Playing House is a compelling and often humorous vérité documentary that presents a portrait of five seventh- and eighth-grade girls during their first year at boarding school. The film takes place primarily in the dormitory the girls share, Webster House, where we watch their everyday lives unfold as they make friends and enemies, have their first dates, sleep with stuffed animals, sing along with Britney Spears, and negotiate social interactions that can at times be brutal. Through a series of intimate vignettes, Playing House follows the girls from September, when their parents kiss and hug them good-bye, to June, when their good-byes to each other are surprisingly teary given the rocky year they’ve shared.