80
Metascore
11 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijThe Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijLifshitz never demonizes those that don’t understand or oppose Sasha’s desire to be who she really is and they remain almost entirely offscreen. Instead, the director chronicles, with immense warmth and generosity, the toll this outside opposition takes on Sasha and her loved ones and how much love, care and attention is needed to compensate for the fact she’s not simply accepted like all her peers.
- 90The New York TimesBeatrice LoayzaThe New York TimesBeatrice Loayza[A] disarmingly sensitive documentary.
- 90VarietyGuy LodgeVarietyGuy LodgeSébastien Lifshitz’s lovely, clear-eyed documentary thoughtfully articulates the disorientation of gender dysphoria not from the inside out — Sasha is never less than calmly convinced of who she is — but from the outside in, as her transitioning identity sparks confusion and resistance in an uninformed community, causing her anxiety in turn.
- 90The New YorkerRichard BrodyThe New YorkerRichard BrodyWith a limited, intimate focus, Little Girl becomes a grandly diagnostic analysis of French society, distilling the country’s fault lines into a few indelible images.
- 80The GuardianLeslie FelperinThe GuardianLeslie FelperinThis extraordinary documentary by director Sebastien Lifshitz, who has made many films about the LGBTQ+ experience (Wild Side, Bambi, Open Bodies), achieves a remarkable degree of intimacy with its young subject and her family.
- 80The Observer (UK)Simran HansThe Observer (UK)Simran Hans[A] tender observational documentary.
- 80Los Angeles TimesCarlos AguilarLos Angeles TimesCarlos AguilarWith sun-kissed cinematography by Paul Guilhaume and the construction of the story in miraculously intimate closeups of touching moments, “Little Girl” plays almost as if it were an aesthetically verité, yet scripted fiction film from the Dardenne brothers. It’s only the handful of interviews where the family speaks to the camera that breaks the spell.
- 80TheWrapDan CallahanTheWrapDan CallahanLifshitz envelops Sasha and her family in a sort of visual cocoon, as if to cradle them, shooting them in gentle afternoon light when they’re outside and in protective shadows when they are inside their house. His touch here is so delicate that it makes most American talking-heads documentaries look particularly crude and formulaic by comparison.
- 50Austin ChronicleAustin ChronicleCinematographer Paul Guilhaume paints dreamy scenes of happiness, too, playing in the backyard with siblings, trying on a pink bikini – in these moments we see the most of Sasha’s personality.