--- title: "The Virgin Suicides: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-virgin-suicides/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/the-virgin-suicides" critics_score: 74 critics_reviews: 15 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Virgin Suicides (2000): what the critics said Critics' score 74 from 15 reviews: 14 positive, 1 mixed, 0 negative. Most critics like it, and they like it for the same reasons. Sofia Coppola’s debut is called assured almost across the board, and the praise gathers around mood rather than story: the hazy, backlit look, the 1970s detail, and above all the Air score, which nearly every review mentions by name. Kirsten Dunst’s Lux is singled out again and again, and several critics note that the film is as much about the neighbourhood boys’ longing as about the sisters themselves. The reservations are mild and cluster in one place: plot. Several reviews find the story thin and the ending abrupt, with the sisters’ motives left unexplained, though most treat that as the point rather than a fault. The spread is narrow. Only Sight and Sound is properly mixed, admiring the suburban atmosphere but finding the finale falters on unconvincing trickery and an enigma leaned on too late. Reviews written two decades on land in much the same place as those from 2000. ## The Guardian — Peter Preston Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 21 May 2000. The critic calls Sofia Coppola's elliptical directorial debut a subtle triumph that captures the haunting complexity of the source novel and adds something of its own. He praises the spot-on performances, especially Kirsten Dunst's radiant and mysterious turn as Lux, along with the acute social comedy, moody score by Air, and the film's power to evoke personal memories of longing and incomprehension. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2000/may/21/peterpreston) ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Rating 3.5/4. 5 May 2000. The critic emphasizes the film as much about the neighborhood boys' gawky yearning for the Lisbon sisters as about the girls themselves, praising how the lack of explanation preserves their perfection in memory. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-virgin-suicides-2000) ## The AV Club — Laura Adamczyk Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 10 August 2020. Coppola faithfully captures the novel's complex nostalgia and tone through hazy, backlit visuals, period details, and the ethereal Air score, slowing down to show the girls' lives beyond the boys' gaze. The film excels at evoking the texture of memory and the passage of time through its dreamy aesthetic and point-of-view choices. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/with-the-exquisite-virgin-suicides-sofia-coppola-captu-1844652962) ## The New York Times — A. O. Scott Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 21 April 2000. The critic praises Coppola's assured and imaginative debut as a filmmaker who creates a mood-driven film without conventional characters or story, noting her fearlessness in using fantasy sequences and resonant images. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/21/movies/film-review-evanescent-trees-and-sisters-in-an-enchanted-1970-s-suburb.html) ## Los Angeles Times — Kevin Thomas Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 21 April 2000. The critic commends Coppola's impressive maturity and assured skill in her directorial debut, calling the adaptation highly affecting and venturesome though a real downer. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-apr-21-ca-21826-story.html) ## Empire — Liz Moody Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2010. Coppola's adaptation is a sultry, heady treat focused more on mood than plot, evoking adolescent sexual awakening through rich visuals and an ethereal Air score. It features strong performances, especially from Kirsten Dunst and the leads playing against type, though thin plotting occasionally undermines its impact. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/virgin-suicides-review/) ## Evening Standard Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 10 April 2012. Sofia Coppola's stylish and well-crafted debut explores the Lisbon sisters' suicides through the eyes of neighborhood boys, hinting at strict Catholic repression while powerfully evoking teenage hormones and 1970s fashions. It excels at mood but leaves conclusions unresolved, ending on the note that the answer was never found. [Read the review](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/the-virgin-suicides-7433930.html) ## Slant Magazine — Ed Gonzalez Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 2 May 2001. Coppola's dreamy paean to stilted adolescence has a universal appeal as it explores the mysteries of female sexuality and what lies behind troubled picket fences. The film is as much a relevant view of adolescence and male/female relations as it is an act of remembrance. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-virgin-suicides/) ## The New Yorker — Richard Brody Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 19 November 2021. Coppola adapts the novel as an intricate struggle with absence, grief, and memory, anchoring the story in the charismatic Lux while evoking the boys' bemused frustration through poised images and period music. She is already a master at rendering inner depths startlingly visual in her first feature. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/movies/the-virgin-suicides) ## The Times — Kevin Maher Rating ★★★★☆. 24 March 2023. The film remains dreamy and beguiling despite its subject matter. Coppola conveys the imprisonment of being a girl, aided by the Air soundtrack and strong performances, especially Kirsten Dunst as Lux. [Read the review](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/the-virgin-suicides-1999-review-a-beguiling-psychological-drama-qj7dw80l8) ## Total Film Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 19 May 2000. Coppola's directorial debut is a truthful arthouse take on teenage turmoil that is more affecting than typical teen films, with believable characters and a disturbingly erotic atmosphere. Beautifully shot and acted with wit and delicacy, it compensates for thin plotting through its hypnotic mood and Air soundtrack. [Read the review](https://www.gamesradar.com/the-virgin-suicides-review/) ## Variety — Emanuel Levy Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 20 May 1999. Festival review. The critic finds Coppola's feature debut promising and assured in its seriocomic tone, crediting her for avoiding satire or pandering while delivering a droll, heartfelt, and poignant tale despite some uneven direction. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1999/film/reviews/the-virgin-suicides-1117499786/) ## Sight and Sound Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 1 June 2000. Coppola's debut is a mixed bag but a noteworthy one, successfully conjuring a magic-realist American suburbia through unified elements of performance, cinematography, sound and design. The film falters toward the finale with some unconvincing trickery and an overemphasis on the central enigma too late. [Read the review](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/world-silent-hysteria-virgin-suicides-reviewed-2000) ## Paste — Jonah Jeng Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 18 June 2017. The critic sees the film as a thematically rich debut that explores female unknowability through the eyes of obsessive neighborhood boys, maintaining mystery around the Lisbon sisters without reducing them to objects of fetishization. It praises Coppola's empathetic handling of the material and the poignant confrontation with selfish male desire, while acknowledging minor flaws like tonal inconsistencies and uneven screen time for the sisters. [Read the review](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/sofia-coppola/square-one-sofia-coppolas-the-virgin-suicides-1999) ## Eye for Film — Angus Wolfe Murray Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 19 January 2001. Coppola's assured debut chills with its tale of the Lisbon sisters' suicides, questioning suburban strictness, high-school rituals and broken dreams through the nostalgic viewpoint of neighborhood boys. The director takes risks with imaginative photography and strong performances (especially Turner, Woods and Dunst), though the abrupt ending leaves some emotional distance. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-virgin-suicides-film-review-by-angus-wolfe-murray) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/the-virgin-suicides.md