The review:
Beanie Feldstein has been on my radar since her supporting work in Neighbors 2* and I don’t think any other actress could pull off the brash (and somewhat fantasy-based) confidence of Johanna Morrigan/Dolly Wilde in Coky Giedroyc’s How to Build a Girl. This is the rock star trajectory movie** but with a teenage girl as its center*** and with the job in question rock critic, not rock star.**** While the film itself is predictable (see: rock star trajectory) that doesn’t make it any less fun.
The verdict: Recommended
Cost: $6.99 (a VOD price point I can afford!)
Where watched: at home
Consider also watching:
- We are the Best
- Her Smell
- The Runaways
- Whip It
- Almost Famous
Further sentences:
*Don’t think Neighbors 2 is for you? You might reconsider when you read my list.
**Humble beginnings; early failures; early success; wild success; drinking and drugs; moment of truth; better understanding of life and their place in it.
***And having a teenage girl at the center of a music-focused movie means this is an automatic Recommended movie. There aren’t enough portrayals of girls making music.
****This brings up inevitable comparisons to the other teenage rock critic movie: Almost Famous. This is smaller in scope and more focused on the rock critic herself and not the bands she reviews.
Questions:
- Can we have a rock star movie without the rock star trajectory, or would there not be enough plot?
- Was there a point when you weren’t on Dolly’s side anymore? If yes, when?
Favorite IMDB trivia item:
There wasn’t anything good, so I’ll tell you that Caitlain Moran wrote the screenplay and the book on which this is based. Her book How to be a Woman is incredibly funny, especially for women born around 1975, when she was born.
Other reviews:
