I really love this movie it's so great to watch i recommend it 10/10

This is an incredibly problematic film, and far from the representation lesbians deserve.

I really enjoyed this film and recognised so many wonderful "tingly" moments. This film came out in 2015 so I'm glad though that more queer films are now being able to be made by queer are opposed to men. That's what I'll be seeking out from now on.

Honestly probably a pretty decent movie from a macro perspective, just not anywhere near my type of movie 2.7

I liked all the performances and I found the characters sympathetic to an extant, but when it ended, it felt somewhat incomplete. Plus some of the actions made by certain characters were questionable. There was a good story in this movie, though I don't think it was executed all that well. It's ok, but I've seen it done better.

This movie was unwatchable. Offensive. The director needs to stay away from queer stories. Far, far away.

This movie is not just a queer coming of age movie. It brilliantly depicts what it means to be a teenager, to struggle with your identity and to ask yourself the good question. It tackles gender and growing up as gendered people delicately and truthfully.It is a feminist manifesto for young women whot want to break free and be themselves without fear, nothing holding them back from just being.

This complicated teen lesbian coming of age film is well worth the watch with some great performances from the teenage cast.

Kerem Sanga's First Girl I Loved is a coming of age story following confused high-schoolers trying to figure themselves out in respect to who their friends are, sexual preference and how to accept who they are in the face of so much uncertainty and the constant world of judgement that is high school. Anne, our protagonist, Cliff, the best-friend, and Sasha, the love interest, are like most high-schoolers in that they are confused about almost everything. We follow their stories through a mixture of flashbacks and flash forwards in an almost cyclic view as we see Anne coming to terms with her sexuality. For those who attended school in any capacity, you will recall the confusion, the desire to fit in and the fear of judgment from peers whilst simultaneously attempting to understand ones likes and dislikes and to keep it all together with no less than a smile. Both Anne and Sasha comment on the pressure of how they are perceived by their peers with the under confidence of some of the characters and the ability to be unapologetically themselves becoming slightly frustrating for someone who wishes they too stood up for themselves when they were younger. First Girl I Loved isn't all about teen angst and the confusing ride of the ups and downs of friendships. We are given an insight into the world of Softball with subtitles coming up for the hand signals given between a coach and his players and the comic relief in the text messages between the two girls. In a technologically advanced world the mobile phone has really been a big hit providing Kerem Sanga with another medium for the characters to express emotions, one which the younger members of the audience will relate to quite readily. This heart-rendering and complex film comes away with the universal message that nothing can be that bad, even in the face of everything falling apart, with a little bit of self-acceptance life can be a whole lot easier.

Kerem Sanga's First Girl I Loved is a coming of age story following confused high-schoolers trying to figure themselves out in respect to who their friends are, sexual preference and how to accept who they are in the face of so much uncertainty and the constant world of judgement that is high school. Anne, our protagonist, Cliff, the best-friend, and Sasha, the love interest, are like most high-schoolers in that they are confused about almost everything. We follow their stories through a mixture of flashbacks and flash forwards in an almost cyclic view as we see Anne coming to terms with her sexuality. For those who attended school in any capacity, you will recall the confusion, the desire to fit in and the fear of judgment from peers whilst simultaneously attempting to understand ones likes and dislikes and to keep it all together with no less than a smile. Both Anne and Sasha comment on the pressure of how they are perceived by their peers with the under confidence of some of the characters and the ability to be unapologetically themselves becoming slightly frustrating for someone who wishes they too stood up for themselves when they were younger. First Girl I Loved isn't all about teen angst and the confusing ride of the ups and downs of friendships. We are given an insight into the world of Softball with subtitles coming up for the hand signals given between a coach and his players and the comic relief in the text messages between the two girls. In a technologically advanced world the mobile phone has really been a big hit providing Kerem Sanga with another medium for the characters to express emotions, one which the younger members of the audience will relate to quite readily. This heart-rendering and complex film comes away with the universal message that nothing can be that bad, even in the face of everything falling apart, with a little bit of self-acceptance life can be a whole lot easier.

Tienerliefde op zijn meest complex waarin de moderne tijd weinig verandert aan de romance tussen twee meiden die samen willen zijn, maar door hun omgeving juist verder uit elkaar staan. Interessante regiedebuut Kerem Sanga dat door meerdere gezien moet worden.

Fantastic film that everyone should watch. It's a beautiful coming of age story about navigating your first relationship and the hardships that come along with discovering your sexuality. It's a story that all gay people can relate to, and one that all straight people could learn from. I wasn't prepared for how much this film touched my heart. Highly recommend.

I think what's most important before I start is an acknowledgement that this movie isn't for me. In the sense that this is a queer romance, First Girl I Loved is very much targeted, for better or for worse, at a different audience and some of the things I feel about the film may very well be the feelings of a straight male discussing a lesbian coming out drama and should be taken with that grain of salt. That being said, the movie really grew on me, which shouldn't surprise me, considering just how taken I was with Sanga's previous film. As with The Young Kieslowski, Sanga continues to struggle a bit with dialogue and more so than that film, I think First Girl I Loved struggles with a bit of a trope problem, at least early on. Now this could be where my perspective does me a disservice. I don't know Sanga's background but he is a male and The Young Kieslowski was certainly written from a male perspective. My gut tells me that the same thing occurred here, despite Sanga's best intentions. At times, First Girl I Loved feels (and even sometimes literally is) like it is coming from a straight male perspective. It's got (what I see as) a lot of early tropes and a lot of stereotypical straight relationship behavior. It doesn't help that its female leads are far, far older then the high schoolers they are portraying (as opposed to the very believable college kids in Sanga's previous film). At times, this undercuts the first half of the film's momentum and for a film trying to be that queer/coming-out/romance/coming-of-age tale, that feels a little false. Now the flip side is that queer movies that normalize (as they should) non-hetero relationships are pretty rare and not something I encounter often. So I can see how First Girl I Loved might actually feel really good to a queer viewer because even though it deals with homophobia in high school, it feels almost as comfortingly normal as any heterosexual coming of age film I can remember. Those tropes are what make it so comfortingly familiar, even as they give it a bit of a stereotypical, Breakfast Club vibe. All of that is a complicated way of saying that in this aspect of the film, the queer community is the only real judge and I just don't have a strong interest in asserting my feelings on this aspect of the film. As for the rest of the film, Sanga's style continues to grow on me. He may not be a master of dialogue and he may be working with a raw (but really talented) cast but he has an unparalleled intimacy to his film style. The Young Kieslowski was a infinitely lighter, quicker film but with both of these stylistically different films, Sanga shows this ability to make us feel exceptionally close to characters, like we're breathing beside them. It draws you in, right past any cosmetic issues you may have with Sanga's writing or casting. And unlike The Young Kieslowski, First Girl I Loved has a totally different tonal pattern and color palate, one that, while it might not be unique, is very well done and very well suited to the subject matter. It's soft and slow, pushing the viewer to process through every scene and absorb all of Sanga's little symbolic intricacies spread throughout each set. It's paired with a subdued soundtrack and two very game female leads. There isn't much to support them, but if you've seen Hildebrand in Deadpool, she absolutely transforms herself here and for that film, showing some impressive range. Dylan Gelula is more of a niche actress, showing off the same non-hetero indie character she built very successfully for Casual. They play off each other perfectly and I found the end very, very satisfying, as Sanga resisted the temptation to do too much. Ultimately, First Girl I Loved was sweet, thoughtful, reflective, beautiful and most importantly, it felt (at least to me), that Sanga has at least made an effort to produce something that treats homosexual high school love as any other high school love. Add in a few low key sexual health commentary pieces that Sanga slips in and you've got yourself one of the better films of the year and certainly one of the most enjoyable.

First Girl I Loved has some sincere moments of real and raw emotion, but unfortunately those are neutralized by its familiar formula and execution.

A high school yearbook nerd and a popular softball player dabble in lesbianism in this bittersweet "coming-out-of-age" story. Anne and Sasha engage in playful yet sensual flirtation, and a morally complicated rift forms between Anne and Clifton, her guy best friend who has held a longtime torch for her. Director/writer Kerem Sanga's film is beautifully rendered in non-linear scenes and a gritty sheen of "neo-alternative" chic. Supremely talented Dylan Gelula shines in her first film role with brash intensity and sulky vulnerability, and Brianna Hildebrand plays the quintessential girl-crush to a tee. I was gobsmacked when I realized the former also plays the pouty, acerbic daughter, Xanthippe, on "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" and the latter recently broke into the mainstream as Negasonic Teenage Warhead in "Deadpool"! They are definitely rising stars to watch.

With a story similar to Blue Is the Warmest Color and a tone reminiscent of Palo Alto or The Perks of Being a Wallflower, First Girl I Loved is a film that aims to normalize lesbian relationships. While I entered the theater only knowing of its basic setup, I left happy having seen a sympathetic and honest portrayal of the murky waters of teenage infatuation. And on top of its honesty and accuracy of depicting teen life, it's a coming-of-age story that doesn't overcrowd itself with subplots or characters, even if it could have deepened some of its plot points. The movie follows Anne (Dylan Gelula), who falls for popular softball player Sasha (Brianna Hildebrand, who you may know as Negasonic Teenage Warhead in Deadpool). As Anne attempts to court Sasha, Anne is forced to discover her lesbianism and endure scolding from her best--and flirty--friend Cliff (Mateo Arias). I'm fully aware that this is sounds like a conventional plot, but it's the candidness of the script and writer/director Kerem Sanga's handling of the material. The film's structure isn't entirely chronological, placing the doubt and conflicting emotions of its protagonist front-and-center. The editing is strong as is required to pull off this type of storytelling, and it comes off as organic. As gravity of situations become stronger, a seemingly simplistic scene is shown for longer and has more pivotal beats. It's also rather impressive that a film about two teenage girls could come off as authentic as this one does given that it's written and directed by a man, but part of that has to do with the choices that Gelula and Hildebrand make. These are smart, flawed, awkward characters who sometimes think rational, but sometimes act immediately because it's all that they think they can do. The two have chemistry that raises the film above the positives that it already has, and their sadness and need for a concrete identity underlines their decisions in a manner that doesn't feel concocted solely for drama. There are some small issues, though. There's a theme in the film about consent that's effective and doesn't feel shoehorned in, but I don't feel like it was really given the attention that it deserved given the nature of the situation and its consequences. And while Sanga shows his talent for working with actors and emotions, the movie doesn't have a strong look for a lot of the movie. There are flashes of aesthetic choices that struck me, but overall, there isn't as much to look at as I would have hoped for in a movie that revolves around a teenage perception of the world. Overall, First Girl I Loved proves to be a worth addition to the growing LGBT canon; one that treats its material with respect and doesn't simplify its characters by their sexualities. I laughed at the beginning and welled up towards the end, and the note on which it ends is nothing short of strong. It could have been improved a bit on Sanga's part, but it wears its heart on its sleeve without shoving anything down your throat. They set to honor these girls, and they did. 8/10, really good, one thumb up, above average, etc.