A Girl Like Her
2015 · Directed by Amy S. Weber
Original language: English
- drama
The story
Sophomore year has been a nightmare for Jessica Burns. Relentlessly harassed by her former friend Avery Keller, Jessica doesn't know what she did to deserve the abuse from one of South Brookdale High's most popular and beautiful students. But when a shocking event changes both of their lives, a documentary film crew, a hidden digital camera, and the attention of a reeling community begin to reveal the powerful truth about A Girl Like Her.
What it’s like
Shot largely in the found-footage manner, with handheld phone and hidden-camera footage cut against sterile school corridors under flat fluorescent light, A Girl Like Her has the grainy, unpolished look of a documentary that was never meant to be seen. Its palette is drab and institutional: lockers, cafeteria tables, bedrooms lit by a laptop glow, and a suburban town that feels washed out and watchful. The sound design leans on overheard hallway chatter, muffled phone audio, and long stretches of ordinary dialogue, with a restrained, mournful score that surfaces only at emotional peaks. The pacing is steady and sometimes uncomfortably slow, building a mood of unease and grief rather than thrills. Its tone is bleak and earnest, a cautionary drama about bullying, cruelty online and off, and the damage it leaves, with a serious, heavy register throughout. Expect harassment that is psychological and relentless, a plotline touching on suicide and its aftermath, and a shocking event handled off-screen rather than shown in gore; there is no graphic violence, but it is emotionally distressing. Best for viewers drawn to teen-issue dramas and mockumentary-style storytelling who can sit with heavy material, and not a fit for anyone seeking something gentle or light.
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