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How to Build a Girl

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United Kingdom · 2020
Rated R · 1h 42m
Director Coky Giedroyc
Starring Beanie Feldstein, Paddy Considine, Sarah Solemani, Alfie Allen
Genre Comedy

The journey of teenager Johanna Morrigan, who reinvents herself as Dolly Wilde: fast-talking, lady sex-adventurer. With her new identity, she moves to London and gets a job as music critic in the hope of saving her poverty stricken family in Wolverhampton.

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What are critics saying?

60

Variety by Amy Nicholson

The final product feels like if the greatest musician in the world tried to write a classic in 15 minutes. Yet, “How to a Build a Girl” dares to argue that reinventing yourself doesn’t make you a poseur ... It’s a young person’s jam that will hit the right teen like a thunderbolt.

70

Vanity Fair by Katey Rich

Winning and funny, while also a bit surface-level and predictable, it is an excellent case for the twin powers of Feldstein and Caitlin Moran, the author who adapted her own autobiographical novel to the screen. But it also fails to make the best use of either woman; Feldstein is significantly hampered by a working class British accent, while Moran’s unforgettable comic voice doesn’t come through nearly enough.

80

The Hollywood Reporter by Leslie Felperin

As fun as a night in the mosh pit with your best mate ... Directed by Coky Giedroyc with a fizzy vibrancy and supercharged by Feldstein's intense charisma, this crowd-pleasing comedy has smart things to say about class, sex and female identity.

75

San Francisco Chronicle by Mick LaSalle

Adapted by Caitlin Moran, from her own semi-autobiographical novel, it’s both a dead-on take on what it’s like to be a young critic as well as a smart movie about class and 1990s culture.

70

Rolling Stone by Peter Travers

It’s funny — as is a lot of this eager-to-please, all-over-the-place movie — thanks to the dry snap of Moran’s dialogue and Feldstein’s exhilarating performance.

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