How To Build a Girl is cute and sometimes funny, but nothing new
Film critic Jason Evans does not want to waste your time
with long-winded film reviews, so he is committed to tell you all you need to
know about movies in exactly 100 words (not 99, not 101). So, here is his 100
word review of How To Build a Girl.
The Premise: 16-year-old Johanna (Beanie Feldstein, Jonah
Hill’s sister and the star of Booksmart ) is a fairly typical nerdy teen living
in lower-middle class England. She has a gift for writing though and lands a gig
as a rock and roll critic. The cool rock journalists think she’s too awkward until
she reinvents herself as the brash Dolly Wilde, a red haired party animal and a
biting critic. But is that who Johanna really wants to be?
The 100 Words: Feldstein is a wonderful comedic actress and
does her best to carry this film. She’s in every scene, often as a voice-over
narrator (a weak storytelling device), but the film never makes you care enough
about the other characters to rise above its formulaic story. Though “based on
a true story” I found many of the characters and scenes less than believable. The
thick British accents make some of the jokes tough to understand but enough
landed to keep me mostly smiling. The “teen writer finds a purpose through rock
& roll” story was told much better in Almost Famous.
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