God Help the Girl 2014

Kyle Smith, New York Post: It essentially amounts to a series of music videos. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: At 90 minutes, this material might have sped through. Coming closer to two hours, it drags. Read more

Dennis Harvey, Variety: This debut film by Belle and Sebastian singer-songwriter Stuart Murdoch is a slender exercise in self-conscious charm. Read more

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, AV Club: Inconsistent in a way contemporary productions rarely are, its shortcomings the result of an excess of creative energy, rather than a lack thereof. Read more

Barbara VanDenburgh, Arizona Republic: It's adorable. It's also very thin. Read more

Peter Keough, Boston Globe: "Girl" meanders narratively and with random chronology ... Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The movie is like a milk shake so sweet that you want to keep drinking, even as you begin to gag. Read more

James Rocchi, Film.com: Fraught with ambition and aspiration, but thin on talent and technique. Read more

David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter: An indie musical that feels like one long B-side. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: The lively, playful, self-aware musical God Help the Girl has such a will-o'-the-wisp quality you fear it will disappear if you attempt to fence it. Read more

Graham Fuller, New York Daily News: A gentle musical drama that ultimately drifts into too many culs-de-sac. Read more

Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: Belle and Sebastian fans will be fully sated; everyone else might feel as if they'd consumed a meal consisting entirely of meringue. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Browning, staring down the camera and singing up a storm, brings buckets of soulfulness to a script that might not be terribly deep. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: This isn't a memorable or especially serious film, despite its nod toward "issues," but it has an insouciant spirit all its own. Read more

Michael Ordona, San Francisco Chronicle: Like the music, the filmmaking habitually meanders. Read more

Brad Wheeler, Globe and Mail: God Help the Girl is about aspirations and goals, musical or otherwise. Murdoch is working some things out here, gracefully on the whole. Read more

Catherine Bray, Time Out: The whole phantasmagorical enterprise is so sweetly confident that it just about gets away with its entirely casual approach to believability. Read more

Serena Donadoni, Village Voice: Browning captures Eve's weariness and enthusiasm, and her lovely voice and crisp delivery gives Murdoch's labored lyrics a vulnerable immediacy. Read more