265. How To Build A Girl; movie review

HOW TO BUILD A GIRL
Cert 15
104 mins
BBFC advice: Contains strong sex, sex references, language, self-harm references, harassment

I was a student in Wolverhampton and have never managed to mimic the accent accurately even though I lived there for three years and was born scarcely 40 miles away.
Therefore, hearing an American making out that she was born and bred in the Black Country was distracting bordering on comical.
Beanie Feldstein is endearing and even manages to seem believable as a wannabe British pop paper writer but she isn't exactly Doreen Tipton (look her up).
Mind you, she makes just as good a fist of the dialect as Burton-on-Trent born Paddy Considine whose constant use of the word 'bab' could not cover for his lack of twang.
Because Coky Giedroyc's movie is based partly on the life of Caitlin Moran it has stuck with setting it in her home city. If anything that probably made it less attractive to the greater watching public.
I doubt there would have even been that many Midlanders who would have caught the references to the likes of JB's Dudley.
But they would have lapped up how important the music press was to many of us when we were in our formative years.
Feldstein plays Johanna Morrigan - loosely based on Moran - a girl with big dreams but not the background to match them.
She lives on a council estate with her dreamer dad (Considine), mum (Sarah Solemani ) who is exhausted from nurturing twin babies, and two bothers.
She shares a divided bedroom with her confidant, Krissi (Laurie Kynaston) who she tells of her dreams to be a writer.
Indeed, it is he who suggests that she should take a punt at penning music reviews.
This takes her on a whole new path under the nom-de-plume of Dolly Wilde.

And this is where the film chimes with me the most - having been an avid gig-goer and reader of the pop press during my youth.

Dolly is suddenly an influencer and has the attitude and flamboyant dress sense to go with her standing but, as the money rolls in, her morals roll out.

She can't see that she is changing for the worst even when she falls for a heart-throb singer, played by Alfie Allen.

Essentially, How To Build A Girl is a coming-of-age movie but it has nostalgia, pathos and a few comedy moments thrown in.

And, with the exception of her dodgy accent, Feldstein is largely likeable as the lead, taking me back to a time which seemed infinitely better than the dark days of the internet.

Reasons to watch: Disarming and original
Reasons to avoid: Beanie Feldstein's attempt at a Black Country accent

Laughs: A couple of chuckles
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 7/10

Did you know? In March 2018, the print edition of NME ceased publication after 66 years and it became an online-only publication.

The final word. Beanie Feldstein: "I came to cherish Wolverhampton and the people I got to know there. I went for three weeks before we started shooting and I worked in a store just off the High Street. Per the instructions of our director, I had to speak in the accent from the moment I began my shift to the moment I ended it, whether that was talking to customers or ordering lunch on my break. It was completely surreal and utterly wonderful and also imperative to the process." Elle

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