Beautiful Girls turns 25 (BONUS cinematic throwback)

February 10th, 1996. I walked into the old Mall of America General Cinema to watch this movie.

This movie was on my radar. I knew Natalie Portman was in it. I was already hooked on her cause of The Professional, but I still didn't know if she was just going to be a one and done basically, as a couple of my early actress crushes had simply vanished.

But then this movie happens, and I knew at that point that this girl was going to be a major thing in my life for a long time to come. If The Professional was Baby One More Time, this movie was Sometimes.

No, I am not going to recount this era of lovestruck Natalie fandom. No way. It was silly and dumb, but still oh so memorable. And it really stemmed from this movie above all others.

Now, this film has evolved for me over the years. Initially it was just a good movie with iconic Natalie scenes sprinkled in. Then I get a little older and start to relate more to the male characters. Then as many 90s things do it becomes this major nostalgia piece on top of everything else. 

Songs can always transport me back into a particular time of my life. Movies don't really do that as much, but this one does it about as well as any. Again while watching it on the actual release date anniversary it was.like I was back in the winter of 96. It's hard to explain. Song cues, camera shots, lines of dialogue. It's just instant. The film is of its time in the very best way.

Now, okay, elephant in the room is that I am now a 41 year old and Natalie was like 14 when this movie was made. I am very much old enough for Marty to be my daughter. And Natalie herself has talked about how she was sort of sexualized in early roles. I dunno, I never saw this movie as sleazy that way. The relationship between her and Timothy Hutton is never presented as something predatory. It's funny and endearing. It's even made into a bit of a joke within the movie. And it's not like I wanna nail this version of Natalie. The current version of Natalie is quite nice, tyvm. 😁

It's still overall one of my very favorite movies in the Natalie oeuvre. It's extremely well written and funny. It has one of my all time favorite ensembles, featuring my favorite performances from almost everyone involved (for sure Hutton, Matt Dillon and the legit very funny Rosie O'donnell). And pound for pound it's still one of Natalie's best performances. For the impact it had, it is crazy that she is on screen for maybe 10 minutes in total. She's just that good in it.

And it also has a strong case to be made that it's the best movie ever shot in Minnesota.

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