“Booksmart” and “Lady Bird” actress Beanie Feldstein has a new movie being released via VOD next month, but don’t expect the IFC Films release “How to Build a Girl,” to be even half as good as the aforementioned titles. In fact, it’s bad, very bad.
“How to Build a Girl,” which I saw last September at TIFF, has Feldstein playing a blue-collar British high-schooler that dreams of a better life without the mundane daily trivial dilemmas that come in being a sharp-minded high-schooler. What’s a girl to do to shake up her existence? Well, how about dying her hair, buying some new punk-rock clothes, and writing under the pseudonym Dolly Wilde for a rock magazine.
It’s actually even worse than it sounds.
The film has Feldstein and a cast that includes Alfie Allen, Paddy Considine, Chris O’Dowd, Lucy Punch, and Jameela Jamil barely delivering a laugh. The story is strained beyond belief, taking coming-of-age cliches and making an even bigger mockery out of them by overly stylizing every frame with unnecessary slapstick. The film was co-written and based on the experiences of Caitlin Moran, who also wrote the novel of the same name. Only a TV director (Coky Giedroyc) could make a film as preposterously naive as this one.
If you’re still interested, “How to Build a Girl” will be available via VOD on May 8th.
Still no distributor for "Bucking Fastard," "Alpha Gang," "The Last Photograph," "Closing Night," and "The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd." The issue seems to be quality more than a lack of willingness to buy.