A compassionate, finely observed portrait of a young woman's gradual breaking down, as the usual buffers, including brotherly love and friendships, strain under her crushing responsibility.

| Feb 14, 2021

Teeming with an infectious effervescence, the adolescent coming-of-age drama "Rocks" differentiates itself from other recent explorations of modern girlhood set amid immigrant communities.

| Feb 1, 2021

The cast led by Bukky Bakray and Kosar Ali are unbelievably charming and infectious. In a just world, these rockstars would become household names.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 8, 2020

The most authentic film about British teens in years.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 25, 2020

It's the finest film yet from director Sarah Gavron, whose camera no longer hovers politely here, like an earnest tourist, but gets fully stuck in. A gorgeous movie packed with hope and powered by street cred, Rocks rocks.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 25, 2020

A sorrowful yet full-hearted depiction of a young girl at breaking point.

| Sep 24, 2020

A film that feels as authentic as it is boisterous.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 23, 2020

What a wonderful, heart-breaking, life-affirming gem of a movie this is.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 20, 2020

Gavron has given us a strong, courageous and celebratory portrayal of contemporary British girlhood.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 20, 2020

A pleasure from top to bottom - I can't wait to rewatch with my own girl's school friends.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 17, 2020

The whole movie has the... sense of deftly controlled chaos, powered not by screenwritten speeches but the unpredictable, unmistakable rhythm of real life.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 16, 2020

Respectfully crafted, righteously funny and tender, Gavron has defined a generation like no-one else, and these efforts are not to be ignored.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 14, 2020

This tough but hopeful London coming-of-age story will fill your heart.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 14, 2020

Sarah Gavron's Rocks is a film that hopes to hearken back to director Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank, but can't seem to make us care for its leading lady and the questionable decisions she makes.

| Nov 25, 2019

The resulting performances - lively, giddy and authentic - define the movie, while the lovely upbeat ending sweetens an otherwise stinging social critique.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 15, 2019

Rocks is a film about youthful potential and the miracle of watching it flower in unpropitious soil. It's a pleasure to behold.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 14, 2019

This potent work about stolen childhood deserves attention because of the freshness of the cast and because it confirms that Gavron is a director to watch.

| Oct 8, 2019

Rocks shows us British communities we don't normally see in narratives about young women, giving the film's empowering underpinnings urgency and presentness.

| Oct 4, 2019

The movie's optimism comes from the way it was put together, as an after-school collective between filmmakers, volunteers and girls like Bakray, who met screenwriter Theresa Ikoko years before cameras began to roll.

| Original Score: A | Sep 16, 2019

This film is such a rush of vitality. It rocks.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 14, 2019