So much average

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

*This film is the girls answer to Stand By Me* I saw the 1996 version because, I LOVE ANGELINA JOLIE! I read the book because I liked the movie! (I do things back wards, if I like the movie I read the book, while most other people do the opposite.) I liked the book because it gave better backstory to certain characters and was more dramatic! I liked the 1996 film because Angelina Jolie was in it was set in a contemporary setting and was more upbeat! The pros of the 2014 film, It is a lot closer to the book, except two or three scenes that were in the weren't in the film, (which may be a good thing) The cons of the 2014 film, Goldie is a lot less likable in the 2014 film vs the 1996 film, the tattoo scene in the 2014 film is non-nude.The 2014 film is a bit more depressing and drawn out than the 1996 film.If you want a modern upbeat quick feature w/ nudity! watch the 1996 film.if you want a story to play on you're emotions I recommend the 2014 film.the 1996 version is re-watchable and you walk away from it empowered and uplifted the 2014 isn't as re-watchable and leaves you feeling emotionally drained and a bit depressed! I also have the soundtrack to the 1955,1985 (SHOW)1996 film With the same name! including episodes from Call of the wild and the Russian Spy

Maddy Wirtz (Hedy Burress) can't wait to graduate and go to art school. She has no connection to anyone in school other than her boyfriend Ethan Bixby (Peter Facinelli). Then rebellious Legs Sadovsky (Angelina Jolie) shows up and turns her world upside down. Legs comes to the aid of beaten down Rita Faldes (Jenny Lewis). In the bathroom, Rita tells the girls that teacher Mr. Buttinger keeps her in detention where he gropes her. School slut Violet Kahn (Sarah Rosenberg) backs it up with a similar claim. The girls with spaced-out Goldie Goldman (Jenny Shimizu) confront the teacher. The girls are suspended. They find a gathering place in an abandoned home.This movie is adapted from a novel of a girl gang in the 50s. The movie starts out great. It builds up to the confrontation with Buttinger. It's terrific. While the movie diverges from the novel, I wish it diverge more by concentrating on the Buttinger situation. The girls aren't the same as the girls in the novel. It seems to me that these girls in the movie would narrow their focus on Buttinger. It's a question left hanging. The further away the movie goes, the less compelling it becomes. The movie tries to hit the big notes in the novel but it may be better off rewriting more of it.

What a great movie! Despite the low rating, this is a terrific 90's film with Angelina Jolie as Legs before she was famous, and even then, she was starting to show something very special. After a group of girls take revenge on a sadistic pedophile teacher, they get suspended by the dumb principal. They decide to stick together and move into an abandoned house. There, after they almost set fire to the school while trying to get the main character Maddy's portfolio, Legs tattoos herself and the other girls with a flame, bonding them all together for life. The film seemed to have a lot to do with the Riot Grrrl movement (an underground feminist punk music genre that helped girls making a name for themselves in a male dominated punk scene) In the film, the teenage girls are oppressed and abused while trying to stand up for themselves, even though they do things that aren't exactly right. The strong female bondage is brilliantly portrayed and I also loved the guitar solos in the music score, typical of the 90s.While some aspects of the film are a little clichéd and some situations are unrealistic, it's easier to tell ourselves that it's just a movie. I for one really enjoyed it.

...but for slightly different reasons. I read the book before I stumbled upon this unfortunate movie and it makes it all the more shameful. Joyce Carol Oates's novel is ingenious, it captures the nostalgia of a mid twentieth century in an upstate New York and the fierceness of femenism in spite of it. All the nuanced details of the book and the beauty of the characters are killed, as one can come to expect. What really surprises me is why Oates okayed the script. A lot has been altered here. It renders the original concept unrecognizable in fact. It's not something that would have been spotted upon reading the script; it wasn't so much a lousy directorial execution. Though then considered, they didn't even do as much as they could have even despite the handicapped script.