Thoughts on Mae Makin’s In Between Girl

In Between Girl is an awkward trip though Angie’s teenage coming of age experiences.

In watching the trailer beforehand, I didn’t expect a whole lot from this movie. The music playing in the background of the whole trailer didn’t seem to fit, and I thought this was an indicator that the movie itself would be lacking in cohesion. Not long into the movie I was pleasantly surprised to realize how wrong I was.

Though painfully awkward to watch at times, In Between Girl was a well thought out piece of art.

Angie is an average teenage girl, right in the middle of discovering and creating herself, but thus far lacking the experiences necessary to have much self respect, confidence, or a solid moral compass.

A lot of illogical decision making is done on Angie’s part throughout the film, but I think that’s what makes it so relatable. In our search to find ourselves and what we want or care about, we’ve all made decisions that we can’t defend, usually even more than once, and especially during our most hormonal and awkward phases of life.

One thing I really appreciate about the film is that they didn’t make Sheryl out to be a bad person or bully. I loved that the reason she’s so popular is just because she’s actually really cool and likable. The acting was wonderful, and her likability felt really genuine. Actually, all of the characters felt well made and fleshed out, excluding Liam whom I think was built to be a pretty flat, self interested character whom everyone only liked because he was attractive and charismatic. The way he was written made it seem as if he might have even been a narcissist. He convinces Sheryl he loves her, convinces Angie he loves her, and moves on from both very quickly without ever seeming to be too upset with himself about any of it. He didn’t even have a hint of guilt on his face in the scenes afterwords, near the end of the movie. I’ve always had a hard time with the stereotype that girls are just naturally more emotionally developed than males, and that these sorts of things are to be expected from “average teenage boys”, so I see Liam’s character as lacking depth.

I did also have a hard time believing that Sheryl wouldn’t have noticed how much time Liam spent with Angie, and was surprised that never came up even before she knew. For a moment I believed that was the only reason she was trying to get close to Angie.

All that aside, I loved seeing the relationship between Angie and Sheryl be built. Their friendship felt natural, and I loved that they let it end after all was said and done instead of trying to put a happy bow on things. Even though Sheryl was reasonable and understanding, there was no way to pretend all of that didn’t happen between them, and ending the friendship was a necessary evil. There was no way to repair the damages.

I also really appreciated that neither of Angie’s parents were made out to be a bad guy. She was closer to her father who seemed more akin to her mindset, but they didn’t try to demonize the mom like I was expecting. She was just an average mom, and another pretty decent and reasonable person. All of the tension between Angie and her mother was really just from Angie going through an emotional time. Though Angie was embarrassed and felt awkward about admitting to having sex, her mom never gave her a reason to feel that way, and handled the situation very realistically. It was really satisfying to see Angie finally let down her walls about it in the end, and I think things wrapped up in a very comfortable way that was neither a happy ending nor a sad one. It was just a snap shot of a transformative and educational time in someone’s life, and a relatable process that we’ve all gone through in some way.

Ultimately, I would recommend this film to others as a thought provoking reminder of what everyone goes through, and good for an awkward laugh.