STORYLINE: It’s Girl Scout Cookie season, and four tenacious girls strive to be a top-selling “Cookie Queen,” navigating an $800 million business in which innocence and ambition collide.  (IMDb)

    There’s the saying ‘money talks’, and in the the Oscar winning documentary, Inside Job (2010), it sounded off loud and clear.  Cuba Gooding Jr and Tom Cruise were shown the money in Jerry Maguire (1996).  Dan Ackroyd and Eddie Murphy were Trading Places (1983) over money. The new documentary, Cookie Queens, takes viewers into the entrepreneurial world of Girl Scout cookies.

   The current trend in the feature length, documentary theatrical market appears to be mainly films about current politics or the music scene.  Last years Secret Mall Apartment (which earned a spot on my top ten best film list of 2025), and Marc by Sofia, from earlier this year, we’re both a welcome change of pace from, that trend.  So, I was eager to see what Cookie Queens, offered, as a different alternative to this mainstream narrative.  Plus I really enjoy Girl Scout cookies. 

   A look into selling Girl Scout cookies maybe a random topic for a documentary, but so is the lives of some back up singers in 20 Feet From Stardom (2013).  That was a well received and critically, acclaimed feature film.

    Cookie Queens has multiple topics, as it follows those selling the cookies during the selling season. The film shows the girls  ambition to sell.  I personally did not realize the size of the rewards for the number of boxes sold.  Topics go on to include the stress on the individual, as well as their family. The film is a look at the different social and economic divides, in the country, as well.  It’s also a lesson about business practices.  That’s a mouthful, for a film about cookies. 

   I was intrigued by the few moments that were insights into the inner workings of the Girl Scout corporate structure, in addition to the cookie selling experience.  Both worlds I am unfamiliar with.  I was in the cub scouts growing up, and a Boy Scout for a few years, but, to be honest, I don’t remember the experience at all.  

   I appreciated that Cookie Queens was not one girls story, but four.  Each girl was of a different background, and represented a different part of American society.  I feel this made for a more balanced film.

  Cookie Queens ended up being a well balanced, and intriguing documentary feature, that is a nice alternative to the political or musical documentaries that tend to dominate them genre today.

    Until next time, I will see you at the movies!