Hayley Kiyoko has spent a decade turning four minutes of sapphic longing into an entire universe. The 2015 “Girls Like Girls” video became a rite of passage for a generation of queer women, the 2023 novel took it further, and now there is a film. British audiences have been waiting all summer while the US got there first.
The wait is nearly over. Girls Like Girls opens in UK & Ireland cinemas on Friday 2 October 2026, with an Irish release the same day.
What is it about?
It is a coming-of-age story set over one sun-drenched summer in rural Oregon in 2006. Coley, 17, moves in with her estranged father after a loss and falls hard for Sonya, a local girl with a boyfriend and a lot of uncertainty. What follows is first love, self-acceptance and the particular ache of wanting someone who is still working out what she wants.
Kiyoko wrote and directed, her feature debut on both counts, co-writing with Stefanie Scott. Maya da Costa plays Coley and Myra Molloy plays Sonya, with Levon Hawke as Trenton and Zach Braff as Coley’s father. It runs 95 minutes and carries a 15 certificate (15A in Ireland).
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Is it any good?
The reviews say yes. It sits at 86% on Rotten Tomatoes from 59 critics, with a Metacritic score of 70. Variety’s Guy Lodge called it a “warmly assured directorial debut”, praising Sonja Tsypin’s cinematography and its refusal to treat Coley’s sexuality as a crisis to be survived.
There is new music from Kiyoko across the film, and the original track returns over the closing credits in a slowed-down version.
Where to see it
Listings are not up yet. But we can see a landing page on Vue
Article continues below.
The trailer
See you there,
Nonchalant x
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This article was written by one of our creative team writers here at Nonchalant Magazine.
