How to Build a Girl

Starring: Beanie Feldstein, Cleo, Alfie Allen, Emma Thompson, Donal Finn, Paddy Considine, Laurie Kynaston, Michael Sheen, Sarah Solemani, Lily Allen, Gemma Arterton, Jameela Jamil, Lucy Punch, Chris O'Dowd
Directed by: Coky Giedroyc
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy
2020

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A British teen (Beanie Feldstein) from a working class family becomes a controversial music journalist while she struggles to find her place in the world.

Review:

Tim: I went into How to Build a Girl feeling fairly optimistic about the film. Beanie Feldstein had given strong performances in Lady Bird and Booksmart and seemed to have a unique comedic ability. I was intrigued to see what she would do with a lead role. It also looked like a similar film to those (both of which I enjoyed). I was ready for an entertaining coming-of-age comedy. Unfortunately, director Corky Giedroyc's film completely misses the mark. I don't know her, but it looks like much of her experience has been with television mini-series. Something went wrong here (this is just my opinion, the reviews were strangely positive). I didn't enjoy this movie much at all.

Now, there are certainly some solid elements to the film. Beanie Feldstein does a good job in the lead role. She's quirky and can play a wide range of emotions effectively. I do think she'll be better served in more supporting roles, but she does things routinely in this film that were incredibly impressive. She has this ability to connect with the audience, to show vulnerability that makes her interesting. I liked the effort she put in, even though I wasn't always a fan of how her character was conveyed in the film. Alfie Allen was a strong supporting performer, too. It's so funny to enjoy him because he was so wonderfully hateful on Game of Thrones. He's a good actor who has some amount of range and he was a very sympathetic character here. Paddy Considine and Chris O'Dowd are always fun to see. I enjoyed seeing Frank Dillane here- I appreciated his work on Fear the Walking Dead. Emma Thompson has a very small role, but she does help the film. The cast was overall fairly strong.

The issues I had with the movie come from the script. In some ways, the approach this film took could have been brilliant. Our protagonist isn't exactly heroic- she goes through quite a few ups and downs and routinely acts in an unsympathetic way. Her journey is at the heart of the story, but it's not very believable. She very quickly gets to a point of widespread notoriety and I just didn't buy it. I know the movie is based on an autobiographical novel, so I'm not suggesting the events depicted here couldn't happen- I just didn't believe them when I saw them on screen. The movie doesn't do a good enough job of convincing me how the events here could take place. A socially awkward girl becomes a famous music journalist, raising or crushing dreams with her reviews. She befriends a famous singer and develops an almost instantaneous friendship with him. Again, these things are plausible, but Giedroyc never effectively sells them. The story felt like every development came because that was what was in the script, verses telling a believable story that built on previous events logically. This gets progressively worse as the movie goes on. When you add this to the fact that the protagonist isn't always sympathetic, it ended up being a less than pleasant viewing experience.

I blame this more on the direction than anything Feldstein did, but her character of Johanna never connected with me. Early on, I suppose I wanted her to achieve her dreams, but I found her increasingly tiresome as the movie went on. This isn't helped by events that happen to her that make little logical sense, but I just didn't believe her rise, or her fall. I didn't care about that character deeply enough, I wasn't invested in her story. The movie treats her character like she's this fascinating character study. At times, she is certainly intriguing, but she's never as interesting as the movie wishes her to be. This is certainly hurt by the direction and the pacing- as I said, it feels like this movie jumps around to hit the key events within the movie's runtime, verses telling a compelling story that builds momentum as it progresses. The movie too often feels like it's going out of its way to be quirky when many of those diversions add nothing to the actual story.

One of the great things about movies is that everyone is entitled to their opinions. I'm sure there are people who loved How to Build a Girl and if the movie speaks to anyone- especially young women who could identify with the characters here, than I am all for that. There's absolutely a good message here. So, I get that people will relate to this movie and enjoy it. However, I do think many professional critics got this wrong. There's no reason for the movie to have gotten as much acclaim as it did. It's a forgettable, messy film that I didn't care much about.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 5


If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Booksmart, Lady Bird