The Exploding Girl 2010

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: A Zen-like experience of watchful compassion in deliberately challenging circumstances: trying to see and hear, without leaping to conclusions, the gathering troubles of a young woman living in hectic circles and with increasing self-absorption. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: Like any good B-side, The Exploding Girl is engaging but rough, lacking the kind of polish that would make it a hit. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: 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. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Gray has an artful, understated way of conveying what's going 
on inside, often simply by focusing his camera on Kazan. And the actress has a unique capacity for projecting the complexity of feminine stillness. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Sometimes a carefully placed pinprick can stay with you longer than a heavier, clumsier blow, and so it is with Bradley Rust Gray's delicately done but indelible The Exploding Girl. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: This quietly poetic little gem contains many beautiful things, not least of which is leading lady Zoe Kazan, who lets every scene billow and swirl around her effortlessly. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Those who can hang on through the mumblecore-ish narrative languor of the nicely photographed The Exploding Girl will savor a very talented actress' sensitive portrait of youthful awkwardness. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: This is another dreary collaboration by husband-wife team Bradley Rust Gray and So Yong Kim, who have no idea what to do with a simple narrative. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: The Exploding Girl is a character study of one young woman - and of an entire generation struggling to maintain external maturity despite internal regression. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Read more

Karina Longworth, Village Voice: Avoiding allegorical cliches, Gray turns the frustrations of epilepsy into an effective metaphor for non-epileptic youthful paralysis, and the inevitable "explosion" into the culmination of all those growing pains Read more

Dan Kois, Washington Post: Viewers willing to slow down their cinematic metabolism enough to watch The Exploding Girl at its own pace will find their patience rewarded by moments of great beauty... Read more