The Exploding Girl (2009)

74% of critics liked it
(34 reviews)
54% of users liked it
(862 ratings)

Ivy (Zoe Kazan of Revolutionary Road) returns home to Brooklyn for her summer break from college. She misses her boyfriend, and calls him frequently, but they can't quite seem to connect. She spends a lot of time with her longtime friend, Al (Mark Rendall of 30 Days of Night). Al clearly has a… More Ivy (Zoe Kazan of Revolutionary Road) returns home to Brooklyn for her summer break from college. She misses her boyfriend, and calls him frequently, but they can't quite seem to connect. She spends a lot of time with her longtime friend, Al (Mark Rendall of 30 Days of Night). Al clearly has a longstanding crush on Ivy, about which he's never done anything, probably out of some combination of fear and respect for their friendship. His confusion is exacerbated when, due to family circumstances, he's forced to stay with Ivy and her mother (Maryann Urbano) during his break from school. As the summer goes on, Ivy deals with her epilepsy and the slow, painful dissolution of her relationship, while Al starts to look for love in other directions. Bradley Rust Gray wrote and directed The Exploding Girl, while his wife, So Yong Kim, served as a producer. Fans of the Cure will recognize the title as a play on their song "The Exploding Boy," the flip side of "In Between Days," which was the title of Kim's directorial debut, on which Gray served as co-writer and producer. The Exploding Girl had its North American premiere at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival, where it was shown in the World Narrative Competition. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 20 min.
Directed By: Bradley Rust Gray
Written By: Bradley Rust Gray
Genres: Documentary, Drama

In Theaters: Mar 12, 2010 Wide
On DVD: Jul 1, 2010
Studio: Ocscilloscope Pictures

Critic Reviews

Ty Burr, Boston Globe
The Exploding Girl is a film about the deceptiveness of surfaces, and it takes place in a small town that you eventually realize with a start is actually New York City.
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer
The Exploding Girl is a character study of one young woman - and of an entire generation struggling to maintain external maturity despite internal regression.
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
Sometimes a carefully placed pinprick can stay with you longer than a heavier, clumsier blow, and so it is with Bradley Rust Gray's delicately done but indelible The Exploding Girl.
Dan Kois, Washington Post
Viewers willing to slow down their cinematic metabolism enough to watch The Exploding Girl at its own pace will find their patience rewarded by moments of great beauty...
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
Gray has an artful, understated way of conveying what's going  on inside, often simply by focusing his camera on Kazan. And the actress has a unique capacity for projecting the complexity of feminine stillness.
Rex Reed, New York Observer
This is another dreary collaboration by husband-wife team Bradley Rust Gray and So Yong Kim, who have no idea what to do with a simple narrative.
David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews
...a mildly watchable showcase for Kazan's undeniably impressive performance.
Sean Axmaker, Parallax View
Bradley Rust Gray's film of a young college student (Zoe Kazan) home for the summer is a portrait in interlude.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
Kazan has a power of her own that is as strong as or stronger than the film's style, and she can carry a scene all by herself, even if the camera is merely watching her walk down the street.
Mike Russell, Oregonian
Kazan has a gift for letting you see her think, even when she's perfectly still; the film's title refers to the ferocious trauma happening between Ivy's ears and her silent struggle to keep it in check.
Kimberley Jones, Austin Chronicle
Restless audiences may itch for more plot, for the kind of fiery dramatics that typify young love in the movies, but hold the explosives: There's tender drama, too, in the possibilities of a hand-hold.
James Verniere, Boston Herald
"The Exploding Girl" can be grouped with those dreaded "mumblecore" movies in which young people talk endlessly about their romantic entanglements and attend terrible parties.
Zak Jason, Boston Phoenix
At least director Bradley Rust Grey contains all this diverting dithering in 80 minutes -- even without an explosion, there's intrigue in watching a short fuse burn.
Robin Clifford, Reeling Reviews
This is a mature story about the lives of two young people (and one voice) that kept my attention from start to finish.
Laura Clifford, Reeling Reviews
...a lovely, languorous film that does much with little and leaves you feeling like you've witnessed some minor miracle.
Janos Gereben, Entertainment Insiders
The Exploding Girl isn't a particularly plot driven film, but it has momentum, an undercurrent that tugs you along.
Tom Keogh, Seattle Times
A Zen-like experience of watchful compassion in deliberately challenging circumstances: trying to see and hear, without leaping to conclusions, the gathering troubles of a young woman living in hectic circles and with increasing self-absorption.
Annlee Ellingson, Moving Pictures Magazine
Sit with it a while %u2014 which isn't hard when you're watching Kazan. The cumulative effect is powerful. You begin to feel for her even though you haven't even met.
Pete Hammond, Back Stage
Indie down to its core , this dreary film fails to engage on many levels. The camera work is nice though, particularly when it's focused on pigeons.

Read all 19 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Jim H

A epileptic woman in a fizzling relationship considers romance with her longtime platonic friend. There are such long moments of silence in this film, the camera trained on Zoe Kazan's often impassive face through much of it, that it is easy to lose interest in the story and… More
A epileptic woman in a fizzling relationship considers romance with her longtime platonic friend. There are such long moments of silence in this film, the camera trained on Zoe Kazan's often impassive face through much of it, that it is easy to lose interest in the story and characters. As I watched the film, I thought that all of this must have happened to the writer or director, and he thought it was terribly compelling at the time and would've made a good film, but sometimes such personal stories don't translate. So much is built on silence, and sometimes I thought that whatever they were trying to communicate slipped through the cracks of understanding. Overall, I think this is a film you either love or hate, either connect with or don't, and I found myself checking my watch instead of propelled by the character's journey.
Walter M

In "The Exploding Girl," Ivy(Zoe Kazan) gets a ride from a college friend(Hunter Canning) and they collect her childhood friend Al(Mark Rendall) along the way to return home to New York City during spring break when it is very warm.(I know. I know. It was 70 degrees in the… More
In "The Exploding Girl," Ivy(Zoe Kazan) gets a ride from a college friend(Hunter Canning) and they collect her childhood friend Al(Mark Rendall) along the way to return home to New York City during spring break when it is very warm.(I know. I know. It was 70 degrees in the city yesterday and there was a long line at the smoothie shop. Still.) They are so close that they finish each other's pizza and it is no problem for Zoe to let Al sleep on her couch when he returns to find his room rented out.(Ouch.) They hang out, go to parties and in between, Ivy tries to get in touch with her boyfriend Greg(Franklin Pipp) which is hit and miss at best.(Technology has vastly improved but communication has not.) At the same time, Al is flirtatious and playing the field but has at least decided upon studying science.(And I really liked the Tesla references, by the way.) All is not fun and games as Ivy also goes to the doctor for a checkup for her epilepsy and luckily she has not had a seizure since November. "The Exploding Girl" is a naturalistic study of two characters sorting out their lives as neither Al nor Ivy have gotten to the point where they have made a clear break from high school friends to college. Of course, this does not happen the same way for all people and some remain friends for life, no matter what changes occur in their lives. The camera is held at an unobtrusive distance, giving the viewer a pedestrian's view of New York City which allows us to clearly observe the characters, seeing details about them that they themselves don't notice. And there are two fabulous shots that break with this, one on a rooftop late and a closeup of Ivy's face that closes the film.