How To Build A Girl
2020
Amazon Prime
Directed by Coky Giedroyc
Written by Caitlin Moran
Based on How To Build A Girl by Caitlin Moran
Music by Oli Julian
CAST
Beanie Feldstein – Johanna Morrigan, aka Dolly Wilde
Alfie Allen – John Kite, pop singer
Paddy Considine – Pat Morrigan, her dad
Sarah Solemani – Angie Morrigan, her mum
Laurie Kynaston – Krissi Morrigan, her brother
Joanna Scanlon – Mrs Belling, her English teacher
Arinze Kene – Kenny, chief editor D & ME
Frank Dillane – Tony Rich, journalist
Jameela Jamil – Cleopatra
Tadhg Murphy- Andy Rock
Ziggy Heath- Derby
Emma Thompson – – Editor of ‘The Face’
Chris O’Dowd – TV talent show compere
Bob Mortimer- awards host
+ “the talking wall”. Johanna has a wall of pictures which come to life and talk to her. The wall is stellar:
Michael Sheen – Freud
Lucy Punch- Sylvia Plath
Sharon Horgan- Jo March
Gemma Arteton – Maria von Trapp
Lily Allen – Elizabeth Taylor
Alexei Sayle- Karl Marx
Andi Oliver- Donna Summer
Mel Giedroyc – Charlotte Bronte
Sue Perkins- Emily Bronte
Patsy Ferran – Bjork
It was filmed in 2018. Preview: Toronto Film Festival September 2019
US release 8 May 2020, UK release 24 July 2020 on Amazon Prime Video
Amazon blurb:
It’s 1993, and there’s only one way for a curvy, bright, funny, working-class sixteen year old (Feldstein) to break out of her tiny, crowded house in Wolverhampton, and go on the somehow noble sex-quest she desires – to reinvent herself as swashbuckling, top-hat-wearing rock critic Dolly Wilde, and explode all over London. The only question is – was Dolly Wilde the right girl to build?
Friday night. We decided to re-watch the 1978 series with Tim Curry as Shakespeare on DVD but stopped after five minutes because the soundtrack was so indistinct. Karen was talking about cinemas, and when they would re-open so we could see How To Build A Girl which was reviewed last weekend. She’d read the reviews. I hadn’t. 24 July release in the UK but where? How? So I glanced at Amazon Prime … there it was! How To Build A Girl. Free. Streaming … and some of my best film experiences from Bonnie and Clyde on have been with no prior knowledge whatsoever.
There’s a line to be drawn here … I want to avoid plot spoilers in reviews of current films, which is the total opposite of my 60s Retrospective Reviews where every bit of the game is given away.
How To Build A Girl based on Caitlin Moran’s semi-autobiographical novel of the same title from 2014. Caitlin Moran had lots of siblings. Her father was an Irish (failed) drummer. She lived in a Wolverhampton council house, won a writing competition and ended up working for Melody Maker as a 16 year old rock journalist. There’s a parallel with Julie Burchill, who made a similar journey (some years earlier) from a working-class background in Bristol to end up as a 17 year old rock journalist on New Musical Express. In this film, Johanna becomes a journalist even younger for D & ME which would be Disc and Music Echo. I’m guessing it was chosen as defunct, while Melody Maker and NME pieces are still being recycled as glossy magazines.
It’s set in 1993, the year Beanie Feldstein was born. She had never heard a Wolverhampton accent before so working in it is a mighty feat. British actors, weaned on Lennie Henry and Jasper Carrott would be more familiar with West Midlands tones. She worked in a local gift shop and lived in a pub to learn the accent … she’s brilliant. The rock background will be more natural to her … her dad was tour accountant for Guns ‘n’ Roses.
Beanie Feldstein: I knew that I could do it, which makes no sense, because I had never heard a Wolverhampton accent before. I couldn’t have told you even where on a map of the UK it was, but I just knew her. I just knew her. This message of telling everyone, but specifically young women, that it’s OK to try on different versions of yourself, rip one off, and start again – and that that is human, and important – was just so meaningful to me.
Interview in The Face 18 February 2020
I would describe the film in a sentence as Almost Famous meets The Grimleys. The Grimleys (1999-2001) was a sitcom set in The Midlands on a council estate in the 1970s with Nigel Planer as the unemployed dad. The Almost Famous link is made in the reviews … except this is about a budding rock journalist who females can identify with. Hi-Fidelity for girls, is a further reference.
The cast is outstanding. Beanie Feldstein (you must see Lady Bird and Booksmart) plays Johanna Morrigan. Dad is Paddy Considine who played the lead in The Ferryman by Jez Butterworth, which I chose as my “Best Play of 2017.” Mum is Sarah Solemani who starred in the sitcoms Him & Her and Bad Education. Alfie Allen is from Game of Thrones. They have Emma Thompson and Chris O’Dowd in very short walk-on parts. Let alone Johanna’s “talking bedroom wall”: – see above.
STORY
BeanieF eldstein as Johanna Morrigan … at school
Johanna is an intellectually-inclined teenager, living with her Dad, who is still pining for his lost music career, and her Mum, who’s just had “afterthought’ twins … “afterthought” is a personal reference. My initials are “P.S.” and I endured teachers saying, ‘Ho, ho. Were you an afterthought?” throughout my childhood. I never found it funny.
Sarah Solemani as her mum, Angie, Laurie Kynaston as her brother Krissi, Beanie Feldstein as Johanna
Johanna loves writing, though her schoolteacher would prefer a 5 page GCSE essay to her submitted 33 page thesis.
She constantly consults the celebrities on her wall of photos in her room … which is partitioned for her and her brother. They come to life, give advice, comment.
Johanna enters a poetry contest on TV, and is the ruin of the family because Social Services discover that far from being totally unemployed, the family breed collie dogs.
Paddy Considine as her dad, Pat. Laurie Kynaston as her brother Krissi, Beanie Feldstein as Johanna. The Social Worker has just left.
She submits a music review of Annie and is invited to the offices of D&ME where the posh boys reveal the invitation was a joke. She’s given the chance to review the Manic Street Preachers, and the result in Lou Reed’s words, her life was saved by rock ‘n’ roll. Her next job is interviewing John Kite (Alfie Allen) a singer of lugubrious and sad emo dirges. They bond. He tells her some off the record stuff about himself. (Uh, oh, OFF THE RECORD? To a journalist?)
She writes a girly gushy fan review and gets sacked. She realizes you’ve got to be cruel. Have you? Always an issue for reviewers. So she dies her hair bright red, gets a top hat, and becomes Dolly Wilde, the journalist with the nastiest mouth on the planet. She walks out of school, has sex with as many and in as many ways as she can. She becomes a star writer based on descriptions such as:
- Paul Simon looks like a face drawn on a toe.
- Joni Mitchell has the voice of an angel and the face of a Grand National winner.
- Eddie Vedder (of Pearl Jam) should have taken his career, based on ripping off Kurt Cobain, to a logical copycat conclusion by killing himself.
Johanna is now Dolly Wilde with the D&ME journalists
Not so nice. She wins the journalism Arsehole of the Year award. She decides to continue by revealing all the personal secrets John Kite told her in a front page spread. His reply is hurt, and devastating. She tries to kill herself (no plot spoiler).
She has discovered what the posh boy journalists in the hot tub REALLY think of her at a party … she’s a ‘bit of rough.’ She writes a personal piece about what she’s done and submits it to the Face.
In the end, she is given a “proper” writing job by Emma Thompson as the editor. She apologises to all, and especially a sweetly forgiving John Kite.
Alfie Allen as John Kite, Beanie Feldstein as Johanna Morrigan
It’s fast moving. It’s funny. It’s the perfect length for a feature film comedy – 102 minutes. John Kite’s early song is not one that will sell soundtracks, though the one that plays later is catchy.
THE MONEY STUFF
Well, it’s a Covid casualty. In its first ten days in the USA it took $55,000. Yes, there is a full stop after $55,000. Go back a few years, and I would imagine a boisterous theatrical run, followed by several years of high DVD sales as a teen / student “Friday night favourite” for re-watching when you’re near word perfect on the script. Straight to Amazon Prime in the UK. I don’t know how they make money out of that. Amazon has a picture of a DVD case with “currently unavailable” and “Watch instantly with Prime video.”
I did. But put me down for a Blu-ray when it comes out.
I suspect we’ll be buying it as well. We watched it last night and absolutely loved it. It’s smart, funny and very entertaining.
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