The Nasty Girl

Play trailer

The Nasty Girl

PG-13

Released Feb 15, 1990

1h 33m

Comedy

Drama

Play Trailer

Watchlist

Watchlist

Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

57%

Tomatometer

7 Reviews

75%

Popcornmeter

1,000+ Ratings

Loosely based on a true story, this German film follows Sonja (Lena Stolze), a small-town teen, as she enters an essay contest and ends up researching her city's involvement with the Third Reich. While the town has a reputation for resisting Nazi influence, Sonja discovers that many locals actually collaborated with the Gestapo and had deep roots within the Third Reich. Eventually, Sonja's investigation leads some citizens to try to block her efforts to uncover the truth.

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

The Nasty Girl is a movie of figureheads, not characters.

Rated: 2/4

May 24, 2022

Full Review

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

It's the film's style that I object to. The story itself is fascinating, but the style seems to add another tone, a level of irony that is somehow confusing.

Rated: 2.5/4

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Juan Carlos Coto

Miami Herald

The Nasty Girl is about the power of history and everyone's own brand of personal repression. Yes, it's a universal tale, and at the same time that it enlightens it gives you a chill.

Rated: 3/4

Aug 16, 2021

Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Germany's Oscar nominated film is an intriguing but flawed tale of a Bavarian girl who digs into the past and reveals undesirable facts about her town's "respectale" citizens during the Nazi era.

Rated: B-

Feb 19, 2011

Full Review

Carol Cling

Las Vegas Review-Journal

Rated: 5/5

Aug 22, 2003

Full Review

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Spirituality & Practice

Tells the true story of a Bavarian girl's quest to find out the truth about her small village's history during World War II

Jul 20, 2003

Full Review

Read all reviews

Audience Member

Although it's a tough topic, its sto?y-telling style is enjoyable.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A young woman investigates her Bavarian village and it's people's involvement during the Second World War and the townsfolk turn on her. It's a little too art house for my personal taste but a rather unique experience. I probably wouldn't watch it again though.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/19/23

Full Review

Audience Member

An oddly cheeky and eccentric glance at the most sobering subject of the last century: the assent of ordinary German people to the monstrosity of Nazism. The film is a stylistic and tonal mess, a jarring blend of Brecht, Woody Allen and Michael Haneke. Some scenes play out choppy, funny Amelie-style back story. Others have a curiously stagey, spotlit feel with back-projected black and white backgrounds. Extreme close-ups are suddenly employed, along with the odd moment of magic realism. There are moments of slapstick. The rest of the film is reasonably realistic, with the more appropriate tension of an journalistic investigation drama. The style ruins the substance and you never really get a chance to empathise with either the title character or those surrounding her or indeed the Jewish victims she is supposedly campaigning to vindicate. Ebert's verdict is spot on: "There is a story to be told here, but somehow you have to see straight through the movie to find it."

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/29/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The original Erin Brokovich, a spunky underdog. A Bavarian black comedy.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/18/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Not particularly a valuable addition to the film canon about the Nazi period.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/07/23

Full Review

Audience Member

It's a hard balance of satire and serious content that's achieved in the film as a young woman throughout years of research and secrets tries to determine what happened in her village during the occupation of the Third Reich. The only flaws come in starting to shift the narrative perspective about halfway through the film and the extremely abrupt ending.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/20/23

Full Review

Read all reviews

Read More

Read Less

POST RATING

WRITE A REVIEW

EDIT REVIEW

Michael Verhoeven

Director

Lena Stolze

Sonja

Monika Baumgartner

Sonja's mother

Michael Gahr

Paul Rosenberger

Fred Stillkrauth

Sonja's uncle

Elisabeth Bertram

Sonja's grandma

Show Less Cast & Crew

Show More Cast & Crew

Men Don't Leave

83%

62%

Men Don't Leave

Watchlist

Crimes and Misdemeanors

92%

91%

Crimes and Misdemeanors

Watchlist

Impromptu

74%

71%

Impromptu

Watchlist

Short Time

29%

54%

Short Time

Watchlist

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

View more photos

Synopsis

Loosely based on a true story, this German film follows Sonja (Lena Stolze), a small-town teen, as she enters an essay contest and ends up researching her city's involvement with the Third Reich. While the town has a reputation for resisting Nazi influence, Sonja discovers that many locals actually collaborated with the Gestapo and had deep roots within the Third Reich. Eventually, Sonja's investigation leads some citizens to try to block her efforts to uncover the truth.

Director: Michael Verhoeven
Producer: Helmut Rasp, Michael Senftleben
Distributor: Miramax Films
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: German
Release Date (Theaters): Feb 15, 1990, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 5, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $54.0K
Runtime: 1h 33m

Most Popular at Home Now