Beanie Feldstein once again proves that she can do no wrong and honestly, she needs to be a much bigger name to the average audience than she is. Coky Giedroyc's How to Build a Girl is a sweet and well-meaning coming-of-age film that takes a very unique approach to develop this protagonist. Approaching this story from a writer and critic's point of view, I never would have expected to be so called-out when it comes to the films that I watch. Very rarely do movies get the art and process of criticism right and the way that this film portrays journalism is also superb. I really enjoyed so much about this movie, especially Feldstein's performance, but I could not help but feel that the story could have been told much stronger by a different director. I had a lot of issues with the pacing and feel of this entire movie and thankfully, that did not detract from my enjoyment, but it was still a bit of a problem for me. Regardless of how much one gets from this story, it is still a very entertaining ride with plenty of energy and humor to carry it through.
Johanna Morrigan (Beanie Feldstein) is a young and naive London native who aspires to be a journalist when she grows up. As she unwittingly gets into the local rock and punk scene, she becomes entranced by it and decides to reinvent herself as a rock music critic. Her rise in the media leads her to become one of the most respected yet feared voices in rock in the early 1990s but she soon finds out that the current version of herself might not be the one she had wanted after all. This script, written by Caitlin Moran and based on the true story of Morrigan's life, is incredibly interesting. I had absolutely no idea the kind of impact that Morrigan had during this time period and to think that she almost controlled what lived and died in terms of music was fascinating. I really enjoyed how Moran combines this true story with a coming-of-age feel in an effortless way to make the audience care about Morrigan and her slight path of corruption. She did such a great job of characterizing Morrigan's story with her rebellious nature full of sex and rock 'n' roll but did so in a way that still felt fresh and interesting for this genre of film. Another huge aspect of this film that I really enjoyed was how it touches on the art of criticism and art critique culture. This movie might be the most honest portrayal of journalism that I have seen and I mean that in both the good and bad aspects. Most specifically, I loved how this film shows Johanna's transformation into her persona Dolly Wilde and how she starts to become pretentious about the music she gives good reviews to. The more she saw bands and became critical, the more she became intolerable as a person, and honestly, that is something we could all take notes on. Whether it be art, music, film, or whatever else, the highest and often most influential of critics tend to hurt others' enjoyment of them simply because of their "professionalism" and that idea is such a dangerous one. The character of Johanna embodies this incredibly well and I loved how that was incorporated into her arc.
The character of Johanna would not have been nearly as watchable, however, if not for the performance from Feldstein. She is such a phenomenal actress and I really do not think that I would have liked this movie as much without her charisma and willingness to do very different things with her characters. Feldstein has been taking some of the most memorable roles in the past few years and she is absolutely killing it. All of the supporting performances are solid too, especially from Alfie Allen as Morrigan's rockstar crush John Kite and Paddy Considine, who plays Johanna's father and brings melancholy yet emotional energy to the family of the Morrigans. The big issue with this film, however, is the direction from Giedroyc. Throughout its entire runtime, I felt as if this film could never pick a tone. It definitely hit all of the beats that a coming-of-age film does, but it struggled a bit to incorporate the other elements of the story. The musical and concert scenes were great and it was solid to see how Morrigan got into the music scene, but the rest of the film was structured so strangely that I could never really get on board with how Johanna was feeling or what she was going through. I think the reason it felt so strange is that typically in this genre, the audience learns about the protagonist and begins to care about them but in this film, Johanna starts as an awkward and likable girl but continues on a downhill spiral until the film's climax. As Morrigan struggled to figure out how she wanted to portray herself, I just could not get myself to care that much because of the horrible ways she was treating the people around her. How to Build a Girl felt like it was directed to be a Disney Channel original movie but with much more adult content in it and this creative fusion did not mix very well. The transitions and editing between scenes were incredibly choppy and the happy-go-lucky energy that this story possesses really contrasted what Moran was trying to say. Although the direction felt like it was all over the place, this film does follow many of the genre's rules in terms of payoff for its protagonist. Johanna figures out how she was truly supposed to be built and starts to become comfortable in her actual skin as opposed to pretending to be someone she is not, which is always a sweet ending an audience can root for.
How to Build a Girl is a film that I have been looking forward to for a while, ever since Feldstein blew me away in last year's Booksmart. While I did not enjoy this coming-of-age story quite as much, there is still a lot about Johanna Morrigan's journey to appreciate. I adore how Feldstein embodies this woman and all of her sexual, groundbreaking, and infamous tendencies and she proves to be the greatest part of this film. I would definitely recommend this movie for fans of the genre but in terms of the film's structure, this girl could have been built much differently.
My Rating: ★★★½
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