Film

Fat Girl

Catherine Breillat's unflinching debut follows two sisters—one plain, one beautiful—through a summer that ruptures their innocence. It's austere, uncomfortable, and refuses to soften its view of adolescent desire, family resentment, and male entitlement. For viewers prepared for difficult truths told without sentimentality.

TMDb rating3.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a cold, unblinking look at how desire and power tangle up between sisters and the men around them, and you don't need the film to soften anything for you.

Skip it if you find explicit sexual content hard to sit through, or you came looking for warmth, since the film stays detached and offers little comfort along the way.

What it asks of you: It runs under ninety minutes but moves slowly, holding long fixed shots and letting awkward silences stretch, so you have to stay patient while staying uncomfortable.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Céline and Julie Go Boating1974

A playful, digressive French masterpiece about female friendship and the stories we tell ourselves. Like Fat Girl, it finds profound meaning in the quotidian and refuses easy narrative resolution.

But Runs 193 minutes and has almost no plot in the conventional sense. The whimsy may frustrate viewers wanting clear dramatic stakes.

Céline and Julie Go Boating poster

L'Avventura1960

Antonioni's meditation on alienation and the surface of modern life. Shares Fat Girl's cool eye and willingness to let scenes breathe uncomfortably, revealing character through what's not said.

But Deliberately slow and emotionally distant. Some find it glacial rather than moving; patience is not optional.

L'Avventura poster

The Virgin Suicides2000

Sofia Coppola's lyrical account of adolescent girls seen from the outside. Like Breillat, she captures the gulf between how girls are perceived and who they actually are, with real tenderness beneath the cool surface.

But The narrative distance keeps you observing rather than inhabiting. The soundtrack and atmosphere matter more than plot momentum.

The Virgin Suicides poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Fat Girl

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Phantom of the Opera1990

Both films examine how girls and women are objectified—Fat Girl through brutal social realism, Phantom through gothic fantasy. They're opposite mirrors on the same problem.

Lloyd Webber's musical is a baroque melodrama about obsession, possession, and the male fantasy of controlling the female body. It's the inverse of Fat Girl's realism, but both are about male desire as a trap for girls.

But If you hate musical theatre or camp, this will feel grotesque. It's also very long and very earnest about its emotions.

The Phantom of the Opera poster
More like this (8)

Ginger & Rosa2012

Sally Potter examines female adolescence and the damage adults inflict on girls they claim to protect. It shares Fat Girl's refusal to prettify or excuse the brutality of growing up.

But The emotional pitch is relentlessly bleak. There's little relief, and the ending may feel punishing rather than cathartic.

Ginger & Rosa poster

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night2014

Ana Lily Amirpour's vampire film uses genre language to explore female rage and the male gaze. Like Fat Girl, it doesn't flinch from female sexuality and its consequences in a hostile world.

But The dreamlike pacing and black-and-white aesthetics prioritise mood over narrative clarity. Some will find it too oblique.

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night poster

Show Me Love1998

Lukas Moodysson's Swedish coming-of-age film about two girls discovering desire and connection. It's warmer than Fat Girl but equally honest about teenage sexuality and social cruelty.

But The tonal shifts from comedy to heartbreak may feel uneven. It also dates slightly, in ways Breillat's film doesn't.

Show Me Love poster

The Babadook2014

Jennifer Kent's horror film explores maternal rage and family destruction with the same unflinching intensity as Fat Girl. Both treat their subjects as deserving of formal artistry rather than exploitation.

But The family dysfunction is suffocating. If you watch films to feel better, this will not do that for you.

The Babadook poster

Fish Tank2009

Andrea Arnold follows a volatile teenage girl through a summer of desire and disappointment. Gritty, specific, refusing to judge or console; the camera stays close to immediate bodily experience.

But Very bleak, with violence that arrives suddenly. The handheld style is immersive for some, nauseating for others.

Fish Tank poster

Kes1970

Ken Loach's portrait of a working-class boy finding solace in a hawk. Like Fat Girl, it's unsentimental about childhood, seeing kids as fully real people rather than symbols of innocence.

But The ending is brutal and offers no redemption. Some regional British accents require focus; the pace is deliberate.

Kes poster

The Diary of a Teenage Girl2015

Both follow a girl through her sexual awakening; Heller uses subjective visual style to show interiority where Breillat uses objective distance. They ask: what does a girl's truth look like when nobody listens?

Marielle Heller's film animates the diary of a 15-year-old navigating desire, abuse, and her mother's indifference. It's visually playful and warm where Fat Girl is cold, but equally refusal to make a victim palatable.

But The collage-like style and soundtrack feel dated now. Some find the levity around abuse troubling rather than clarifying.

The Diary of a Teenage Girl poster

Dancer in the Dark2000

Both films strip away sentiment and social niceties to show the actual weight on people—especially women—who have no power. Where Fat Girl shows us the beginning of that entrapment, Dancer shows the end state.

Lars von Trier follows an immigrant woman through economic collapse and desperation, punctuated by sudden musical breaks. Like Fat Girl, it refuses aesthetic comfort; it's formally radical and demands you sit with suffering.

But This is one of cinema's most emotionally devastating films. The ending is not survivable in the traditional sense. It's not cathartic; it's harrowing.

Dancer in the Dark poster

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