Beanie Feldstein is a special performer. She grabbed at us as Julie, Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson’s best friend, and then shined alongside Kaitlyn Dever in the terrific “Booksmart.” In “How to Build a Girl,” based on Caitlin Moran’s semi-autobiographical best-selling novel, Feldstein finally gets center stage all to herself.
The coming-of-age pic sees Feldstein playing Johanna Morrigan, a girl with a ton of creativity and dreams stuck in an overwhelmed, under resourced family in Wolverhampton, UK. She gets the opportunity to be a music reviewer and creates a whole new persona – Dolly Wilde. More than a little sharp around the edges, Dolly pushes people around and uses her power to cut folks down, not raise them up.
What Johanna eventually discovers is that Dolly might not be the girl of her dreams. Feldstein is a joy to watch as she takes us on this journey, and reminds us that we have the ability to make choices and if those choices don’t work, we can change paths to try and discover our true selves.
“How to Build a Girl” is directed by Coky Giedroyc and Moran adapted her own novel. The pic is now available to rent on VOD.
