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Restored and Remastered, 1996’s Girls Town Still Kicks Ass

Photo: courtesy Film Movement Classics.

Even in the wild, daring, and often dazzling 1990s cinema—a decade known for experimentation and innovation on the indie scene—they didn’t make ’em quite like Girls Town. In some ways, the Sundance award-winning, Jim McKay-directed drama is perfectly representative of the era and the movement, given its young cast, contemporary storyline, hip-hop and indie soundtrack, and lo-fi vibe. Every year that decade saw fresh, smart, and often envelope-pushing films, ones that not only engaged their (admittedly often small) audiences and led to breakout careers for their stars and makers. But even then, Girls Town looks, and feels, a little different from the rest, and it’s back in theaters this month, courtesy Film Movement Classics, with a new 4K remastering that shows off all its of its virtues.

In the ’90s, for the first time, the topics of rape and consent became public. It really was not until Time Magazine’s 1991 feature on Katie Koestner that the previously taboo topic was laid on the table for discussion. On college campuses in particular, debates over consent policies became contentious. Girls Town was one of the first films to address the topic directly and in a way that lets its young and predominantly female cast improvise a great deal of their dialogue, privileging their voices and perspectives. It also addressed, bluntly and surprisingly, suicide. Yet despite its serious subject matter, Girls Town never feels leaden or dour. It’s a smart, often funny, and always engaging study of female adolescence, presented in a style that showcases its young stars.

Nikki (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) walks down the street.
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Nikki in Girls Town. Photo: courtesy Film Movement Classics.

The narrative concerns four lower-to-middle-class high school seniors and best friends as they prepare for a life beyond graduation. Each has her own dreams. Academic-minded Emma (Anna Grace) and Nikki (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) are off to Columbia and Princeton, respectively: for them, college is the default destination. Angela (Bruklin Harris) aspires to become a poet. Patti (Lili Taylor) is a young mother who’d be satisfied with a winning lottery ticket. They’re all bright, whip-smart (if in different ways), and intensely loyal. But their lives are when Nikki—who’d shown them no signs of depression or self-harm—commits suicide.

None of the three know how to grieve, exactly; nor do their school commitments allow any time, or guidance, for bereavement. (These were, remember, earlier days: like rape and consent, suicide was rarely spoken of in public.) Nikki, it turns out, had been keeping a journal and when the girls learn she had been the victim of sexual harassment and assault, the three become even more fiercely committed to revenge. Nikki’s rape and suicide are not, in Girls Town, mere plot points; they are palpable, unambiguous markers of the patriarchy they inhabit. Soon they realize those markers are everywhere: without divulging any more spoilers, suffice it to say that as the three open up to each other in the wake of their friend’s death, they realize they all had more in common than they thought possible.

(L-R) Lili Taylor as Patti, Anna Grace as Emma, and Bruklin Harris as Angela in Girls Town.
(L-R) Lili Taylor as Patti, Anna Grace as Emma, and Bruklin Harris as Angela in Girls Town. Photo: courtesy Film Movement Classics.

Soon, what began as an outpouring of grief becomes a war against the patriarchy. Armed with little more than their own smarts—not to mention a ring of keys, a can of spray paint, and some very well-placed kicks and punches—Emma, Patti, and Angela are out for revenge. Some of it is absolutely delicious, gleefully puncturing the assumed privilege of the young and less-young men who rule their lives. There’s just something about Lili Taylor keying a schmuck’s car that feels so, so good.

Speaking of Taylor, she was at the time, it felt, destined for greatness, having co-starred in films as diverse as Mystic Pizza, Born on the Fourth of July, Short Cuts, and I Shot Andy Warhol, and featuring as the lead in Nancy Savoca’s brilliant Dogfight and only slightly less-brilliant Household Saints. Casting her as Hispanic here is a stretch that you wouldn’t, thankfully, see today, but that doesn’t dampen her spark as the sprightly, spunky young single mom who takes the lead in a small revolution. (She won Best Actress Award at the Seattle International Film Festival and an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role.) Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, though seen only in the film’s opening act, is still going strong today, Oscar-nominated for King Richard a few years ago and shining brightly in Nickel Boys. Harris and Grace may make less of an impression, but their contributions are nonetheless invaluable to the film’s earnest and entirely girl-centric dialogue.

Much of that is by design. The film was shot on the proverbial shoestring: $30,000 and director McKay’s maxed-out credit cards. With screenwriter Denise Casano, he and four leads collaborated each day, the girls improvising lines and deliveries in their own learned speech patterns, in the process making the film not only their own but raw and authentic. There isn’t, despite the above plot summary, much of an actual narrative in Girls Town: scenes of talk are interrupted by outbursts of action, followed by scenes with no dialogue, then back to more talk. But plot isn’t the purpose here. What McKay, Casano, and his cast are after is more realistic in nature. The film is shot in a square, rounded-corner aspect ratio that makes it look like it’s made in Super 8 on a consumer camera one of the girls’ parents’ could afford; remastered on 4K, it looks pristine and brilliant.

To complement the all-female lead casting is a brilliant all-female hip-hop and alt-rock soundtrack featuring Queen Latifah, PJ Harvey, Roxanne Shante, Salt ‘n Pepa, Yo-Yo, Neneh Cherry, Luscious Jackson, Lamb, Roxanne Shanté, and more. Girls Town may, in some ways, feel like typical ’90s fare, but its improvisational acting, guerilla filmmaking, stellar soundtrack, and, especially, its willingness to tackle the day’s taboo topics by prioritizing its cast members voices, makes it well worth a watch. Girls Town had the misfortune, despite the accolades it earned at Sundance, of never finding much of an audience upon its initial release, and then missing the DVD craze that began later in the decade; its only home video release remains a little-seen VHS tape.

Girls Town isn’t a film you’ll see on best-of-decade or best-of-year lists, and it’s not without its flaws, but even in 2025 it remains a sprightly, thoughtful, and street-smart exploration of urban girlhood. You know, the kind of film that is, sadly even still, all too rare, and still, nearly 30 years later, still kicks ass.


The 4K restoration of Girls Town opens January 17 at New York City’s IFC Center, with additional markets to follow.

Written by J Paul Johnson

J Paul Johnson is Professor Emeritus of English and Film Studies at Winona (MN) State University. Since retiring in 2021 he publishes Film Obsessive, where he reviews new releases, writes retrospectives, interviews up-and-coming filmmakers, and oversees the site's staff of 25 writers and editors. His film scholarship appears in Women in the Western, Return of the Western (both Edinburgh UP), and Literature/Film Quarterly. An avid cinephile, collector, and curator, his interests range from classical Hollywood melodrama and genre films to world and independent cinemas and documentary.

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