"Goodbye First Love" is fascinating.
- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, June 28, 2012
"Goodbye First Love" is a very lifelike film in the sense that life does not often imitate entertainment.
- Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune, June 07, 2012
Writer-director, Mia Hansen-Løve, whose third feature this is, has addressed her subject with complete emotional confidence.
- Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic, May 11, 2012
This is an easy movie to spoil. It's rather plotless. But things happen in precisely the way that life happens.
- Wesley Morris, Boston Globe, May 10, 2012
The young stars may irritate as many viewers as they delight, but their rather stroppy chemistry is convincing and memorable.
- Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph, May 03, 2012
The unromantic pain and euphoria of love are instantly revived in this outstanding film.
- Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK], May 03, 2012
[A] acute drama of young romance and passionate sex, as well as what you learn when you lose both.
- Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly, May 02, 2012
'Goodbye First Love' offers a rewarding lesson that life isn't like a movie and that, when a movie is like life, it can come with life's banalities and frustrations as well as its surprises and pleasures.
- Dave Calhoun, Time Out, May 01, 2012
Hansen-Løve again shows what a gifted storyteller she is with this tender, realistic portrayal of young love. Highly recommended.
- David Parkinson, Empire Magazine, April 29, 2012
Is it "annoying," "talky' and "complacent," or "beautiful and deep"?
- Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News, April 20, 2012
"Goodbye First Love" showcases two young women with bright futures.
- V.A. Musetto, New York Post, April 20, 2012
This is a rigorously crafted film steeped in the French tradition, but it's meant to be a sensual and emotional experience, not a verbal or analytical one.
- Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com, April 19, 2012
When we watch Hansen-Løve's films, we're not only experiencing a life unfolding before us, we're also realizing what a great privilege it is to be able to do that.
- Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times, April 19, 2012
It examines, with compassion and clarity, a young woman's discovery of passion and also of the pain, disappointment and partial wisdom that follow.
- A.O. Scott, New York Times, April 19, 2012
Goodbye First Love hangs a wealth of small observational moments on a structure so firm that a curtain could drop between acts.
- Scott Tobias, NPR, April 19, 2012
Hansen-Løve films with an eye toward discovering and rediscovering these characters in pure moments of simple, poignant humanity - wading in a river, clambering over rocks.
- Tom Keogh, Seattle Times, June 14, 2012
This is how you portray adolescence onscreen.
- Keith Uhlich, Time Out New York, April 17, 2012
- , Sight and Sound, June 18, 2012
Créton has the doe-like Rohmer face, and Hansen-Løve has the cool Rohmer touch - the one that lends grandeur to tales of middle-class Parisian heartache.
- Leo Robson, Financial Times, May 03, 2012
An honest, universal portrayal of early infatuation.
- Omer Ali, Little White Lies, May 03, 2012