Critic Reviews

• Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger

  It's a hard movie to dislike. But try.

• Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times

  There is much to like here, a sense of nuance and nonjudgmental emotional openness, yet Kasdan's teenage miniaturism never quite blooms.

• Sara Stewart, New York Post

  [An] inoffensive but bland ode to the talky high school movies of John Hughes and Cameron Crowe.

• Neil Genzlinger, New York Times

  No gratuitous raunchiness here and only a few tired caricatures in a genre usually jammed with them.

• Michael Atkinson, Village Voice

  Something of a wonder, a palm-size ball of banter and irony and earnestness that never stops rolling and almost never misses the sweet spots.

• Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York

  Writer-director Jonathan Kasdan can't even bother to satisfy the buildup with a real moment of consummation (welcome to the fade to black) or believable postcoital complications.

• James Plath, Movie Metropolis

  I'm going to give it a seven because of the two stars. They're so darned likable that they make the film's shortcomings seem unimportant.

• Annlee Ellingson, Paste Magazine

  For a film that's treading the same territory as American Pie, The First Time lends a bit of dignity to the first time.

• Robert Levin, amNewYork

  when it comes to insight into being a teen in this day an age, or any of the other traits that set the best high school movies apart, The First Time comes up empty.

• S. Jhoanna Robledo, Common Sense Media

  Frank-but-approachable romcom about teens and sex.

• David Noh, Film Journal International

  This comedy about two teens losing their virginity aims for hilarity but instead achieves ho-hum status.

• Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice

  An exploration of the high expectations, fears, and fantasies surrounding the act of losing your virginity.

• Marshall Fine, Hollywood & Fine

  A maturity and emotional intelligence not usually associated with the genre. Don't let it get lost among the louder, shinier releases of the movie weekend.

• Nick Schager, Slant Magazine

  Sex and love are both novel experiences for two high schoolers in this talky affair that suggests a hybrid of Before Sunset and Some Kind of Wonderful.

• Noel Murray, AV Club

  The highest praise that I can give to this movie is that in the first fifteen minutes, I was rolling my eyes at these kids, and by the end, I was eager to re-watch that opening scene, to get to know them all over again.

Read all 15 critic reviews