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Hayley Kiyoko’s Girls Like Girls Opens as Nostalgic Sapphic Coming‑of‑Age Film

Early reviews cast the debut as a warmly acted, Y2K-flavored portrait of queer first love that some critics say leans on mood more than narrative depth.

Overview

  • Focus Features releases Girls Like Girls in select U.S. theaters on Friday, June 19, with reviews noting a roughly 95-minute runtime and a teen-oriented classification in several markets.
  • The film follows 17-year-old Coley, who moves to a small Oregon town after her mother’s death and forms a fraught romantic bond with Sonya, and it stars Maya da Costa, Myra Molloy and Zach Braff in a supporting role.
  • Critics widely praise da Costa and Molloy for their chemistry and single-scene work while commending Hayley Kiyoko’s sensitive direction and the film’s warm, honey-lit cinematography.
  • Several reviewers argue the movie relies heavily on mid-2000s nostalgia and soft-focus mood — citing underdeveloped emotional texture, broad strokes in Coley’s grief arc, and a tendency to use Sonya more as catalyst than fully rounded character.
  • Kiyoko paired the release with a companion album that includes a re-recorded take on the 2015 title song, and the project completes a decade-long expansion from viral music video to bestselling novel to feature that fans say increases on-screen sapphic visibility.