Girls Like Girls

Our Verdict on Girls Like Girls

Girls Like Girls is exactly what it advertises itself to be. That is both its most honest quality and, for VirtueVigil readers, its most important characteristic to understand upfront.

Hayley Kiyoko built a decade of her career on this story. The 2015 song. The music video. The 2023 novel. Now the film. This project did not arrive from a place of cinematic ambition stretching beyond her established brand. It arrived from a place of complete ideological conviction. Kiyoko knows who her audience is. Her audience knows who she is. Girls Like Girls the film exists to serve that relationship.

The story centers on Coley, 17, grieving her mother in rural Oregon. Meeting Sonya disrupts the grief with new, confusing feelings. Sonya, for her part, has never considered dating a girl but finds herself drawn in anyway. The film follows them navigating the gap between self-doubt and connection.

As filmmaking, it is competent. The Kelowna landscapes stand in convincingly for rural Oregon. Sonja Tsypin's cinematography captures the naturalistic intimacy the story requires. Maya da Costa and Myra Molloy carry the emotional weight without being overwhelmed by it. Zach Braff shows up in a supporting role that will not challenge anyone's expectations.

The Guardian called it 'a precious and predictable yawn-a-thon.' The Hollywood Reporter noted the plot is 'so simple that for long stretches it barely counts as a plot at all.' These are accurate observations. The film prioritizes emotional texture over narrative architecture. For audiences seeking that, it delivers. For audiences seeking story, it frustrates.

From a VVWS perspective, there is very little to analyze that is not immediately obvious. The entire film is the woke content. The sapphic romance is not a subplot or a secondary element woven into a larger story. It is the complete picture. A girl meets a girl. Feelings happen. The film's only dramatic question is whether they will act on those feelings. They do.

There are some traditional elements worth noting. The grief processing is genuine and handled with care. The rural Oregon setting carries implied conservatism in its geography, though the film makes no ideological use of it. Coley's dead mother functions as a wound that makes her vulnerable and open to connection. That grief is real and recognizable regardless of ideology.

But the scorecard is what it is. This is a film designed to celebrate and normalize a sapphic teen romance. It does that clearly, competently, and without apology. VirtueVigil readers who want to see it for themselves will find a well-intentioned, modestly executed coming-of-age film that is unambiguous in its ideological commitments. Everyone else already knows to skip it.

Woke Tropes & Content Analysis

Formula: Weighted Score = Severity × Authenticity Multiplier × Centrality Multiplier

🔴 Woke Tropes

Trope	Severity	Authenticity	Centrality	Score
Sapphic romance as central and complete narrative	5	High	High	6.3
Queer identity exploration as coming-of-age framework	4	High	High	5.04
Bi-curious character normalization	3	High	Moderate	2.1
Absent traditional family structure	2	Moderate	Moderate	2
Emotion-first narrative architecture	2	High	Moderate	1.4
TOTAL WOKE				16.8

🟢 Traditional Tropes

Trope	Severity	Authenticity	Centrality	Score
Grief processing and honoring the dead	3	High	Moderate	2.1
Rural small-town community setting	2	High	Low	0.7
Coming-of-age growth through adversity	2	High	Moderate	1.4
TOTAL TRADITIONAL				4.2

Score Margin: -13 WOKE

Content Breakdown

Is Girls Like Girls Safe for Kids?