Title: Big Girls Don’t Cry
MPA Rating: Not Rated
Director: Paloma Schneideman
Starring: Ani Palmer, Noah Taylor, Rain Spencer
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins

What It Is: It’s 2006 in rural New Zealand and 14 year old Sid (Palmer) is quite the parrot of those around her. She just wants to fit in with the popular girls at school. That means leaving behind the friends she’s had since she was a much younger child. When she meets an American exchange student who’s a friend of her older sister, she can’t help but become obsessed with her. Now she’ll have a summer that will change her mindset as she discovers her identity and love in the ascension of the internet age.

What We Think: Coming of age films are always a bit of a delight. Ones framed around a time period of growth for yours truly, well that hits different. I was 19 years old in 2006. I too chatted with friends and girls on MSN and AIM. Myspace was firmly a thing by now. All of these things hit hard. Ani Palmer’s performance as Sid is excellent. She’s the heartbeat of the film and delivers with all the weight placed on her. I lived through the time and it’s fairly accurate there. I can’t speak to the place because I’ve never gotten to visit the lovely island of New Zealand. Paloma Schneideman does a beautiful job with her direction here. Her script is also really well put together. Something tells me there’s little bits of her scattered in those pages.

Our Grade: B-, Its exploration of its themes is really well done. Paloma Schneideman spoke a little about its story in the video above. Examining that section of life between girlhood and womanhood is not something I can relate to, but it makes films that center on these themes something I get to learn from. I love being put in places I have never and can never experience and this was a great example of that. It was a really nice surprise to end the festival with. Check this one out whenever it releases.