A working-class teenager (Beanie Feldstein) tries to reinvent herself as a hip London music critic, in this unconventional coming-of-age story based on British author Caitlin Moran’s semiautobiographical novel. Also starring Chris O’Dowd, Emma Thompson, and Paddy Considine.
How to Build a Girl Movie Storyline. Set in England in the 1990s, this giddy fusion of coming-of-age comedy and rock ‘n’ roll debauchery charts a sweet, geeky teenage girl’s meteoric rise to music critic infamy. Based on Caitlin Moran’s semi-autobiographical novel and directed by Coky Giedroyc — last at the Festival with the world premiere of Women Talking Dirty — How to Build a Girl is about discovering your best self by unleashing your nastiest one.
With her bedroom wall decorated with images of beloved heroes such as Julie Andrews and the Brontë sisters, Johanna Morrigan (Booksmart’s Beanie Feldstein) has no shortage of enthusiasms — if only just one of them could help her seem cool. Johanna’s Wolverhampton home is crowded with four brothers, one depressed mum, one failed drummer turned unlicensed dog breeder dad (Paddy Considine), and countless border collies, and there’s precious little income to go around.
Thankfully, Johanna hits the jackpot: she responds to a London music magazine’s call for new writers, and while she knows virtually nothing about contemporary music, her plucky insistence lands her gigs reviewing concerts and records. Sensing that cutting sarcasm curries more favour with her editors than fan-girl plaudits, Johanna reinvents herself as Dolly Wilde, a flamboyantly mean, sexually voracious scenester with a penchant for pithy takedowns. Her new persona makes her a star. But it may cost her her soul.
Brimming with great music, wild escapades, and memorable cameos from Chris O’Dowd, Alfie Allen, and Emma Thompson, How to Build a Girl is a cautionary tale about growing up fast, and slowing down just enough to get to know who you really are.
How to Build a Girl is a 2019 coming-of-age comedy film directed by Coky Giedroyc, from a screenplay by Caitlin Moran, based on her 2014 novel of the same name. The film tells the story of Johanna Morrigan, an aspiring music journalist in 1990s Wolverhampton. It stars Beanie Feldstein, Paddy Considine, Sarah Solemani, Alfie Allen, Frank Dillane, Laurie Kynaston, Arinzé Kene, Tadhg Murphy, Ziggy Heath, Bobby Schofield, Chris O’Dowd, Joanna Scanlan and Emma Thompson.
How to Build a Girl had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on 7 September 2019 and won the FIPRESCI Special Presentations award. The film was released in the United States on 8 May 2020 by IFC Films and in the United Kingdom on 24 July 2020 by Lionsgate.How to Build a Girl is a 2019 coming-of-age comedy film directed by Coky Giedroyc, from a screenplay by Caitlin Moran, based on her 2014 novel of the same name.
The film tells the story of Johanna Morrigan, an aspiring music journalist in 1990s Wolverhampton. It stars Beanie Feldstein, Paddy Considine, Sarah Solemani, Alfie Allen, Frank Dillane, Laurie Kynaston, Arinzé Kene, Tadhg Murphy, Ziggy Heath, Bobby Schofield, Chris O’Dowd, Joanna Scanlan and Emma Thompson.
How to Build a Girl had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on 7 September 2019 and won the FIPRESCI Special Presentations award. The film was released in the United States on May 8, 2020 by IFC Films and in the United Kingdom on July 24, 2020 by Lionsgate Films.
In its opening weekend on the US, the film grossed $15,000 from six theatres. In its second weekend, it made $36,000 from nine drive-in cinemas, for a 10-day total of $55,802.
About the Story
Johanna dreams of escaping her life to become a writer, and finds comfort in speaking with the portraits of her idols covering her bedroom wall. A poem she wrote is selected for a televised competition, but she is overcome with nerves and humiliates herself on national television. After inadvertently revealing that her family is illegally breeding Border Collies, resulting in her father losing his disability benefits, Johanna is determined to earn money for the family.
Krissi refers her to D&ME, a London music paper seeking a rock critic, and Johanna submits a review of the Annie soundtrack. She is invited to interview at the D&ME offices, but arrives to learn the staff assumed her submission was a joke. Undeterred, she convinces them to give her a chance, and is assigned to cover the Manic Street Preachers in Birmingham.
Eager to reinvent herself, Johanna adopts a new style, bright red hair, and the pen name “Dolly Wilde”. She attends her first rock show and falls in love with the music, immersing herself in the local scene. D&ME agrees to send her to Dublin to interview musician John Kite, who is instantly smitten with her bubbly personality. She spends the day with John, who brings her onstage with him. Afterward, they open up to one another about their lives, and Johanna finds herself enamored with him.
Returning home, she writes a glowing feature on John, which her editor dismisses as the work of a teenage girl with a crush, and she is fired. Realising that negative criticism is the path to success, Johanna begins writing deliberately cruel reviews as Dolly, and is rehired at D&ME.
Now a scathing but popular critic, she is able to support her family with her writing income. She becomes sexually active, forcing Krissi to listen as she recounts her sexual exploits. Pat, still hoping to achieve fame with his band Mayonnaise, gives his single to Johanna to promote. She brings it to a D&ME gathering where it is derided by the others, who force her to skeet shoot the record.
How to Build a Girl (2020)
Directed by: Coky Giedroyc
Starring: Beanie Feldstein, Paddy Considine, Sarah Solemani, Alfie Allen, Frank Dillane, Laurie Kynaston, Arinzé Kene, Tadhg Murphy, Ziggy Heath, Bobby Schofield, Joanna Scanlan, Emma Thompson
Screenplay by: Caitlin Moran
Production Design by: Amanda McArthur
Cinematography by: Hubert Taczanowski
Film Editing by: Gary Dollner, Gareth C. Scales
Costume Design by: Stephanie Collie
Set Decoration by: Celia De La Hey
Art Direction by: John Reid
Music by: Oli Julian
MPAA Rating: R for sexual content, language throughout and some teen drinking.
Distributed by: Lionsgate Films (United Kingdom), IFC Films (United States)
Release Date: September 7, 2019 (TIFF), May 8, 2020 (United States), July 24, 2020 (United Kingdom)
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