The Girl Next Door

An intelligent, well-made film about a seemingly well-adjusted, likable and loquacious woman.

Insightful and thoughtful.

An exceptionally well-written script, full of unexpected turns and clever reversals, and a trio of deft actors in the principal roles.

A mildly satirical but essentially sweet, benign comedy.

A fascinating fly-on-the-wall documentary.

Neither Ketchum nor the filmmakers take an exploitative approach to the material; their focus is the way the youngsters' petty cruelty erupts into murderous sadism.

(Fugate's) portrait of Valentine/Baker is rich and compelling.

An entertaining affair whose wild-card creativity never ceases to surprise.

Melancholy.

"Risky Business" had a great opening act and then descended into contrivances. This genial cardboard knockoff is contrived from the start but gets better as it goes along.