White Girl is a shocking and frenetically paced movie, a nightmarish thrill ride comparable to the Safdie brothers' 2017 Good Time that's equal parts exhausting, exhilarating, and heartbreaking to watch.

| Oct 22, 2021

The feature debut of writer-directed Elizabeth Wood tries and fails to balance being harrowing and disarmingly funny.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Aug 10, 2021

White Girl so desperately wants to be shocking. Instead, it's merely numbing.

| Jan 5, 2021

In the end, the powerful acting and the authenticity of the performances and situations win the day, but don't expect to leave the film unscathed.

| Apr 28, 2020

Ms. Wood's White Girl is painstakingly cathartic. But to what end? We are not sure.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 16, 2019

An unabashed, painfully honest depiction of someone who is so laser focused on the here and now...

| Aug 3, 2019

It's all a little empty and pro forma, but Saylor is an absolute powderkeg - it feels as though her character is capable of anything, which is thrilling and terrifying all at once.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 1, 2019

In "White Girl," you realize that in telling the story of a woman who may overestimate her own power in some respects, Wood, just one film in, is in full command of hers and the result is awesome.

| Nov 1, 2018

Yes, with its overtly explicit nature this subject matter is bold and has won fans since its Sundance debut, but unfortunately, so many of the directorial choices seemed purely for shock and awe.

| Aug 6, 2018

Saylor is alternately stiff and extraordinary here, not so great at playing the sober innocent but an ace at the blurry motions of someone who's extremely wasted.

| Jan 2, 2017

Loosely based on the director's own experience, Wood's viscerally charged film gets under the skin in ways that are hard to shake.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 1, 2016

When White Girl isn't dressing up as a morality play, it sharply confronts the social and political anxieties of the most idealistic generation in generations.

| Original Score: B | Oct 12, 2016

Despite errors made, the film's embrace of sexual agency is well, bracing. The memorable ending justifies nearly everything that came before. Contains graphic sex, degradation and sexual violence.

| Oct 12, 2016

Frequently difficult to watch, White Girl is the powerful feature debut of a filmmaker with original vision and clear talent -- and a movie that proves a lead actress can possess the gift of transformative performance skills.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 30, 2016

What comes through in White Girl is a generic cautionary tale...

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 30, 2016

Neatly plotted and minimally staged, the movie marks Wood as a talent to watch, but Saylor deserves equal credit for her layered performance as the title character, a confident young woman who crumbles into a confused and frightened child.

| Sep 29, 2016

First-time writer-director Elizabeth Wood's White Girl sets out to be a Great Gatsby for the 21st century - and perhaps in the process, to depict the orgastic future that Fitzgerald mentioned at the story's end.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 15, 2016

The film has a restless, kinetic style that suits the drug-fueled mayhem.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 15, 2016

Harrowing to the point of being off-putting - but not quite.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 15, 2016

Ostensibly a tragic tale of out-of-control youth, White Girl collapses under its lofty ambitions, boiling down to little more than a retread of other, better films.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Sep 9, 2016