‘Girls Like Girls’ review: Hayley Kiyoko captures so much anticipation for the upcoming drama

Hayley Kiyoko’s journey to her directorial debut, Girls Like Girls, started in 2015. It was then that the Disney child star-turned-singer/songwriter released “Girls Like Girls,” and the following viral videowhich Kiyoko co-edited with Austin S. Winchell.

More than a music video, “Girls Like Girls” played like a short film, complete with credits revealing the names of the characters: Coley, Sonya, and Trenton. In 2023, this love triangle will be released in the pop star’s first novel, also titled. Girls Like Girls.

Now, after ten years of living with this story of deep longing and first love, Kiyoko brings an honest and poignant film that comes with Girls Like Girls.

Girls Like Girls a low-key drama of first love and heartbreak.

Set in 2006, Kiyoko’s first feature has a healthy dose of nostalgia for the early years of the internet. The song features Tegan and Sara’s Rich “Speak Slowly,” Imogen Heap’s electro ballad “Hide and seek,” and AIR’s trippy “Sexy Boy.”

New in Girls Like Girls they have cell phones, but instant messaging on the ultimate PC is how 17-year-old Coley (Maya da Costa) likes to extend her feminine hand to party-goer Sonya (Myra Molloy).

New to town on a hot summer day, Coley is killing time eating alone when he first sees Sonya, who is beaming with laughter and adored by her circle of friends. With just one look, Sonya ushers Coley into their world, where house parties are wild, hanging out at the pool is frequent, and sapphic flirting only happens when Sonya’s boyfriend, Trent (Levon Hawke), isn’t around.

Kiyoko captures the simple blur of young love through montages of two girls finding their way to embrace each other, then breathe. But as confident as Sonya seems, she is desperate whenever someone starts to suspect that she and Coley are more than just friends. After bringing his own baggage to this cozy Oregon town, Coley finds the push and pull of Sonya’s love surpassing his imagination. Grieving the loss of her mother and living with her estranged father (Zach Braff), Coley fears that if Sonya can’t love her, she won’t.

Girls Like Girls it provides a space for gay girls to understand.

Credit: Dan Power / Focus Feature LLC

For Coley and Sonya, their attraction is so easy and natural that they don’t recognize it at first. They followed it – slowly and shakily, but seriously.

In the privacy of Sonya’s girls’ bedroom or her family’s backyard pool, they find a place to explore who they are together. As the inspiration for a short film from 2015, Girls Like Girls cleverly capturing the longing in the gaze, the pleasure in the stolen touch.

As she does in the music video, Coley sports an oversized jean jacket and a mid-2000s tattoo-choker, made of black plastic twists that stretch around the wearer’s neck. He rides a bike, a broken one, but his. And, as teased on the book’s cover, the pivotal moment still takes place by the pool — albeit without the beat(ing) afterwards. (Stay through the credits for the post-credit scene worth waiting for.)

The change from the first flesh, Girls Like Girls it’s less about the violence that people can suffer from homosexuality, and more about choosing happiness over the fear of violence and alienation. Because although Sonya at first seems cool and unproblematic, as Coley gets closer, she realizes that her crush is surrounded by friends she can’t trust to be with her. So Coley is faced with choosing who she wants to be in this new town, and if that means being a romantic fool.

Myra Molloy and Maya da Costa make a compelling pair.

Credit: Dan Power / Focus Feature LLC

Molloy could teach the class how to flip her hair. Her sweet grace and flirtatious power make her instantly recognizable as that girl. Sonya makes being a girl look easy. She exudes happiness and coolness, and even if you find it’s a facade, you envy her ability to produce it.

Sonya is the player who drags Coley to her group of friends, her swimming pool, and her kisses. Meanwhile, Kiyoko writes her character to be almost annoyingly silent. Too afraid to make the wrong move, Coley is like a shadow in her life, trailing behind Sonya, afraid to be in the spotlight. Cleverly, this is how Coley’s father was introduced in the first part of the film – as a shadow.

For several seconds, I stared into the frame of a middle-aged man speaking softly in a dark room, trying to see who he was. This scene shows how Coley sees his father, as a distant and unknown person. As they approach, you will step into the light. And he will follow, figuratively speaking, and blossom. Da Costa makes this transition with determination.

The love and compassion found in Kiyoko’s music videos is touching Girls Like Girls. He breaks from the deceptive conventions of emerging fiction by rejecting scenes of violence or social stigma that seemed necessary. Her heroine is soft, too, not pursuing but being pursued. And his fate is not a promise of eternal devotion, but a small victory that feels great for a girl in love.

Girls Like Girls opens in theaters June 19.