The First Time Reviews

I'm going to give it a seven because of the two stars. They're so darned likable that they make the film's shortcomings seem unimportant.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10

For a film that's treading the same territory as American Pie, The First Time lends a bit of dignity to the first time.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10

when it comes to insight into being a teen in this day an age, or any of the other traits that set the best high school movies apart, The First Time comes up empty.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

Frank-but-approachable romcom about teens and sex.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

This comedy about two teens losing their virginity aims for hilarity but instead achieves ho-hum status.

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It's a hard movie to dislike. But try.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4

There is much to like here, a sense of nuance and nonjudgmental emotional openness, yet Kasdan's teenage miniaturism never quite blooms.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5

[An] inoffensive but bland ode to the talky high school movies of John Hughes and Cameron Crowe.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

No gratuitous raunchiness here and only a few tired caricatures in a genre usually jammed with them.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

An exploration of the high expectations, fears, and fantasies surrounding the act of losing your virginity.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

A maturity and emotional intelligence not usually associated with the genre. Don't let it get lost among the louder, shinier releases of the movie weekend.

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Something of a wonder, a palm-size ball of banter and irony and earnestness that never stops rolling and almost never misses the sweet spots.

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Writer-director Jonathan Kasdan can't even bother to satisfy the buildup with a real moment of consummation (welcome to the fade to black) or believable postcoital complications.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5

Sex and love are both novel experiences for two high schoolers in this talky affair that suggests a hybrid of Before Sunset and Some Kind of Wonderful.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4

The First Time feels slight and pretty ordinary by the end, with no edge or compelling insights.

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This teen romance proves perilously short on substance, insight and novelty, unless you count its characters being afflicted with a case of Juno mouth.

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The highest praise that I can give to this movie is that in the first fifteen minutes, I was rolling my eyes at these kids, and by the end, I was eager to re-watch that opening scene, to get to know them all over again.

Full Review | Original Score: A-