Big Girls Don’t Cry – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

BIG GIRLS DON’T CRY – Review by Sarah Ward

October 14, 2026October 14, 2026 Sarah Ward Ani Palmer, Beatrix Wolfe, Big Girls Don’t Cry, jane campion, Paloma Schneideman, Poroaki Merritt-McDonald, Sophia Kirkwood Smith

As it’s intended to for Sid Bookman, the 14-year-old New Zealander at the heart of Paloma Schneideman’s hauntingly relatable debut feature, a bellybutton piercing acts as handy shorthand in Big Girls Don’t Cry. Armed with a needle and a teenager’s fortitude for self-inflicted stress to impress, the film’s protagonist punctures her own flesh. Even when the wound swiftly becomes infected, causing the popular crowd that she’s so desperately trying to befriend to snicker — while forcing Sid to wear a midriff-revealing top; this is 2006, when the titular Fergie song released — her new navel jewellery is an evident source of pride. Kudos to Ani Palmer, also working on her first feature, for conveying how the in-between stage that is adolescence is a whirlwind of yearning, trying, searching, striving and flailing, as well as salvaging, and not just when her character is taking the homemade route on body art.

Festivals Reviews

BIG GIRLS DON’T CRY (Sundance FF 2026) – Review by Leslie Combemale

February 3, 2026February 4, 2026 Leslie Combemale Ani Palmer, Big Girls Don’t Cry, Paloma Schneideman, sundance ff 2026

Writer/director Paloma Schneideman’s coming of age drama Big Girls Don’t Cry, which premiered in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at 2026 Sundance, is awkward from the first to the last frame, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Set in rural New Zealand in 2006, it follows 14 year old Sid Bookman as she navigates her world and burgeoning sexuality during early-era social media, cell phone use and messaging. The film is a constant reminder of what a train wreck online use has been for teens from day one. This is demonstrated in one of the first scenes, in which Sid interacts with a 30-something (aka pedophile) masturbating to her voice. Sid is curious, self-destructive, desperate to belong, has little impulse control, and has access to the web. That’s a recipe for disaster.