"Girls State is an empowering and timely documentary that uses the Girls State program to discuss society’s most pressing political issues."

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 18, 2025

An inspiring documentary that shines a light on the future of American democracy through the eyes of ambitious, intelligent, and passionate young women.

| Jan 4, 2025

A stirring documentary that shows the power of politics put to use in the right way and the value of a cooperative mindset when dealing with sensitive subjects.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Jul 27, 2024

[There's a] smart, impassioned, high stakes spirit that perme­ates the new documentary, Girls State.

| May 2, 2024

Girls State feels slight and surprisingly unaware; even its own subjects seem determined to break free of the narrative that the camp and the directors are trying to box them in to. Compared to Boys State, this is a surprising misfire.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Apr 30, 2024

The would-be Hilary Clintons and Kamala Harrises immediately clock that they’re held to different standards than the boys.

| Apr 28, 2024

Girls State isn’t quite the explosive takedown and critique of the program that it could be, but it does explore the program's limitations cogently...

| Apr 22, 2024

You might be eniticed by the wild incongruity of cupcake stations alongside very adult discussions, but you’ll most certainly stay because of how it offers an intimate, in-depth, potentially inspiring platform for a generation’s hopes and fears.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Apr 21, 2024

The politics lean conservative, but the transformations that occur go beyond ideology.

| Apr 18, 2024

Girls State tries to do the same thing [as Boys State], but of course it ends up being about how difficult it is to be a woman, and to be a girl that's being empowered in very condescending ways... An indictment of the American system and misogyny.

| Apr 17, 2024

I wish there had been a little bit more of the get-togethers so we could hear them talk a little more informally, but it's a fascinating movie.

| Apr 17, 2024

Girls State focuses on several attendees of the Missouri conference, providing just enough backstory to appreciate their individual lives and perspectives.

| Apr 17, 2024

Better than the first one, partly because it captures a specific moment in time

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 12, 2024

At first it proves every bit as gripping. Then it gets more so.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 11, 2024

Like the previous documentary, Girls State embraces the light and dark of politics, but offers a little bit of hope for the future.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 10, 2024

When thinking about the whole American experiment, nearly 250 years in, it can seem hard to find reasons for optimism. But “Girls State” offers a welcome and necessary helping of it.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 8, 2024

Personally, after watching the testosterone-charged males in “Boys State” compared to the insightful and accepting females in “Girls State,” I think it’s time we let the ladies take over at all levels of government.

| Original Score: B+ | Apr 7, 2024

Amamad McBaine and Jesse Moss prove that girls can not only rule Girls State - but run the world if given the chance

| Apr 7, 2024

Girls State examines the political passions of Gen Z women and provides on-the-ground evidence of the growing gender divergence.

| Apr 6, 2024

In this thought-provoking documentary, girls get the chance to play politics – and their debates about abortion are startlingly nuanced

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 5, 2024