Strong and Moving!

Fantastic!

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

This is a film I know very well, despite not seeing it in years. For those who want to know why "Little "Darlings not been released on DVD, there for two reasons. 1: It's because it is a Paramount Picture and Paramount has basically given up their DVD rights to films they made post 1949 to Warner Home Video ( the earlier talking films are all owned by Universal) except for what they call " Legacy Films" such as "The Godfather" and "Star Trek." 2: It is an extremely dated film ( what we know about Kristy McNiichol (Angel) and Tatum O''Neill Ferris) is very much opposite the characters they play in this movie). What it is about is two very different teenage girls ( although both are very tough ( watch Feris on the bus with Angel and you will see what I mean), Angel is the one with the poor chain smoking mother from the wrong side of the tracks, and Ferris, with the wealthy dad, whose mom abandoned both of them. The two of them cannot stand each other, and there is a bet to see who loses their virginity first: Angel with a boy named Randy ( Matt Damon), or Ferris to a camp worker named Gary ( Armand Assante). There are also several other girls involved with the bet ( including Sunshine ( a very young Cynthia Nixon) and very nasty Cinder ( Krista Errickson ( a dead on look alike for Brooke Shields)). Each girl claimed that they had sex ( of course, only Cinder did). Spoilers ahead: Ferris says she did, but she is lying ( which no one really knows but Angel who really did). The movie ends with Sunshine punching Cinder in the nose, and she is angry because it could cost her modeling career. Then Angel says to her mom, " You are not getting any younger and I have to take care of you." Then she introduces her to " Ferris Whitney best friend. " and she puts her arm around her as the movie ends and they play "The Bellamy a Brothers" Let Your Love Flow." It is not spelled out but it is highly inferred, that Amanda and her mom will be going home with Mr. Whitney ( because he is really lost without his wife, and needs someone to help with Ferris), and Angel and Ferris have become like sisters, so they cannot be separated. will not enjoy the movie as much as I did when I was a kid, because of what I have learned about both Tatum and Kristy , but based on what I remember and I remember it very well, it gets 9 of10 stars

And while I'm at it, thanks to PC Hacker for leaving her comments. Her observations put into words an understanding about the movie that I'd only reached emotionally. I believe the reason this movie isn't well regarded historically is because it was so cynically marketed: two teenage virgins compete to experience sex for the first time. One reviewer at the time wrote, "What ever happened to Andy Hardy?" While the marketing was true to the movie's basic plot, unfortunately it allowed many lazy reviewers to see it through a myopic lens of an exploitation movie. Nothing could be further from the case. PC Hacker does an excellent job of stating what the movie is really about, and Kristy McNichol's performance really is astonishingly tender and complex.Kristy decided to retire from film, which is a pity - but I'm grateful she's left us this and I imagine her retirement plus the undeserved pejorative opinion by critics of the work adds to the poignant sentiment that fans hold for this film to this day.

In his capsule review of 'Little Darlings,' Leonard Maltin writes, "(it's) not quite as sleazy as it sounds, but not very inspiring either," which pretty much sums up reaction to this 'coming of age' film. I tend to mostly agree with that sentiment, though I find it a bit unfair. While certainly no classic, 'Little Darlings' does have its moments as well as two fine performances by Tatum O'Neal and Kristy McNichol. The young actresses had already established themselves as up-and-comers, O'Neal by being the youngest actress to win an Oscar (for 'Paper Moon') while McNichol had garnered favorable notices for her tomboy-ish role in the TV series, 'Family.' In 'Little Darlings,' O'Neal plays Ferris, a precocious teen girl of privilege and McNichol plays, well, a tomboy named Angel with a lot of street smarts who is more sensitive than she lets on. So neither actress is really playing against type here. They do show their acting chops though and they're both better than the material. They go to a girls' summer camp and find themselves in the center of a contest to see which of them can lose her virginity first. The other girls at the camp split into competing teams and place bets. This is where a lot of confusion about the film comes from; it was marketed as sort of a female version of 'Porky's' and this is a wholly inaccurate portrayal of the movie. Much of it could be lifted straight from a Disney flick; there's a predictably lame food fight and an 'oh gosh, aren't we wild' hijacking of a school bus. 'Little Darlings' can't decide if it wants to be a G-rated kids flick or a serious drama about growing up. But it certainly has nothing in common with 'Porky's.' Angel sets her sights on a suitable prospect (Matt Dillon) at the boy's camp across the lake; she seems less worried about having sex, since her floozy mother has described it as "no big deal." Ferris is a bit more ambitious. She targets a camp counselor, Gary (Armand Assante), a grown man no less, and envisions them having a romantic candle-lit dinner before whatever happens when you have sex takes place. In the end, Angel does have an intimate encounter of sorts with 'Randy' (good name) but it turns out to be disappointing and disturbing to her, more so than she envisioned. Ferris, on the other hand, blithely concocts in her mind a night of passion with Gary as she imagines it might be, which she describes in such rapturous terms to the other girls that they all believe she did, in fact, go to bed with him. The moral, no doubt, is that for a 16-year-old girl, fantasizing about sex is much better than actually having it. Or at least it was in this case. Some of the scenes toward the end are so well written and performed, it seems a shame they have to share screen time with the goofy nonsense in the middle. 'Little Darlings' wants to be more than it is, but only occasionally gets it right. It's also a shame that both Tatum O'Neal and Kristy McNichol were unable, for various reasons, to capitalize on their early successes and continue with interesting and successful roles. They showed a lot of promise, and 'Little Darlings' is worth seeing for their performances alone.

Little Darlings is a classic teen movie but the appeal is that it can actually be enjoyed by all ages. I have seen this one and one half times. I FIRST saw it when I was a kid but I actually think it can be enjoyed as much or more as an adult. Little darlings is both a cute movie and a fun one-although it's a light movie, the characters go through and tackle, issues all young girls deal with in a fun non preachy manner and is pretty accurate in many places too. The reason it is so much fun to watch as an adult is for nostalgia purposes. Set at summercamp, it sort of takes you back to your youth. The movie is dated as anything and when I recently caught it again I almost had to laugh at the dated aspect but the fact remains it can still be enjoyed today.Teens will identify with it, adults will reminded of times gone by.