Review of Tall Girl (2019) by Paul_Cawston — 16 Apr 2021

The notoriety this movie has amassed was one of comedic ignorance to actual problems. The infamous line in the trailer of “I'm a girl wearing size 13 shoes, in high school what can be worse than that” gives the impression this movie is going to be one giant circle jerk of #tallpeopleproblems. However at the end of the day Tall Girl is just a bad coming of age story, and that's all you need to know about it. The movie is much better than that infamous line makes it out to be, being tall is a vessel where themes of self worth, self doubt and self image are explored. It's not just about #tallpeopleproblems it's about a girl struggling to find self worth in high school. (Self worth being defined through a relationship however that's a different discussion for a different review.) The movie knows there are larger problems than being tall, even over correcting early on in the movie with the mother explaining her high school experience. No, the real reason why this movie falls so short, is the writing is atrociously amateurish. Judi is a textbook definition of a Mary Sue. Every single male character falls in love with her, every single female character either is friends with her, or supports her because she’s just so attractive her friend must date her! Her inner struggle of her height doesn’t prevent her from doing anything, she instantly gets the super hot guy. I would list more things she wants but that’s the only driving motivation for the main character. What's funny is that it feels like fanfiction but not written by a girl, written by a guy who was scorned by a tall high school crush. His lover is a perfect tall girl who’s only struggle is not realising how pretty she truly is. Then all of a sudden a super popular, foriegn exchange student arrives in town and all the girls love him, including her! But double twist turns out he’s a jerk and she realises that the perfect man was here all along right beside her. What truly sells this theory to me is the fact that he gets a girlfriend halfway through and then dumps her for the chance to get with Judi. If almost to say “I was still totally drowning in women obviously, but the one I wanted hadn’t realised that she loved me yet”. The only compliment I can give this movie is the character of Stig Mohlin, played by Luke Eisner. The character arc given to this loveable sweedish man is the best part of the movie bar none. His self journey of realising he can’t have his cake and eat it too, he can’t be both the most popular man in school, Ivan, and Judi’s girlfriend is well done. It never steps too far, it feels natural for a high school setting and it fits his character of a dork from sweden. The movie should have honestly been about him, he was the most interesting character.

If there's one thing to take away from this review it's don’t watch Tall Girl. It's not notably terrible, and not infamously ignorant like the trailers make it seem, it's just a bad coming of age drama. If you want to watch a good coming of age drama that your girlfriend will enjoy I would recommend The Princess Diaries. Tall Girl should be forgotten and left to rot on netflix’s digital shelves.