A Stirring Portrait of Adolescence

For better or worse, there’s a tradition of precocious teens on film.

From “Heathers” to “Mean Girls” to “Euphoria” to “Mean Girls” again, teenagers — especially American ones — are perceptive, manipulative, sexualized, and adventurous… eminently watchable even when they’re not relatable.

But elsewhere in the world of filmmaking and adolescence, there are so many other ways to grow up. There are teenagers who still feel like children, others who can’t act on their changing minds and bodies, others still who don’t share their peers’ new interests and feel alienated as a result. Shuchi Talati’s striking Sundance debut “Girls Will Be Girls” is about one such teenager, the quiet, obedient, and book-smart Mira (Preeti Panigrahi).

Mira is the first female head prefect to be appointed at her boarding school in North India, a responsibility she does not take lightly as she is tasked with keeping classmates and friends in check. But the arrival of new student Sri (Kesav Binoy Kiran) quickly threatens the star student’s social and academic standing while adding a terrifying variable to her rocky relationship with mother Anila (Kani Kusruti).

With her first feature, Talati expertly captures the quiet wonder and aching intensity of adolescence, first love, and caring about someone whose dueling duties and desires sometimes stop them from behaving as they know they should — and that’s Anila, not Sri. The young man elicits…