Beautiful Girls (1996)
84%RT Audience Score: 80%
Awards & Nominations: 1 win & 3 nominations
A warm, thoughtful dramedy about male insecurity, Beautiful Girls is buoyed by an excellent cast – particularly Natalie Portman in a stunning early role
Beautiful Girls is a movie that perfectly captures the struggles of being a guy, from the everyday trials of life to the thick-headed boy-talk that we all know too well. But let’s be real, the real star of the show is Natalie Portman, who steals every scene she’s in and lights up the entire movie. Sure, the relationship between her and Timothy Hutton might be a little questionable, but let’s not focus on that. Instead, let’s raise a glass to the barroom eloquence, bottle-bottomed anxiety, and stumblebum sadness that lingers in the bones of this salty, self-aware film. Cheers to Beautiful Girls!
Production Company(ies)
Rita Productions, Blue Spirit Animation Gébéka Films,
Distributor
Miramax Films
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
Stillwater, Minnesota, USA
MPAA / Certificate
Rated R for strong language and nude pin-ups
Year of Release
1996
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby Digital
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Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
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Runtime:1h 52m
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Language(s):English
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Feb 9, 1996 Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Jun 21, 2011
Genre(s)
Comedy
Keyword(s)
starring Timothy Hutton, Matt Dillon, Noah Emmerich, Annabeth Gish, Lauren Holly, Rosie O’Donnell, Mira Sorvino, Uma Thurman, Natalie Portman, directed by Ted Demme, written by Scott Rosenberg, produced by Cary Woods, comedy, R rating, box office gross $10.6M, reviewed by Jonathan Rosenbaum, Darren Bignell, Richard Schickel, Todd McCarthy, Edward Guthmann, Peter Travers, Eddie Harrison, Nick Rogers, Felix Vasquez Jr., Emanuel Levy, Cole Smithey, Susan Granger
Worldwide gross: $10,597,759
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $20,228,425
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,707
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 2,205,935
US/Canada gross: $10,597,759
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $20,228,425
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,415
US/Canada opening weekend: $2,761,790
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $5,271,554
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,092
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): NA
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
Matt Dillon – Tommy “Birdman” Rowland
Noah Emmerich – Michael “Mo” Morris
Annabeth Gish – Tracy Stover
Lauren Holly – Darian Smalls
Rosie O’Donnell – Gina Barrisano
Director – Ted Demme
Producer – Cary Woods
Writer – Scott Rosenberg
Director(s)
Ted Demme
Writer(s)
Scott Rosenberg
Producer(s)
Cary Woods
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
1 win & 3 nominations
Academy Awards
All Critics (48) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (37) | Rotten (11)
Beautiful Girls would have us believe being a guy is hard, confusing, nay, downright torturous.
June 15, 2022
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
TOP CRITIC
This film really succeeds with its warm treatment of ordinary hang-ups — no life-shattering revelations or pain repressed since childhood, just the genuine, everyday trials of life.
August 20, 2010 | Rating: 4/5
Darren Bignell
Empire Magazine
TOP CRITIC
Beautiful Girls is always in touch with reality but never drowned in it.
November 27, 2009
Richard Schickel
TIME Magazine
TOP CRITIC
This startlingly uneventful compendium of thick-headed boy-talk and female tolerance squanders a fine cast on incredibly ordinary characters and situations.
March 26, 2009
Todd McCarthy
Variety
TOP CRITIC
It’s the women who break the monotony of this dudes-in-flux saga…
June 18, 2002 | Rating: 2/4
Edward Guthmann
San Francisco Chronicle
TOP CRITIC
In a relationship that skirts bad taste, Hutton and Portman make tender movie magic, giving this big-screen spin on Friends its only moments of true romantic yearning.
May 12, 2001 | Rating: 3/4
Peter Travers
Rolling Stone
TOP CRITIC
…the kind of salty, self-aware movie that nobody seems to make these days…
February 17, 2021 | Rating: 4/5
Eddie Harrison
film-authority.com
Does “Beautiful Girls” philosophically aspire to much more than mirroring a Counting Crows lyric from “Mr. Jones?” Maybe not. But there’s a barroom eloquence, bottle-bottomed anxiety and stumblebum sadness to it that lingers in its bones.
January 29, 2016 | Rating: 4.5/5
Nick Rogers
The Film Yap
Natalie Portman steals all the scenes with Timothy Hutton and lights up the movie…
April 29, 2009
Felix Vasquez Jr.
Cinema Crazed
Ted Demme’s coming of age tale is about guys in their 20s who refuse or are unable to mature, which might explain why the most captivating relationship is between Timothy Hutton and the 13-year-old Natalie Portman.
April 4, 2006 | Rating: B
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
September 26, 2005 | Rating: 3/5
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com
July 29, 2005 | Rating: 3/5
Susan Granger
www.susangranger.com…
Plot
New York based jazz pianist Willie Conway heads back to his small hometown of Knights Ridge, Massachusetts for a high school reunion. The trip is as much to go to the reunion and see his old friends – none of whom left Knights Ridge after graduation – as it is to get away from his current life, at which he is at a crossroads both personally and professionally. He is just eking out a living with his piano playing gigs, and as such he is thinking about taking a sales job. He’s also not sure if he’s ready to marry his long time girlfriend, lawyer Tracy Stover. Most of Willie’s Knights Ridge blue collar friends’ best days were in high school, they still having that “trophy” mentality of girlfriends and wives. Only Michael “Mo” Morris is happily married with a family. Paul Kirkwood, whose room is plastered with magazine pictures of models, wants his waitress ex-girlfriend Jan back only because he knows now that he can’t have her. And Tommy “Birdman” Rowland, who was the big man in high school, is trying to end his affair with his now married high school girlfriend, Darian Smalls. Despite knowing about Darian, Tommy’s current girlfriend, Sharon Cassidy, stands by her man through bad and worse. A cousin of their bar owning friend Stanley “Stinky” Womack, the beautiful Andera who is visiting from Chicago, may provide the voice of reason for this group of friends in dealing with their women problems. Some reason is what Willie may need in trying to figure out why he is attracted to Marty, his father’s thirteen year old neighbor, especially as Willie learns that Tracy has decided to join him for the reunion.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Fresh Kernels notes that Beautiful Girls features a “buoyed by an excellent cast – particularly Natalie Portman in a stunning early role.”
Ted-Demme.jpg
