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The Exploding Girl

Play trailer Poster for The Exploding Girl 2010 1h 20m Drama Romance Play Trailer Watchlist
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76% Tomatometer 38 Reviews 54% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
A college student (Zoe Kazan) considers a romance with her longtime best friend (Mark Rendall).

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The Exploding Girl

The Exploding Girl

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Critics Consensus

Its languid pace and willfully understated narrative may test the patience of some viewers, but Bradley Rust Gray's gentle direction and a gripping performance from Zoe Kazan lend The Exploding Girl an appealing, melancholy beauty.

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Critics Reviews

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Kimberley Jones Austin Chronicle 05/14/2010
4/5
Restless audiences may itch for more plot, for the kind of fiery dramatics that typify young love in the movies, but hold the explosives: There's tender drama, too, in the possibilities of a hand-hold. Go to Full Review
Ty Burr Boston Globe 05/06/2010
2.5/4
The Exploding Girl is a film about the deceptiveness of surfaces, and it takes place in a small town that you eventually realize with a start is actually New York City. Go to Full Review
Sam Adams Philadelphia City Paper 04/23/2010
A-
Gray's limpid compositions draw plangent stillness from urban darkness, counterpointing but not unbalancing his actors' understated naturalism. Go to Full Review
Dustin Chang Floating World 04/12/2021
This economically done film belongs to Kazan- with a lot of tight close ups, we intimately get to observe Ivy, a rather introverted, unremarkable college girl. Go to Full Review
Mattie Lucas From the Front Row 08/05/2019
2.5/4
Builds on character emotions and the atmosphere of the city, be it in the sound of a flock of birds at sunset or just the sounds of passing cars, to create something disarmingly beautiful. Go to Full Review
Lisa Rosman IFC.com 07/18/2017
In her first starring role, Kazan as Ivy vacillates wonderfully between insecurity and insouciance. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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02/21/2021 Incredible and beautiful indie from Bradley Rust Gray! A must see. So stoic and bold, a beyond elegantly nuanced performance by Zoe Kazan, and a story well worth its own weight in gold! Definitely this gem whenever you can! See more 07/04/2014 I have never really noticed Zoe Kazan as an actress before and now I've all of a sudden seen five of her movies in a row. Sadly this was the only one I haven't really enjoyed out of the five. The storyline and acting was great, the filmography was great as well, especially in the beginning and end. I just found it very slow and it was quite difficult managing to sit all the way through, despite it being very short. See more 08/30/2013 Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. See more 03/20/2013 The two things I remember about this movie: 1) The main character has epilepsy but that's not the point of the story. Both of the stars I gave the film are for the refreshing normalcy with which a "disabled" character is portrayed. 2) It's otherwise a movie about people not answering their cell phones when you want them to, providing a blow-by-blow account of nothing happening. See more 11/27/2012 This is reaaally slow. It was decent. Watch at your own risk. See more 04/12/2012 The Exploding Girl is kind of just a prototype of an independent film. It has scenes you've seen before, understated characters who go through hard times and mope around at parties, or have meaningless banter with their parents. Aside from being fairly well acted, this movie isn't much different than countless other indie films. The reason I like it is a purely egocentric one: I've found myself in situations like this before. Being a college student and observing the sort of innate transience of friendships, relationships, and environments, this movie did have some effect on me, despite the endless scenes of people walking or doing random things that establish far too much mood and far too little substance. I'd say there's a really great movie in here somewhere if ideas were expanded and the writer/director was willing to push a conventional film in a more audacious direction. See more Read all reviews
The Exploding Girl

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Movie Info

Synopsis A college student (Zoe Kazan) considers a romance with her longtime best friend (Mark Rendall).
Director
Bradley Rust Gray
Producer
Karin Chien, Ben Howe
Screenwriter
Bradley Rust Gray
Distributor
Oscilloscope Pictures
Production Co
MBS Productions, Parts and Labor, Soandbrad
Genre
Drama, Romance
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Mar 12, 2010, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Mar 17, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA)
$22.2K
Runtime
1h 20m
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