More than a music video, “Girls Like Girls” played like a short film, with the credits revealing the names of the characters: Coley, Sonya, and Trenton. In 2023, this love triangle will be introduced in the pop star’s debut novel, also titled Girls like girls.
Now, after a decade of living with this tale of sapphic longing and first love, Kiyoko delivers a sobering and poignant coming-of-age film Girls like girls.
girls like girls First is a simple drama of love and heartache.
Credit: Dan Power / Focus Features LLC
Set in 2006, Kiyoko’s debut feature packs a healthy dose of nostalgia for the early era of the Internet. The soundtrack highlights Tegan and Sara’s romance “Speak slowly,” Imogen Heap’s Electro Ballad “Hide and Seek,” And the speed of radio is slow “Sexy boy.”
teens in girls like girls There are cell phones, but instant messaging on a bulky PC is how 17-year-old Colie (Maya Da Costa) prefers to reach her crush, feminine and fun-loving party girl Sonya (Myra Molloy).
Newly arrived in the city in the hot summer, Koli is spending time alone in the restaurant when she notices Sonya, who is glowing with laughter and being praised by her group of friends. With a shared glance, Sonya invites Collie into her world, where house parties are wild, lakeside fun is frequent, and Sapphic flirtation only occurs when Sonya’s boyfriend, Trent (Levon Hawk) is not around.
Kiyoko portrays the easy swoon of young love with a montage of two girls moving into each other’s arms and then breathing. But as confident as Sonya seems, it fades away when someone begins to suspect that she and Collie are more than just friends. After moving his belongings to this cozy Oregon town, Collie finds the push and pull of Sonya’s affection clouding his own vision. Grieving the loss of her mother and living with an estranged father (Jack Braff) whom she barely knows, Colie fears that if Sonya cannot love him, she is doomed to be unlovable.
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girls like girls Provides a place for lesbian girls to explore it.
Credit: Dan Power / Focus Features LLC
For Koli and Sonya, their attraction towards each other is so simple and natural that they do not initially question it. They follow it – slowly and jerkily, but eagerly.
In the privacy of Sonya’s charming bedroom or her family’s backyard pool, they find sanctuary to explore who they are together. Like the 2015 short film Prerna, girls like girls Deftly captures longing in a gaze and excitement in a stolen touch.
As she did in the music video, Coley wears an oversized jean jacket and a mid-2000s tattoo-choker made of black plastic swirls that stretch around the wearer’s neck. She rides the bike, tired, but hers. And, as teased on the book’s cover, a key moment still takes place poolside — though without the beat(ing) that follows. (Be sure to watch the credits for a post-credits scene worth the wait.)
A change from the first incarnation, girls like girls It is less about the violence that queer people can suffer from homosexuality, and more about choosing happiness rather than fear of violence and isolation. Because Sonya initially seems impossibly cool and calm, as Collie gets closer, she realizes that her crush is surrounded by friends she can’t trust to be around herself. So Collie is faced with a choice about who she wants to be with in this new city, and if that means becoming a fool for love.
Myra Molloy and Maya Da Costa make a compelling pair.
Credit: Dan Power / Focus Features LLC
Molloy can teach a class how to flip her hair. Her easy grace and bubbly energy make her instantly recognizable as That Girl. Sonya makes it look easy to be a teenage girl. She radiates happiness and coolness, and even when you realize it’s a sham, you still envy her ability to generate it.
Sonya is an enthusiastic person who practically drags Collie into her friend group, her pool, and her kisses. Meanwhile, Kiyoko writes her protagonist as almost annoyingly passive. She is very afraid of taking a wrong step, Koli is like a shadow in her life, following Sonya around, afraid to come into the light. Cleverly, Koli’s father is actually drawn as a shadow in the first half of the film.
For several scenes, I saw a middle-aged man in the frame talking softly in a dark room, trying to see who it was. This staging shows how Koli sees his father as a distant and unknown person. As they get closer, it will light up. And she will metaphorically follow, and blossom. Da Costa approaches this development with aplomb.
The romance and tenderness found in Kiyoko’s music videos beats Girls like girls. She breaks the conventions of queer coming-of-age stories by rejecting scenes of violence or social exclusion that once seemed necessary. Her heroine is also soft, not being the pursuer but the pursued. And its ending is not a promise of eternal devotion, but a small victory that seems too big for a girl in love.
girls like girls Will be released in theaters on June 19.
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