14, 2023

There are patches of rough air in Blue Jean that cause some narrative bumps. But it also avoids giving you the sort of easy-answer ending that it appears to be setting up, favoring a sort of hard-won honesty over happily ever afters.

| Jun 13, 2023

Oakley’s care and McEwen’s intense performance make “Blue Jean” one of this year’s most impressive movies.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 9, 2023

Featuring a stirring breakout performance from the luminous Rosy McEwan, “Blue Jean” grounds the political with the personal — without losing sight of queer joy.

| Original Score: A- | Jun 9, 2023

The film’s writer and director, Georgia Oakley, has made an accomplished movie in many ways.

| Jun 8, 2023

... A quietly complex portrait of compartmentalization and self-actualization.

| Jun 7, 2023

Blue Jean is a non-judgmental tale of self-acceptance, intergenerational solidarity and sapphic power.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 13, 2023

It’s as persuasive as it is powerful.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 12, 2023

Jean is a complicated sort of hero, full of indecision and regret. It’s something bracingly captured by McEwen, who plays her as someone in a perpetual state of fight-or-flight.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 10, 2023

Every aspect of Georgia Oakley’s debut feature – from Izabella Curry’s editing to Kirsty Halliday’s period costuming – is as restrained as Rosy McEwen’s excellent performance.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 10, 2023