Girl in ProgressMovie Reviews

So-so

Avg. Critic Score: 45 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore^® based on all critic reviews

Information for Parents:

Iffy for 14+

Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

67

Austin Chronicle | Marc Savlov
Girl in Progress is an old story about a young girl told in a smart way, and that's something you don't see every day, no matter how many times you think you've seen it before. Read full review
63

New York Post | Lou Lumenick
The two lead actresses rise to the occasion when they're finally forced to confront each other at the climax. Read full review
60

Movieline | Michelle Orange
Girl in Progress feels a little trapped by its own conceits: It plays with the idea that all rebellion is in some sense performed and makes a caricature out of the immature, attention-hungry mother, but it never liberates its characters from their molds. Read full review
60

New York Daily News | Joe Neumaier
A well-done, conscientious and funny little film that recalls "Clueless," only with more heart. Read full review
50

USA Today | Claudia Puig
Seems like a work in progress. Read full review
40

Boxoffice Magazine |
This archly self-aware coming-of-age tale fizzles, as the targeted Latino audience is upstaged by a culture more firmly rooted in the film's soggy Seattle setting. Read full review
40

Time Out New York |
Uneasily poised between glib irony and earnest melodrama, Patricia Riggen's coming-of-age tale is as scattered as its manic pubescent protagonist. Read full review
38

Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert
Ansiedad is a smart charmer, and well-played by Cierra Ramirez, she should really be above this sort of thing - above the whole movie, really. Read full review
25

Slant Magazine | Nick Schager
Girl in Progress operates like a training-wheels melodrama for genre-uneducated tweens. Read full review
25

Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum
This inauthentic teen tale, with its cosmetically softened edges, serves neither the young people nor the Mendes fans for whom it might be intended. Read full review

Metacritic link View more reviews for Girl in Progress on Metacritic

Information for Parents

Common Sense Media says Iffy for 14+ Coming-of-age story cautions against forcing adulthood.

What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that even though there's plenty of questionable behavior from both parents and teens in Girl in Progress, it's also a cautionary tale about what happens when you try to be an adult before you're ready for the consequences. In the main teen character's search for rites of passage to experience, she insults and dumps her best friend, steals money from her mother, changes her appearance, manipulates an adult into buying alcohol, and plans to lose her virginity to the school's resident "player." The language is mostly insults (particularly the word "retarded" and its derivatives), but sexual content includes some mature scenes of the mother and her married lover kissing (sex is implied) and a sequence in which a teen casually tries to schedule her "deflowering" (she's shown stripping to her panties and bra, and the guy is seen shirtless as he fumbles with a condom). This is the kind of coming-of-age tale that can spark substantive conversations between parents and kids.

Families can talk about Girl in Progress' central message about coming of age. How is adolescence portrayed in the movie? Do high schoolers typically experience rites of passage as part of a checklist or timeline?
Ansiedad engages in "rebellious" teen behavior in a forced, formulaic manner that almost makes light of teen sexuality and drinking. Is Ansiedad's attitude about sex realistic? Parents, talk to your teens about your own values regarding sex and relationships.
How is Grace and Ansiedad's mother-daughter relationship portrayed? How was it unhealthy? Is it a realistic look at the dynamic between single moms and their kids?
The insult "retard" is used in various forms throughout the movie. Even though it's not technically a curse word, it's widely considered a hurtful taunt that shouldn't be said. Do you think it's appropriate for the word to be used, even for the sake of authenticity?
Ansiedad isn't fond of her very Spanish-sounding name. How is her ethnicity explored in the movie? Is being Latina a positive thing or a negative thing for Ansiedad? Why?

The good stuff

Positive messages: Girl in Progress illustrates the importance of open communication between parents and children. Grace isn't really aware of what Ansiedad is going through, and it causes an emotional rift that could have been avoided had the two talked more openly and shared their feelings. Ansiedad's misguided attempt to grow up offers an important example of how trying to act like a grown-up before you're ready is a bad idea. She hurts her best friend, nearly destroys her academic career, and nearly has sex for the worst of reasons.
Positive role models: Not many positive role models, especially considering that Grace is openly the "other woman" in an adulterous relationship and actually flaunts the affair in front of her daughter. (But to her credit, Grace doesn't steal or take money from her lover to pay for Ansiedad's tuition.) The doctor doesn't seem to mind carrying on his affair while lying to his wife. Ansiedad is a shiftless teen desperate to become an adult: she lies, steals, manipulates, and insults others as long as it's part of her rite-of-passage checklist.

What to watch for

Violence: Not an issue
Sexy stuff: Ansiedad describes her mother as promiscuous, and Grace is shown getting ready in a sexy outfit to meet her lover, a married man. Grace and the doctor are shown half dressed on the floor (presumably after sex); they kiss a few times. Ansiedad tells a guy she wants him to "take her virginity" at a party; they proceed to share a kiss (her first), and then the guy is shown shirtless in the bathroom fumbling with a condom. Ansiedad strips down to her bra and panties and then throws her panties on the floor. Although they don't end up having sex, they run out of the room, and everyone calls Ansiedad a slut, as the guy says, "I hit that."
Language: Teens say the word "retarded" or "tard" many times, and in one scene, a bunch of people chant the word "slut" to Ansiedad. One girl is called "fat" and a "cow." Language also includes "stupid," "shoot," "damn," etc.
Consumerism: Grace drives her friend's old Volvo wagon, and a BMW is shown a couple of times. A Macbook Pro makes a brief appearance.
Drinking, drugs and smoking: Teens drink -- a lot -- at a couple of parties. Ansiedad convinces an adult to buy a bottle of tequila (under the premise that it's a birthday gift for her mother), and she gives it to the group throwing the party. A couple of adults smoke cigarettes and/or a pipe. Graces drinks so much at a party that she wakes up hung over. A male nurse at a home for the elderly regularly drinks from a hidden flask.

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