SCREEN | Beanie Feldstein Learns 'How to Build A Girl'

"You rip it up and start again."

IFC Films / Film4

Starlet Beanie Feldstein offers another lively star-making turn as an artistic British teen enamoured with the world of music journalism in the film adaptation based on the loose memoir How to Build A Girl by author Caitlin Moran who also wrote the script.

Feldstein as our heroine Johanna reinvents herself from her working-class Wolverhampton roots into an alternate personality (under nom de plume Dolly Wilde) to become a popular but conflicted culture critic akin to Almost Famous amidst the 1990s Brit rock landscape. Director Coky Giedroyc captures the idealistic, creative nature of a young writer's mind through surrealist artistic touches to express her talents visually.

Paddy Considine as Johanna's daft but encouraging father brings warm adult presence in addition to a plethora of British cameos as Johanna's heroes and Laurie Kynaston as her supportive brother. It's an altogether fun cast that quickly establishes the recent bygone era of England's vibrant music scene on screen.

There's a charming, playful quality to How to Build a Girl largely in part to Feldstein's committed and captivating performance. The coming-of-age journey of adolescent reinvention in pursuit of your dreams is standard material done well here thanks to its very earnest and specific '90s English setting.

How to Build A Girl is available to stream on iTunes and through video on demand.


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