The Starling Girl

IN A NUTSHELL: A 17-year-old girl struggles with her place in the world and in her Christian fundamentalist community. When a young pastor returns to her church, new challenges of faith emerge. The film was directed and written by Laurel Parmet. She has already won the "Directors to Watch" award. The movie was also nominated for the "Grand Jury Prize" at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and the "Audience Award" at the SXSW Film Festival. THINGS I LIKED: Eliza Scanlen does a fantastic job as the lead. Everyone in the cast crushed it. The cast includes Lewis Pullman, Jimmi Simpson, Wrenn Schmidt, Claire Elizabeth Green, and Ellie May. The dialogue is sensitive and often insightful, but the quiet moments are powerful too. The movie takes place in Kentucky. My nephew just moved there! Beautiful cinematography by Brian Lannin. Great camerawork and editing by Sam Levy. Lovely musical score by Ben Schneider. The film does a good job of painting a picture of life in a small, religious community. THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE: I didn't like any of the characters and couldn't relate to any of them. What's so sinful about chewing gum? Why did the pastor make such a big deal out of that? I've never understood a woman who could be with a married man. Some scenes are very dark which will make it difficult to see what's happening if you watch this on a small streaming device. Some viewers won't like the ambiguous ending. It was interesting to watch the girls dance as a form of worship. Not very many Christian churches do that. TIPS FOR PARENTS: Kids will be extremely bored. We see unmarried people have sex. It's dark, so we don't see skin, just facial expressions and hear sounds. We hear someone throw up. We see someone in a hospital bed. To see my full review, check my YouTube channel called Movie Review Mom.

This coming-of-age drama follows Jem Starling as she becomes an adult--or at least starts to become an adult. It explores the conflict between Jem's growing awareness of her body and its needs and the beliefs of the fundamentalist church that plays a large part in her life and her family's life. Her family is also a source of conflict: before his conversion, her father had been a musician with a steady gig at a bar in Memphis, and the temptations of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll return after the suicide of one of his former band members. What music is for her father, dance is for Jem and she contrives to lead the church's dance troupe by charming Owen, the church's youth pastor who has just returned from Puerto Rico. Eventually, Owen and Jem begin an affair that is transgressive in almost every possible way: Owen is married, he is the brother of Ben, who is officially courting Jem, and both Owen and Ben are the sons of the church's pastor. The ending is pleasantly ambiguous: we see that Jem follows her powerful need to know about the world and what her place in it ought to be, but not exactly where that takes her. The cast is very good and Eliza Scanlen, who is in almost every scene, makes a good Jem. Wrenn Schmidt is also excellent as Heidi, Jem's mother who is trying to hold a large family together while her husband and her eldest daughter lose their minds. For many viewers, a fundamentalist church in Kentucky might seem an 'exotic' milieu, but the film doesn't treat its characters like the subjects of an ethnographic expedition. The first half of the film sets the scene at a leisurely pace, but tensions build in the second half as we wonder when the lovers will be discovered and what the consequences will be.

The plot in and of itself is very simple and has been done many times. Young girl, oppressed - finds her identity through trials and tribulations. It's really a story as old as time itself, so that's not the real focus of this film. The acting and character development is what to focus on while watching. The setting is mostly outdoor rural Kentucky, within a very strict Christian fundamentalist community, which I found unique and interesting. The focus of the film is the subtle changes in the young girl main protagonist. It's almost like watching a slow motion train wreck, for her and the immature pastor. Overall it's a slow burn, hard to really review. I just enjoyed the overall ambience and acting. Everything else for me I could take or leave it, but it was entertaining. 5.9/10.

This movie broke me. Maybe you need to personally relate to the content, but the way in which the relationship between Jem and Own is crafted is nuanced and relatable. The trauma that comes with religious upbringing is powerfully displayed in this movie. In the hands of the screenwriter, director and actors it is deftly dealt with, without forcing an agenda down your throat one way or the other. Pullman and Scanlen achieve the necessary chemistry that you're wholly along for the journey and seem to understand both sides, even if there is a clear villain in this tale. This movie had me thinking about it nonstop for a week now...don't know what my entire conclusion is yet, but I'm so glad it was made.

The Starling Girl is a remarkable debut feature from writer-director Laurel Parmet, who explores the complex and nuanced themes of faith, desire, identity and agency in a fundamentalist Christian setting. The film is anchored by a stunning performance from Eliza Scanlen as Jem Starling, a teenager who is torn between her devotion to her family and church and her attraction to her charismatic youth pastor Owen (Lewis Pullman). Parmet avoids easy judgments or stereotypes, and instead portrays the characters and their community with empathy and authenticity. The film also benefits from a rich cinematography by Brian Lannin, who captures the beauty and contrast of the rural Kentucky landscape, and a haunting score by Lord Huron, who create an atmospheric and emotional soundtrack. The Starling Girl is a powerful and provocative film that challenges and engages the viewer, and announces Parmet as a promising new voice in American cinema.