Foner's screenplay gets seriously bogged down in the development of the romance between Fanning and the barely serviceable Boyd Holbrook.

| Original Score: 1.5/5 | Aug 30, 2019

The actresses try all they can to breathe life into their poorly drawn characters, but there is little they can do with the uninspired material that they have to work with.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 24, 2018

Without better development, the multiple betrayals - Lilly of Gerry and Lilly's parents of each other and their family - would have resonated far more. Still, "Very Good Girls" is a good film and worth spending time with.

| Sep 16, 2017

We should forget the contrivances because we're wrapped up in how the girls act during the aftermath, but we aren't given that privilege.

| Original Score: C | Feb 28, 2016

"Very Good Girls" is far from a perfect movie, but I enjoyed its spirit and atmosphere, even as I objected to some of the key elements.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 26, 2014

Youthful cliches trump insight in Very Good Girls.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 22, 2014

Appreciably different and well acted throughout, and sincerely engaging in patches... [but] ultimately succumbs to sigh-inducing artificiality.

| Original Score: 4.7/10 | Aug 16, 2014

The film treats a complicated experience with painstaking simplicity.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 10, 2014

Bland, brooding coming-of-age drama wastes talented cast.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 1, 2014

While Olsen and Fanning are surely talented, such a cold screenplay -- one that feels hard to engage with -- ends up leaving the actresses little to work with.

| Original Score: 5.5/10 | Aug 1, 2014

A difficult yet rewarding summer for a teenager getting ready to leave for college.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 31, 2014

...Very Good Girls is a delicate and heartfelt story of a friendship on the eve of its maturity test, told in a nuanced, balanced way.

| Original Score: B | Jul 27, 2014

It rings false in its portrayal of sisterhood and coming-of-age angst.

| Jul 25, 2014

An almost complete waste of a talented cast, and all to, apparently, convince teenaged girls that sex isn't worth the hassle. Say what?

| Jul 25, 2014

Will any film this year feature a moment more pretentious than David asking Lily to read a few lines of Sylvia Plath's poetry before their first kiss? That guy deserves a smack to the kisser all right.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jul 25, 2014

Very Good Girls has a breezy yet bittersweet, vaguely nostalgic vibe.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 25, 2014

[E]very conflict here arises from situations that could be easily resolved if the characters sat down to talk for a few minutes...

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jul 24, 2014

Limp and insincere from bottom to top, Very Good Girls is especially frustrating in that its innate lousiness is more than even Fanning and Olsen can overcome.

| Original Score: 3/10 | Jul 24, 2014

You keep wishing it were better.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 24, 2014

Despite a finely wrought lead performance by Dakota Fanning, the drama feels more like the stuff of a mild - and dated - YA novel than an involving exploration of female experience.

| Jul 24, 2014