How to Build a Girl

Name: How to Build a Girl
Genre: Comedy
Released: May 8, 2020
Duration: 102 min
Rating: 69
Cast: Alfie Allen, Beanie Feldstein, Catherine Tate, Chris O'Dowd, Cleo

2020

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 14 Ratings

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5.9

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5.9	User Score Mixed or average reviews based on 14 Ratings

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How To Build A Girl

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Movie Details & Credits

IFC Films | Release Date (Streaming): May 8, 2020 | NR

Starring: Alfie Allen, Beanie Feldstein, Catherine Tate, Chris O'Dowd, Cleo, Dónal Finn, Edward Bluemel, Emma Thompson, Frank Dillane, Freya Perry, Gemma Arterton, Harper Perry, Jameela Jamil, Joanna Scanlan, Laurie Kynaston, Lucy Punch, Michael Sheen, Paddy Considine, Sarah Solemani, Sharon Horgan, Stellan Powell, Violet Amer

Summary: Johana Morrigan (Beanie Feldstein) is a bright, quirky, 16-year-old who uses her colorful imagination to regularly escape her humdrum life in Wolverhampton and live out her creative fantasies. Desperate to break free from the overcrowded flat she shares with her four brothers and eccentric parents, she submits an earnestly penned andJohana Morrigan (Beanie Feldstein) is a bright, quirky, 16-year-old who uses her colorful imagination to regularly escape her humdrum life in Wolverhampton and live out her creative fantasies. Desperate to break free from the overcrowded flat she shares with her four brothers and eccentric parents, she submits an earnestly penned and off-beat music review to a group of self-important indie rock critics at a weekly magazine. Despite being brushed off initially, Johana clamors to the top of the 90s rock music scene by reinventing herself as Dolly Wilde – a venerable, impossible-to-please music critic with an insatiable lust for fame, fortune, and men. It isn’t long before the rapid pace at which Johana’s life is changing becomes overwhelming and she runs face-first into a devastatingly real, existential crisis: Is this the type of girl she wants to become? Or does she need to start over and build again from the ground up? [IFC Films]… Expand

Director: Coky Giedroyc

Genre(s): Comedy

Rating: NR

Runtime: 102 min

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Critic Reviews

Lorry Kikta

May 8, 2020

How to Build a Girl is an incredibly fun movie. Read full review

Jeannette Catsoulis

May 7, 2020

Like a stone skipping on water, How to Build a Girl leaps from raunchy to charming, vulgar to sweet, earthy to airy-fairy without allowing any one to settle. Yet it’s so wonderfully funny and deeply embedded in class-consciousness . . . that it’s tonal incontinence is easily forgiven. Read full review

Kimberley Jones

May 8, 2020

Still, it takes a special someone to sell this larger-than-life character onscreen, and to make you forgive how the galloping script glosses over some crucial beats. Read full review

Fionnuala Halligan

Sep 11, 2019

The trouble with a high-stakes “small” British project like this is that everyone involved tends to want to play it safe. Read full review

Steve Pond

May 6, 2020

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. Read full review

Alexandra Sims

Aug 24, 2020

The film may fail to probe many of the issues thrown up following a working-class girl trying to break into a privileged world, but it only goes to show that cinema could certainly benefit from the presence of more plus-sized, funny, working-class, feminist girls like Johanna. Read full review

Mark Feeney

May 8, 2020

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. Read full review

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User Reviews

alejoazalean

Aug 29, 2020

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Dkdldldnsnksksksnsksjsnnsjsksizjsndixjdndkxidjdnxindndixkdnfifidjendijdndkzjdndkiznsnsjz d d… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

MarkTakayama

Nov 1, 2021

I liked this movie. The themes were love and friendship. A teenage girl learned a lot of things and the most important thing in life. Beanie Feldstein did a great job. But she was too old to play a high school student. Great movie!

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

JLuis_001

May 16, 2020

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 beingFor 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.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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