It's easy to dismiss so much of this film as a gimmick on first-look. I mean, Girlhood... it just seems like such an obvious set-up for one of the most acclaimed films of this century. The good thing is that this film really isn't trying to follow the same structure as Boyhood. Whereas that film really embraced itself in realism, one can say that this one is trying to play with more conventional structures in terms of a 'coming of age" drama. One can say that the main character goes through more changes here, in ways that are more measurable. Perhaps in that way this film may not be as realistic, but perhaps in other ways it's more able to find something captivating in its quiet moments.
Review of Girlhood
