Let me take you back to 2015. When the world was arguing over whether a dress was Black/Blue or Gold/White. Adele came back out of hibernation and dropped her 3rd studio album 25 thus completely dominating the charts. And fangirls around the world were devastatingly heartbroken at the news of Zayn leaving One Direction forever!
Simultaneously, 2015 was also a huge year for the LGBTQ+ Community. Seeing a massive rise in queer visibility in music, television and mainstream media. Caitlin Jenner hit the cover of Vanity Fair in all of her glory, and although we do not stand with her values of today, that was a giant leap for trans-kind (if you will). Cate Blanchette became an icon of lesbian culture in Todd Haynes’ romantic drama ‘Carol’. And we saw a full frontal Ruby Rose within the walls of Litchfield Prison as she made an enemy out of every Vause-man shipper on the planet.
But personally my stand out moment of 2015 took place on June 24th. Three weeks into pride month when my deeply closeted lesbian self’s world was rocked to its very core when Hayley Kiyoko released her latest music video ‘Girls like Girls’. The music video took the queer world by storm and turned ripples into waves on the Lesbian Tumblr scene. Kiyoko had somehow completely encapsulated a cannon event in every queer girl’s life. Falling in love with the unattainable, straight girl best friend, who, of course has a boyfriend. But this time, with a plot twist. Instead of pining after the girl from a far and NEVER telling her of such feelings until you ultimately push her away forever in fear you’ll be ostracised from society. Our protagonist actually gets the girl. And somehow she captured all of that in a mere 300 seconds. Thus adorning the title ‘Lesbian Jesus’.
Kiyoko delivered again with the release of “Girls Like Girls: A Novel” in 2023 satiating our thirst for more of this inspiring love story and then some! Leading to where we are now, a full length feature film directed- much like the music video- by Lesbian Jesus herself.
Unlike the viral music video where we saw Stefani Scott (Girl in the Basement, Insidious 3) in the role of our protagonist Coley. This feature film stars two relatively new break out stars, Maya Da Costa and Myra Malloy. Metaphorically passing on the torch to the new era of Girls Like Girls. Despite their very similar names these girls brought two entirely new perspectives to these beloved characters whilst keeping it true to its origin. With Kiyoko herself keeping true to her roots, forgoing bringing the film into the current decade and keeping Girls Like Girls planted firmly in the nostalgically firm soil of the 2010s. And since this movie was loosely inspired by events in the singers early queer life I- and I’m sure many others- believe this was the right choice. Girls Like Girls beautifully captures what it was like to fall in love via flip phones, direct messaging on a computer and spending your entire day at your secret crush’s house because you just can’t get enough and seem to like torturing yourself.
The story follows Coley (Da Costa) after moving to a small town in Oregon to live with her estranged father (Zach Braff). It’s there that she meets the charismatic slightly enigmatic popular girl Sonya, her equally popular boyfriend Trenton and the rest of their friends. We follow Coley as she navigates not only a new town to call home and a father who never wanted to know her until now, but also an all-consuming, terrifying crush on her new girl best friend.
This film is a heartfelt, nostalgic trip down the winding roads of a first sapphic love. Capturing through the lens how it feels to overthink every text message, question every slightly lingering touch and the butterflies that almost erupt in your stomach when your eyes catch across a crowded room and she’s all you see. The actresses chemistry is a real highlight of this feature. Never feeling strained or forced, they have a natural energy between them that allows us as the viewer to long for their relationship right beside them. The cinematography seems to flow as if floating on a cloud much like you would be in the heady midst of infatuation. And the colour palette of this movie enhances the vibrancy of everyone’s dream summer and is the perfect setting for such a romance to unfold.
In the music video and book, the climax of the film sees Trenton the disgruntled jealous boyfriend attacking Coley solely for who she loves. Something that shocked and silenced the audience in 2015. As a day one fan of the song and video, you find yourself reluctantly waiting in terror for that scene to be recreated and blown up in 4K on the big screen right before your eyes. So it’s a breath of fresh air at the lack of such a scene, something I have to applaud the singer for doing. Instead using this reimagining to focus on emotional teenage angst, heart wrenching moments of grief and in the end true self acceptance. Giving all young queer people potentially watching this, hope and strength in their own journey to finding who they are.
Although the downside to removing this pivotal scene means that at times the movie seems a little slow and lacklustre. Relying heavily on cliche teenage drama and unnecessary fall outs. The absence of this climax also brings an abrupt and somewhat confusing end to our characters story and leaving us wanting more.
Girls Like Girls is currently sparking the discussion that this feature may have been more successful 10 years ago. However I believe that criticism could be a compliment in this scenario. Kiyoko made this movie for her fans, just as she did the book, the music video and all the way back to moment she put her pen to paper and gave us Girls Like Girls the song. It’s an ode to all the queer girls who immediately identified with Coley or even Sonya. An actual representation of all that we were thinking, feeling and questioning back then. This movie gave us the opportunity to look back and see how far we’ve come. Some of us may have gone to see this with a wife or a girlfriend surrounded by other girls and their wives or girlfriends. Some of us might have seen it with the group of friends who accepted us immediately when we came out, or maybe you’re the new possibly closeted generation and this film gives you the strength to come out because being exactly who you are and loving who you love is more than okay.
So saying this would be more successful in 2015 is a good thing. It heals our 2015 past selves by giving us the chance to revisit her. To reassure and show her that Girls Like Girls like boys do, nothing new.
So on behalf of every one of these beautifully queer people watching this film, Thank you Hayley for giving us this.
Oh! And before I forget, that abrupt end to the film… yeah, make sure you stick around for the post credit scene. I’m telling you it’s worth it!
Girls Like Girls is Out Now
