Stephen Farber

“Yet Jeanie—the natural leader of the group—retains a surprising inner strength and sense of responsibility. We can’t say exactly where she gets her moral sense; perhaps it’s partly a reaction to the wasted lives she sees around her. She’s very much of this hard-edged, cruel world, but she refuses to let it destroy her. Jeanie’s resiliency is the mystery that the film celebrates, and Jodie Foster makes us believe in the character’s strength. Foster, a veteran of Walt Disney films as well as more mature fare like Taxi Driver, turned sixteen while Foxes was being shot. She can no longer be categorized as merely a gifted child star; she’s grown into one of the most subtle, self-possessed and luminous performers on the screen today….

“The performances give the film the humanity that saves it from sordidness. Foxes is a raw, startling work….”

Stephen Farber
New West, March 10, 1980