AllMovie

Though she has made quite a name for herself with theatrical films like My Brilliant Career, Australian director Gillian Anderson got her start making a documentary about three girls growing up in Adelaide. The first one followed them when they were fourteen, and it's titled Smokes and Lollies. The second one catches up with them at age eighteen, and it's titled 14's Good, 18's Better. After an interval of eight years, she has caught up with the three again in this documentary, and now they are young women, aged twenty-six. One girl has remained married to the fellow she married earlier but is showing signs of maturity and independence which were not evident in the two previous documentaries. The second has been married twice, but is now divorced, and is caring for her born-out-of-wedlock eleven-year old daughter quite nicely. The third never married but is engaged. Her wedding provides the culminating drama of this documentary.