Mia Doreen George

Professor Meaks

ENGL 21001-R

CCNY: S-209

3/17/26

Introduction: I approached this assignment with excitement as I love the film ‘Uptown Girls’ very much. I wanted to delve into how the film refracted young and older versions of oneself and how the interaction of consoling your younger self is so important. In the future I want to focus on writing about films more from a personal perspective because all of my favorite films, of course, hold significant spaces in my heart. For my portfolio, I wouldn’t change this piece because I truly love how it turned out.

Media Blog Post:

The film ‘Uptown Girls’, directed by Boaz Yakin, and filmed in 2003 is a real inward look on the hardships that come with growing up and trying to heal. Molly is a charming, free-spirited, woman living in her own wonderland. Her parents were rockstars but died when she was young. Due to this development, Molly stuck into preserving her childhood wherever she could, and being what many would deem as immature for her age of 22. Her apartment is messy, with cartoons always playing, she feels safe when not taking responsibility for her life, and lives in a sort of la la land so that she can protect her inner child as best she can. In doing this, she doesn’t have to come to terms with the loneliness or sadness dwelling within her.

Ray on the other hand is 8. She has a mother that is emotionally unavailable and treats her as if she were 28, by supporting Ray with her riches, but leaving Ray to be overly self-sufficient and alone. Ray’s father is in a vegetative state and, in a different yet all too real way – is also absent. Ray grows to push away love, focus on growing up as fast as she can, and be very mature and pessimistic for her age, having only known disappointment for the short time she’s been in the world. She and Molly meet through Ray’s mother hiring Molly to be Ray’s babysitter.

Throughout the duration of the movie they bicker about what it means to be an adult and be a child, as well as learn more about what has made the other who they are. Ray tells Molly to wake up and realize that the world is a harsh place, while Molly is advocating for Ray to let the light into her maintained darkness. However, though they first clash, they soon begin to grow closer. They are 2 halves of the same exact coin. 2 girls searching for safety. Ray pushing everyone away in hopes that someone will care enough to fight her back to stay by her side. Molly searching for the courage to step out of the whimsical landscape she’s made for herself and look to heal her own darkness.

Over time, Molly tells Ray’s mom that she doesn’t know anything about her daughter, and that she should learn to mend their relationship because Ray needs a figure in her life that will give her the safety and support she needs to feel like she can just be a child. Molly sets boundaries with Ray, disabling her tantrums. She tells Ray to speak to her father whilst he is in his coma to give her hope for the future and possibility of him waking up. She introduces a skeptical Ray to the magic of life, and Ray lets herself open up.

Ray encourages Molly to take more responsibility for herself, to not be scared of external factors, and to not care about other people’s opinions. This makes Molly feel brave enough to grow into that adult portion of herself, and pour life into it, just as she did her inner child.

They work on navigating grief together, growing up in completely different ways, and teaching each other the different variants and aspects of the word: “Grown-up”.

This coming of age movie will always be important, especially to young girls like me, because it is a film that gives both the characters and the audience room to grow emotionally. It doesn’t poke fun at Ray acting like what most people view an adult to be. It doesn’t dramatize Molly’s immaturities. It does, however, treat these complexities with respect to their contextualizations, and where they came from. It helps the viewer look back to their own inner child and interact with them to see how they are doing. It inspires one to look into the mirror at their adult, or coming of age, self and truly ask: “What am I avoiding?”

Many people, and myself included, rewatch it whenever we need that big or little sister to encourage and challenge us to be brave enough to do the things we are scared to do. To be brave enough to take the beginning steps toward healing. Molly matures, but never loses her whimsical passions, and Ray blossoms into a happier child, but never loses her past experiences with “adulthood”. It will always be a joy of mine to look through articles or video essays on this film to better understand the psychology and amount of grief behind it.

One question I may have is wondering how an elderly woman may interpret this film using her accumulated lived experience. Where may she fall into it? Another question may be how the writers of the film went about doing research, if any, in regards to how they put such complex characters together.

Overall, this film has enlightened me in terms of showing me that I have the option to not separate the inner child from the woman I am becoming, but ensuring that they not only meet, but come together to be at the core of who I will be as I age. I have a lot to learn from the younger and older versions of myself. I made a promise to myself after watching this film years ago, that I would never lose my magic, and if I did, that I’d always find my way back to it.

Mia Doreen George