it as "rife with the kind of giddy thrills and hormonal flushes you associate with being a teen". Jonathan Romney of Film Comment Magazine said that "it's easy to categorize Murdoch's film as a vanity project, but if it is, it's a very honest one". David D'Arcy of Screen International said the film "has a soft whimsy that connects to a time before video clips put editing rhythms into overdrive". Xan Brooks of the Guardian gave the film three out of five, writing: "It's warm and generous, verging on the sentimental; a film that crystallises the best and worst of Belle and Sebastian's songwriting skills." In Vulture, Nathan Rabin named the film one of 10 Sundance movies that "should have been hits", writing: "Murdoch has long been an extraordinarily cinematic songwriter, with a gift for conjuring up melancholy worlds with his words and music. With God Help the Girl, he proves to be a predictably literary and musical filmmaker ... God Help the Girl represents the perfect cinematic representation of Belle and Sebastian’s worldview, which, depending on your opinion of the group, is either high praise or a terrific reason to stay away." Leslie Felperin of the Guardian gave God Help the Girl two out of five stars and called it "disastrous, fatally flawed by a shoddy script and poor direction, like something made by the most ostensibly talented guy at art school ... It's not funny or clever, or even musically very interesting. It's just bad." Rodrigo Perez of Indiewire wrote: "A major gaffe, God Help The Girl finds a great artist taking on a huge challenge and stumbling painfully on its ambition almost every step of the way." David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter called the film "an indie musical that feels like one long B-side". Sarah Sahim, writing for Pitchfork, called the film "an egregious mess" that romanticises eating disorders. She criticised the film's lack of racial diversity as "a microcosmic view of what is wrought by racial exclusivity that is omnipresent in indie rock". Murdoch responded to Sahim's article on Twitter, writing: "God knows I've yearned to know and love women and men of many nations, but being a poor sick white boy from Scotland has dashed my ambitions." Accolades References External links Official website 2014 films 2014 directorial debut films 2014 independent films 2014 romantic drama films 2010s coming-of-age drama films 2010s musical drama films