Girls Town Review: Young Women Ahead of Their Time

Nearly three decades on from its debut, the re-release of Girls Town shows this coming-of-age drama is more potent than ever.

Jim McKay’s Sundance hit gets a 4K restoration and re-release for an audience that will doubtlessly be receptive to its message.

Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor is a busy actress of late. The last year alone saw her in The Deliverance, Exhibiting Forgiveness and Nickel Boys. All this is a long way from her modest but sturdy debut here. The film opens with her character Nikki walking down the street in slo-mo, a scene soundtracked by her own muffled screaming. As suggested in this moment, Nikki and her friends, the main characters of Girls Town, are haunted by their mistakes and the actions of others, and are forever trying to forge ahead regardless. They have hopes and dreams, despite being hemmed into a deprived environment. As one of them notes, “this ain’t no 90210.” McKay shoots these New Jersey backlots and apartment blocks with urgency, but without feeling voyeuristic. The aim of Girls Town is to document these young women’s experiences, not to exploit them.

Nikki’s friends are proto-feminist Emma (Anna Grace), the brilliantly blunt Angela (Bruklin Harris) and fiery single mother Patti (Lili Taylor). All three are trying to get through the usual demands of teenage life – school, work, boyfriends, family – but the girls see each other through thick and thin. The group’s resolve is tested when Nikki takes her own life. It’s a surprising early development, one that shows Girls Town wants to be taken seriously. Forget contemporaries like Clueless; this has the same scruffy independent fierceness of Just Another Girl on the I.R.T., and many of the same concerns too. McKay allows his three leads to improvise much of the script, leading to dialogue that feels grounded and raw. That said, it refuses to be maudlin like Kids; these young women are proactive, and determined to transcend any miseries in their lives.

Bereft and searching for answers, the three girls read Nikki’s journal for possible reasons as to her suicide. The sad part is that the indignities she documented are all too relatable to her friends. All three have endured all forms of harassment and abuse, but the fact that it has driven one of their own to her death motivates them to seek justice. Bruklin, Taylor and Grace all give excellently intense and lived-in performances. Their physical and emotional anger is palpable; witness their treatment of a harasser’s car in response to a transgression too many. Ellis-Taylor may not be as present as her co-stars, but her story is the backbone of Girls Town, and she’s a suitably endearing presence. Seeing her career blossom in later years is a delightful appendix to Girls Town’s story.

The lexicon and honesty of Girls Town marks it as a film ahead of its time. Emma encourages her friends to ‘subvert the patriarchy’, and all three young women are forthright in confronting the obstacles in their way. Whether daycare problems, distant parents or uncaring boys (A babyfaced Michael Imperioli appears as a catcalling suitor), the girls are not putting up with the nonsense the world throws at them.

Crucially, though, this attitude is shown as coming from necessity rather than ideology. Their pursuit of justice is informed by the harshness of their circumstance, and McKay and the three leads make sure to be honest in portraying that harshness. Granted, the lo-fi aesthetic and bad attitudes are exactly what one would expect from a confrontational indie fresh out of Sundance at its ‘90s peak. Girls Town is subversive in content but not form. Still, when that form consists of such organic anger and performances, accompanied by confident direction and a terrific soundtrack (Queen Latifah’s ‘U N I T Y’ is still a great earworm), the content shines bright. Don’t mess with these girls; they’ve been messed around plenty. Just don’t call them ‘timely’.

A 4K restoration of Girls Town will be released in US theatres on January 17, 2025.