The greatest strength of Sciamma's film is that Sciamma herself is the point of view - not Marie.

| Feb 26, 2021

The film lacks much insight into the characters' subjectivities.... [But] I think the relationships developed and intimacies shared in [Water Lilies is] moving and deeply felt.

| Jan 11, 2021

This is a brave film, and admirable for that. It's brave because it's sparse and stripped to the bone; because it's about teenage girls but it doesn't hide behind cell phones and make-up and fashion and annoying parents who just don't understand.

| Aug 23, 2018

| Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 24, 2011

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 17, 2011

A fascinating exploration of female friendship, love, manipulation, betrayal and healing.

| Jul 31, 2008

A narrowly interesting story by French writer-director CÃ (C)line Sciamma about three girls whose lives are connected by synchronized swimming.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 25, 2008

Celine Sciamma's quiet drama has moments of motionless yearning that contrast the intense emotions of its 15-year-old protagonists.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 4, 2008

The original French title of this flick translates as Birth of Octopuses, and it's a more accurate description of the complicated relationships in this well-acted coming-of-age story, the impressive debut of filmmaker Céline Sciamma.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 4, 2008

A hypnotic and wholly convincing look at teen culture from the inside, with all its courage, cruelty and unspoken codes of silence intact.

Full Review | Apr 4, 2008

The flowers that bloom in the French film Water Lilies belong to a familiar cinematic species, the newly sexualized teenage girl.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 4, 2008

Completing the convergence of rare young talents is the 27-year-old French director Céline Sciamma.

Full Review | Apr 2, 2008

The drama never merely titillates, instead developing a convincing dynamic among the three.

| Mar 31, 2008

Although a little too open-ended to be wholly satisfying, Water Lilies is still an excellent directorial debut.

Full Review | Mar 24, 2008

A quiet revelation.

| Mar 14, 2008

With terrific poise and the crispest, cleanest cinematography imaginable, the 27-year-old French director Céline Sciamma has given us a very provocative and stylish drama set in the world of teenage girls' synchronised swimming.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 14, 2008

Unfolding with a slow, steady certainty, this touching tale dives headfirst into the deep end of hormonal angst.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 14, 2008

Languid, sorrowful and strange, French filmmaker Céline Sciamma's debut as a feature writer-director is a sensitive and daring portrait of female adolescence that's curious about all longings, sexual confusions and grey areas of desire.

| Original Score: 4/6 | Mar 14, 2008

Water Lilies sees female adolescence as an uncomfortable, embarrassing phase full of painful self-consciousness and frustrated desire.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 13, 2008

Lacking in warmth but a promising example of young French talent in front of and behind the camera.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 12, 2008