User Reviews

Though the narrative is a little too undercooked here, this film does present us with two characterful performances from Déborah Lukumuena and Le'Shantey Bonsu. The former is "Grace" - a woman who lives in a rundown Glasgow high-rise with her daughter "Ama". Their's is a loving relationship tinged with a little maternal paranoia. "Grace" is forced to work as a cleaner at night and the girl is largely forbidden from leaving the flat - for her own safety - and that, naturally, attracts the attention of the social workers and the school teachers who are concerned for their wellbeing. Things are not helped by a decision to rehouse the family as the demolition men are soon to head to their tower block. When "Ama" befriends a neighbour from her school "Fiona" (a nice effort from Liana Turner), the couple's relationship starts to become severely tested and the two women face the first serious change to the established dynamic of their inter-dependency. The performances do go some way to making this film work, but the absence of context makes it difficult to engage with the story. We don't really know anything about the past that drove them to Scotland. Clearly there has been trauma for "Grace", but again - we know very little about what created that trouble. The direction is also very lethargic. Far too many tracking shots, walking to and fro, almost like director Adura Onashile was paddling out a short story into almost ninety minutes. I also found it to be rather over-scored. The paucity of dialogue does work at times, but the sense of loneliness and fear that generates is all to frequently overpowered by the music. It's an interesting story that is probably illustrative of many families relocated to a strange environment, but I just needed more substance and less meandering images for that to resonate better.

Saw this at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival

"Girl" is a story about the curious relationship between a girl and her mother is threatened by the hostile community around them. Director Adura Onashile clearly showcases she has talent on framing camerawork and portraying a mother and daughters relationship. The film has some pretty strong aspects that I appreciate.

Throughout the film, there is beautiful camerawork throughout and great musical soundtrack provided along. The performances between the mother and daughter were great and interesting to observe. Stories like this are pretty familiar as there had been films like this before but Onashile offers some new ideas with the writing and direction for a predictable story. There are also with interesting character dynamics displayed throughout and some good emotional moments between the characters.

Despite the positives, unfortunately the film does suffer from its issues. With characters, some of the background characters felt a little underdeveloped and certain choices made from the characters were a little strange. The editing was noticeably really bad as there were some really bad edits that took me out of the film a few times.

Hearing the Q&A, the director seems very passionate about this project and I can understand what she was trying to go for and why the film was presented the way it is. The film isn't perfect as it suffers from a little dull narrative but the overall experience was fun to watch.

Rating: B-

Wow i watched Girl at the Glasgow film festival and i am still in amazed how brilliant the actors Le'Shantey( Ama) & Deborah ( Grace ) are. Their chemistry in the movie was exceptional. Le'Shantey is a naturalist.. the way she brought the character Ama to life was splendid.. watching Girl.. you can feel the emotion she displayed. For Girl to be Le'Shanteys first movie, i believe she deserves an award for the best upcoming young british actress. Deborah is an phenomenal french actress. I understand why the casting director and the director & writer Adura knew that she was best the character to play Grace.

Adura the Director and writer did an amazing job. Girl is a story that needed to be told and remind us that there are people like Ama and Grace that live like that and not only in Glasgow but the whole world. I can tell how passionate Adura was writing this movie and bringing it to life.

The extremely unhealthy and toxic yet very loving and vulnerable relationship between a 25 year-old mother and her 11 year-old daughter is shown here with such delicacy and affection that I felt so moved throughout the whole time. The mother's fear and irrational behavior are definitely detrimental for the child, and we can see it clearly in every scene. However, we feel for the mother and are invited to sympathize with her and her helplessness.

I loved the music and the use of shades and color: this added to the intimacy of this little world that was created so that these fragile women could feel safe. A very delicate but confident debut!