thegirl-watchingthis Review of Stargirl

Stargirl (2020)

A book about uniqueness made into an insultingly generic movie

[3/10 · 28 March 2020]

I wasn't a huge fan of the Stargirl book, but that is not why I disliked the movie. In fact, I found myself missing the book as I watched. My hate of the movie stemmed from its fatal flaw: its overreliance on the generic plot structure that all movies "must have." To fit this mold, the components of the book were melted down and reshaped until the movie becomes a strange string of events with little rhyme, reason, or emotional impact. But before I go into that, the positives. I liked the lighting, the use of color, and the lovely desert vistas. The set design was pretty good, especially in the scenes with the Hot Seat and the dance. The editing was also fine for the most part. Most of the acting and singing was decent. The issues are in writing and characterization. The book had 2 character arcs and the writers seemed to think that the movie could only focus on one. In the book, Stargirl starts as an outcast at school, but she gradually gains popularity despite, or even because of, her strangeness with the strength of her charming personality. She became a cheerleader, won the speech contest, and started a ukulele-themed club (which is startlingly absent in the movie). Instead of that, the writers chose the comparatively weaker arc where Leo learns from Stargirl the values of individuality. The writers again and again fell into the sundew trap of "love interest is what sells" to the detriment of everything else. In the beginning of the movie, the writers decided to ignore Stargirl's arc in favor of, I assume, "promoting being yourself." So, even though Leo was bullied for being different, Stargirl became an instant star (pun intended. She was the center of her solar system and the entire school orbited her) with mind-boggling speed. A good portion of the book was zipped through at lightning speed within the first 20 minutes, leaving me confused about how the rest of the movie would be filled with (as it turns out, it would be filled with football scenes). Stargirl becomes a Mary Sue, a godlike figure, the controller of a high-school-sized hive mind. Throughout the movie, the behavior and mindset of the non-Leo-and-Stargirl high school population changes, not to behave like believable humans of real life, but rather to service The Holy Plot Structure. Stargirl needs to be popular as The Plot demands? Now their entire identity starts and ends with football. And Stargirl now has the power to influence the outcome of the game, as The Plot demands. "Lucky charm" they say, but it reads more like she determines the flow of mana throughout the world, using her influence to skew the game in her side's favor. (I am aware that she was "cheering them on." But that doesn't mean she is the load-bearing pillar that the football team leans on) On to the love story (what is apparently more important than good characterization). Love is taken for granted in a lot of movies, not just this one. Why sell a good romance? Why sell each character, giving reasons for them to like each other, showing them interact organically? Those are not important. The Plot demands a love story, so they are in love. You know they are in love because they always fall in love in these movies. You also know that they will break up and get back together again, because that is how these movies go. See the irony of a book about uniqueness making a movie so generic? A long portion of the movie is devoted to love scenes and football with little narrative flow or context. Almost none of the precious screen time goes to characterization. We are supposed to take it for granted that Stargirl is unique and quirky, but it is not shown well in the movie. While her character annoyed me in the book, I did have a good feel of who she was. She was different in a good way, to quote High School Musical. In the movie, her personality was nonexistent. And hark! The Plot Structure, in its holy authority, demands that at this point in the movie there must be a breakup and everyone must lose faith in the main character! To fulfill this, the writers decided that Stargirl will have a character arc after all. The story, like lightning jumping to a metal rod, finds the quickest way to follow this holy injunction, even if the characters act strangely because of it. Like a switch being flipped, the hearts and minds of the high school crowd abruptly change as The Plot demands. Leo himself is the worst, as he flipflops more than a Floridian at Walmart. Then he acts so teenager-y and moody that he makes me ashamed of being a teenager. And what causes this paradigm shift in the school? Nothing less than football, of course! And so, like the unbelieving Romans that crucified the morally just and empathetic Jesus. The football-headed high schoolers turned their love for Stargirl into hate for the grievous crime of... "making the team lose" by not being there the whole time? Believe it or not, but high school football players actually do care about their injured comrades and we aren't... that stupid. I hope we aren't that stupid. The Plot Structure makes the movie so predictable. When Stargirl texts "susan ;)" we already know what is going to happen. The only question is how long it will take until she's "Stargirl" again. (It isn't long at all. The writers wanted to hit the beats as quickly as they can so they can get to the part with the singing.) The story beats are hit so quickly, in fact, that they feel unbelievable and inhuman. This section of the review is devoted to Stargirl's oddly prize-winning speech. She really thinks she's on to something, but she's only on my nerves. Her argument was unscripted, off-the-cuff, unstructured. "Argument" is a generous term. Even though it seemed like a debate competition(?), she had no thesis or anything that would make a good argument. There is this idea that a speech thought up on the spot is inherently better, which I disagree with. The only topic that would benefit from an impromptu shoe-less speech would be uniqueness. For example, she could have made a speech about how she overcame society's natural urge to conform and her fight for acceptance against a school of uniformity. See the problem with that, though? She DIDN'T struggle with those things! There is nothing inspiring about her. All of those things were cut out of the movie to make room for more singing. The only thing with promise is her empathy, which was written with all the subtlety of a car wreck (so unsubtle I compared her to Jesus earlier!). She has two big traits: her "deepness" and her anvilicious empathy. They make her annoying but not memorable, a horrific combination for a main character. On to my final grievance (and it's a big 'un): the ending. For me, the ending was the most memorable part of the book. Stargirl disappeared. Leo, and by extension the rest if the school, wonder at her. She made an impact, like with her ukulele club that still endures. And yet, it feels almost as if they imagined her. As if they dreamed her up, because no real girl could be so unique and such a force of nature. And the book had such an atmosphere of loss, wonder, awe, and a bit of nostalgia. The ending was the feeling of reminiscing put into words. The movie attempted to do that ending, with the narration saying some of the things in the above paragraph. It doesn't ring true; doesn't feel earned in the movie, because her character was not really the focus of the movie. She was a force of nature, but not in the "storm rolling through a town, unstoppable and all-encompassing" way. It was more of a "Mary Sue" kind of way. We didn't see Stargirl's journey from outcast to beloved icon of Mica. Her "journey" was the "inspiring" tale of how a ukulele-toting girl mind-controlled a school with her football (and marching band, which angered me as a marcher) enhancing presence, insta-courted a boy, temporarily assumed the form of a mere mortal, then was beloved again, then disappeared. The ending failed not just because there was no feeling of the passage of time (not even words on the screen that say "One Year Later" or something) but because of bad characterization. In the book, while I didn't like Stargirl, I understood why Leo did, why she became the schools darling oddball, how she could make an impact on her town. In the movie there was none of that. I didn't miss her when she was gone. "Good riddance!"