How to Build a Girl

How to Build a Girl is an incredibly fun movie.

What a thoroughly likeable and funny film.

This sincerely felt and utterly effervescent coming-of-age tale expresses a universal truth about being alive: that hopefully, you'll have the chance, and the awareness, to make and remake yourself, again and again, dusting off the old bricks you've got and forming them into something familiar but new.

The way it rushes from silly to vicious to sappy can put you in a tonal whirl. But it’s also fun, and not insignificant in the way it puts an unconventional heroine on screen and then gives her the agency to act both stupid and smart as she sees fit.

So even though the whole can feel a bit cutesy at times, there’s real weight beneath that façade.

If it fails to mine the deeper themes in this story about a working-class writer fighting to find her footing in the music industry, How To Build A Girl is a resounding success as a showcase of Feldstein’s capabilities in a leading role.

So it’s no small tribute to Feldstein — who really is something — to say that she’s the very best thing in How to Build a Girl despite being so wildly miscast. Her performance is a tour de force, even if it’s too forceful for either its own good or that of the movie.

For what it's worth it keeps up a fast and entertaining pace. There are some contradictions in the message but it's certainly a kind of Almost Famous under a feminine gaze. But beware, the films are completely different with the exception that both protagonists write about rock music being just teenagers. End of the comparison. Beanie Feldstein does things well in her first full leading role but I couldn't stand her accent and tone of her voice. Minor issue yes, but you're hearing her the entire film. Thankfully the character has a good personality.