Hayley Kiyoko's 'Girls Like Girls' Opens to Mostly Warm Reviews for Its Nostalgic Queer Romance

From song to screen

Hayley Kiyoko released her song "Girls Like Girls" in 2015, with a music video that told a compact five-minute story of two teenage girls discovering their friendship was something more. The song's direct lyrics -- "girls like girls like boys do" -- and the video's empathetic visual storytelling garnered millions of views and a devoted following, earning Kiyoko the affectionate nickname "Lesbian Jesus" from fans. She later expanded the story into a YA novel published in 2023, which now serves as the basis for her feature directorial debut.

Setting and story

Set in the summer of 2006 in the Pacific Northwest (shot in Canada but suggested as Oregon by press notes), the film follows shy Coley (Maya da Costa), who has just moved to a new town with her father Curtis (Zach Braff). She meets Sonya (Myra Molloy), an outgoing and popular girl, and the two quickly become inseparable, spending days biking, swimming, and giving each other makeovers, and nights chatting on AOL Instant Messenger. Their friendship soon deepens into mutual attraction, capturing the giddy thrills and eventual heartbreak of first love with emotional authenticity.

Critical reaction

Reviews have been mixed but largely positive. Variety calls Kiyoko's debut "warmly assured" and "open-hearted emotional purity," praising the film's ability to make a familiar story feel new. The Hollywood Reporter says it captures "the headiness of young love, from the gravitational pull of a crush's proximity to the oppressive weight of rejection," and notes the strong performances by da Costa, who conveys volumes through longing glances. Meanwhile, IndieWire offers a more measured take, describing the film as "less a standalone work of great cinema" and more an act of devotion for Kiyoko's core fanbase, noting that the charm of the original short doesn't always translate to a feature-length runtime. Critics agree, however, that the production design faithfully recreates the mid-2000s period with details like CRT monitors and AIM sounds.

Cultural moment

The film's release is timed for Pride Month and arrives at a moment when LGBTQ audiences are seeking feel-good, inclusive stories. The original song and video debuted in 2015, just after same-sex marriage became legal nationwide in the United States, and the film's early-2000s setting highlights how much queer visibility has shifted in two decades. Kiyoko, known as a pop icon and advocate, makes her directorial bow with a project that, while not groundbreaking, offers a warm and relatable romance for a new generation.

Co-written by Kiyoko, Chloe Okuno, and Stefanie Scott, and distributed by Focus Features, "Girls Like Girls" opens in theaters this weekend.