Girlhood Movie Database

10. Miller's Girl

MILLER’S GIRL (2024) was panned by critics and didn’t recoup even a fourth of its budget at the box office, so, naturally, we had to talk about it and dare to ask, “Is it really that bad?” The movie is fundamentally about a student being groomed by her teacher, so there’s a lot at stake in terms of how it addresses victimhood, villainy, and power—and our feelings about the outcome are complicated.
 
Secondary texts referenced:
Bunny by Mona Awad
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
The Room (2003) dir. Tommy Wiseau 
Jade Halley Bartlett interview with Forbes: “Miller’s Girl As a Villain Origin Story”

09. Shirkers

We wade into the world of documentary filmmaking with Sandi Tan’s SHIRKERS (2018), which reflects on Tan’s teenage experience of making a movie with her friends and losing the footage after their teacher steals it. The movie’s “layers of aboutness,” as we writerly types love to say, are plentiful—and get into as much as we can wrap our heads and hearts around: magical realism, punk spirit, youthful determination, and how to live a life that is in service to your art. 
 
Secondary texts referenced:
“Lessons of the Line: Charles Simic and Me” by Dana Levin (from the Yale Review, spring 2024 issue)
“After the World-Breaking, World-Building” by Vanessa Angélica Villarreal (from Magical/Realism: Essays on Music, Memory, Fantasy, and Borders)

08. Make Up

The day has arrived: Maggie vibes with a movie much more than Marin does. The movie in question? Claire Oakley’s MAKE UP (2019), a surreal and sparse story about a teen girl’s coming-to-desire on the Cornwall coast. Maggie offers a compelling analysis of characterization which invokes the spirits of Dashiell Hammett and RHW Dillard (our beloved former professor), Marin argues that the film is at least horror-adjacent, and we discuss the symbolism of the sea (original, we know), the implications of “straight-baiting,” and the staying power of memes about men who don’t furnish their apartments.
 
Secondary texts referenced:
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Syzygy, Beauty by T. Fleischmann
The Glass Key by Dashiell Hammett 
Magical/Realism: Essays on Music, Memory, Fantasy, and Borders by Vanessa Angélica Villarreal
Claire Oakley interview with Little White Lies
Claire Oakley interview with AnOther Magazine

07. Support the Girls

Did you ever work a soul-crushing service job that sometimes sent you to the bathroom crying? Then we have the episode for you! Andrew Bujalski’s SUPPORT THE GIRLS (2018) is a lovely and loving film which follows a restaurant manager and her all-female staff as they try to make it through the day. We talk about its authentic approach to solidarity, the dynamic ensemble of characters, our own hellish work experiences, and the significance of the film’s male writer-director. 
 
Secondary texts referenced:
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974) dir. Martin Scorsese
“Grip” by Joy Castro (from Island of Bones)

06. The Starling Girl

We’re tackling religious upbringing this week with Laurel Parmet’s THE STARLING GIRL (2023), a phenomenal film about a teenage girl’s coming-of-age in her Christian fundamentalist community—and we’re having necessary conversations about modesty culture (and the violence it inflicts), predatory relationships, and the work of protecting each other whilst living within systems that thrive precisely by not protecting our livelihoods. 
 
Secondary texts referenced:
Holiday Country by Inci Atrek
The Dream of a Common Language by Adrienne Rich
Interview with Laurel Parmet

05. Plan B

It’s finally time to talk about a teen comedy! Marin’s pick this week is Natalie Morales’s PLAN B (2021), which follows two South Dakotan teens as they try to obtain basic reproductive healthcare and endure lots of bullshit along the way. But the movie is also a funny and tender depiction of friendship and growing into yourself. We discuss its smart and empathetic use of humor, why its romantic subplots work, the logistics of its South Dakota geography, and the possibilities—and limitations—of art as an agent for political change. (Audio note: apologies for the muffled sound at parts—we recorded this episode while wearing masks in an attempt to avoid illness!)
 
Secondary texts referenced:
Forever… by Judy Blume
Long Live the Tribes of Fatherless Girls: A Memoir by T Kira Madden

04. The Lost Daughter

Courtesy of Maggie, we are finally talking about a movie from this decade: Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut, THE LOST DAUGHTER (2021), which is also an adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novel. We marvel at Olivia Colman’s face acting. We use the word “boundless” a lot. We remember the ways our girlhood-selves terrorized our mothers. We have a lot to say about mothering, art-making, and terrible men who are, nevertheless, alluring. Thankfully, this movie has a lot to say, too. 
 
Secondary texts referenced:
A Life of One’s Own: Nine Women Writers Begin Again by Joanna Biggs
Women, Race, & Class by Angela Y. Davis
The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante
Transforming Girls: The Work of Nineteenth-Century Adolescence by Julie Pfeiffer
Flash Count Diary: Menopause and the Vindication of Natural Life by Darcey Steinke
Letterboxd review by @ducournau

03. Nancy Drew

NANCY DREW (2007) was one of Marin’s favorite movies as a child. Does it hold up? Not really! But Maggie hypothesizes why it makes sense that Young Marin would be smitten with this movie. We also talk about the movie’s depictions of danger, perfection, and violent /clueless/entitled men/boys—all of which leads us to wonder: are we over-thinking this PG movie?
 
Secondary texts referenced:
Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood by Ibtisam Barakat
“‘Nancy Drew’ Revisited” by Barbara S. Wertheimer and Carol Sands, Language Arts
Incorrect Logline: Warner Bros.

02. Romeo + Juliet

Early into this episode, Marin likens watching Baz Luhrmann’s ROMEO + JULIET (1997) for the first time to “seeing God,” so, yeah, we loved this. We discuss the film’s tenderness towards its characters and its refreshing portraits of girlhood and masculinity, particularly via the gaze of the camera itself. While Maggie’s prowess as a high school literature teacher is on full display, Marin connects the film to not one but TWO teen dramas. Also, we introduce a new closing segment!  
 
Secondary texts referenced:
“Elizabethan Street Fighting” by Shakespeare Unlimited podcast, ep. 24
“The Female Gaze” by Alexis Loftis, Sartorial Magazine
“Jenny Han Explains How Pop Music is Central to The Summer I Turned Pretty” by Malia Mendez, 
Los Angeles Times
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare 
The Summer I Turned Pretty, season 2, episode 2
Dawson’s Creek, season 3, episode 14

01. Ever After

Welcome to the very first episode of Girlhood Movie Database! We’re so thankful you’re here as we discuss the underrated 90s GEM of a film, EVER AFTER (1998). Maggie shares her lifelong love of Drew Barrymore (which she proves via a reading from her teenage diary), Marin laments her young self’s lack of appreciation for the film, and we talk about how this re-telling of Cinderella diverges from other versions of the fairytale to give us characters, friendships, and romance worth rooting for. 
 
Secondary texts referenced:
Wildflower by Drew Barrymore
“Cinderella” by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love by bell hooks
“Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper” by Charles Perrault
Archetypal Patterns in Women’s Fiction by Annis Pratt
Melanie Lynskey interview on Fresh Air
Incorrect Logline: Letterboxd