This week’s DVD/Stream of the Week is this year’s outstanding coming of age movie Very Good Girls. Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen play best buds who graduate from high school and decide they need to lose their respective virginities before heading to college. Both fall for the same guy, and they’re each drawn to him and wary of him. But what elevates this story above those with similar set-ups is that it’s not so much about girl-and-boy but about girl-and-girl and how the circumstances affect their lifelong friendship.
Although there’s potential conflict over the boy and each girl’s family goes through a crisis, Very Good Girls is completely free of emo pretension. Genuine through and through, the story lets us relate to these girls and keep us engaged in what is happening to their bond.
Olsen is 25 and Fanning is 20, but they are entirely believable as 18-year-olds. Fanning and Olsen are right up there with Jennifer Lawrence, Shailene Woodley and Bree Larson as our best young film actresses. Fanning recently made an indie breakthrough in The Motel Life. Olsen has been excellent in Martha Marcy May Marlene and even in the awful In Secret.
The girls’ parents are played by Richard Dreyfuss and Demi Moore and Clark Gregg and Ellen Barkin. It’s kind of a hoot to see the actresses that gave played some of the hottest scenes in 1989/1990 cinema (Ghost and Sea of Love) play the curfew-enforcing moms. Peter Sarsgaard also shows up, at his most pervy.
Very Good Girls is the first film directed by screenwriter Naomi Foner (Oscar-nominated for Running on Empty), mother of Maggie and Jake Gyllenhaal. Foner has a wonderful touch, and I hope we see her direct some more.
It pisses me off that, if Very Good Girls had been about high school boys getting laid, it would have gotten the theatrical release that eluded this film. But we can make up for hat by watching it at home. Very Good Girls is available on DVD from Netflix and streaming from Amazon Instant, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and Xbox Video.