How to Build a Girl (2020) Review!!

Synopsis – The novel charts the journey of teenager Johanna Morrigan (Beanie Feldstein), who reinvents herself as Dolly Wilde: fast-talking, lady sex-adventurer, moves to London, and gets a job as music critic in the hope of saving her poverty stricken family in Wolverhampton.

My Take – If you have had the pleasure of watching actresses turned directors Greta Gerwig‘s Lady Bird (2017) and Olivia Wilde‘s Booksmart (2019), two of the best coming-of-age comedies of this decade, you definitely must have noticed Beanie Feldstein. Mainly as in both the features, Jonah Hill‘s younger sister, while playing the gawky high schooler and best pal to the co-lead, managed to steal the show with her knife-sharp sense of comedic timing.

However, in director Coky Giedroyc’s latest feature, which is now available on VOD, despite playing a high schooler again, she gets her own 102 minutes in the spotlight, a chance to showcase her wide range and talent for accents.

Based on best-selling 2014 semi-autobiographical novel by British writer Caitlin Moran (who also wrote the script), the film acts as a loving tribute to young women with overactive imaginations, and their desire to reinvent themselves, especially if they have been struggling with finding their own identity.

While, as far as originality goes, given the profusion of coming-of-age films that hit the screen every year, the material doesn’t really discover any new ground, which for a film like this might be enough to entertain those who are looking for just a straightforward charming story.

However, it’s mostly the no-holds-barred performance of Beanie Feldstein that makes this work. Her earlier roles clearly had prepared her well to portray a young woman bursting with sass, sincerity, brains and bawdiness. In the sense, even when her character Johanna transforms herself into outrageous fictitious rock writer Dolly Wilde and becomes downright nasty, she remains a delight. That goes a long way in selling a story that occasionally feels implausible and stretched out, hereby managing to keep you regularly engaged.

The story follows Johanna Morrighan (Beanie Feldstein), a 16-year-old high school misfit with a writing talent holed up in the dreary Midlands suburb of Wolverhampton in England. Living with a family that constantly hustles to stay just above poverty, her dad, Pat (Paddy Considine), a failed jazz drummer still trying to reclaim his 1978 glory days, now breeds black market Border Collies while remaining optimistic about life, while her mother, Angie (Sarah Solemani), is struggling with postpartum depression after the unplanned birth of twins.

Technically, Johanna’s only real friend is her brother Krissy (Laurie Kynaston), with whom she shares a partitioned bedroom, who following her embarrassing ordeal on a televised poetry reading show (hosted by Chris O’Dowd), encourages her to apply for a critic job at music magazine D&ME in London. While her heartfelt submission on Annie: The Musical causes guffawing among the ultra-cool writing staff at the magazine; yet her writing skill and persistence land her a shot.

An easy gig which is quickly followed up her first ever profile of the John Kite (Alfie Allen), a popular and earnest singer, results in a connection and teenage crush, leading to a sappy article rejected by her employer. But in an effort to prove she’s not just a nice teen girl, she soon becomes one of the boys of the company, shedding Johanna’s awkward skin to become the witty, sharp-tongued and glamorous Dolly Wilde, a woman of the world who greets her fans in a top hat perched at a jaunty angle on her fire-red mane. As Dolly takes over, she starts to threaten the best things about Johanna, and is forced to figure out if this is really who she wants to be, or if she has to start rebuilding herself all over again.

As one would expect, it all doesn’t come easy though, but the film captures the emotional roller coaster of impending adulthood in all its exhilarating highs and cringe worthy, at times devastating, lows. Here, writer Caitlin Moran clearly aimed for a John Hughes-style coming-of-age dramedy inspired by her semi-biographical novel. For the most part, Moran and director Coky Giedroyc hit the mark in their portrayal of a 16-year-old reinventing herself as a rock critic, but also don’t exactly reinvent the wheel of how to tell a coming-of-age tale.

However it does supply viewers with a highly entertaining and endearing wheel to look at, as you slowly fall in love with the story of a smart and too wise for her years woman who tries out self-transformation in exchange for popularity, but doesn’t find what she’s looking for.

Since much of Johanna’s story takes place in the music world, it’s also not so surprising that much of her coming-of-age follows the familiar beats of a musical biopic, complete with a rise, fall, and subsequent reform.

But it sure is refreshing to see a girl get to be the one who is flawed, selfish, irresponsible and getting to have a wild time on tour with rock stars etc. While things go somewhat off-the-rails in the final act, not just for Johanna, but in terms of how much the writing stretches credibility to lead to convenient conclusions. Up until this point, it is a mostly enjoyable ride, if you don’t take it too seriously or think about it too deeply.

Here, the script is hell-bent on calling out the gross exploitation of power and the barrier that existed, and still does exist, for women and the working classes in the industry. But it does so with a sense of humor, a quality the film unwaveringly sticks to. For example, when an editor asks 16-year-old Dolly to sit in his lap, she jumps on him and flails about like it’s a fairground ride.

What makes the film so gutting, despite its bombastic and fun trappings, is its searing emotional core. Director Giedroyc’s juxtaposition of Johanna’s wild, unadulterated dreams against her mother’s defeated, exhausted existence reminds us that too often, smart, happy people are beaten down into submission by society and circumstance.

Performance wise, Beanie Feldstein plays a somewhat similar, but this time British, character as she did in last year’s Booksmart. A tad bit more insecure, but still driven and charismatic. Though at 26, she is too old to be playing teens, her performance is as wonderful as we’ve come to expect and nevertheless effortlessly carries the show as she was meant to rather than stealing it from the sidelines. She also shares a delightful chemistry with members of her onscreen family, with Paddy Considine, Laurie Kynaston and Sarah Solemani bringing in some heartwarming moments.

However, when it comes to a true scene stealing performance, Alfie Allen (Game of Thrones) walks away with the honors. His scenes with Feldstein are the best sequences of the film, as both the actors don’t overreach or push too hard on the words and keep everything natural.

In supporting roles, Frank Dillane, Ziggy Heath, Arinzé Kene and Joanna Scanlan leave a mark while Chris O’Dowd and Emma Thompson show up in small yet delightful roles. Michael Sheen, Gemma Arterton, Alexei Sayle, Lily Allen, Lucy Punch, Sharon Horgan, Jameela Jamil, Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc form one of the most inventive aspects of Johanna’s rich fantasy life. As pictures of her muses, they hilariously offer her advice on every matter. On the whole, ‘How to Build a Girl’ is a funny, engaging and times exhausting comedy drama that works as an excellent showcase for Beanie Feldstein.