Discovering that Stargirl is based off a best-selling young adult novel was a deciding factor for me to give it a go, considering how much I loved watching Kristen Stewart in Speak earlier this year. But Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made came from a book too, and that’s also found on Disney+, and we know how that went… Disney+ has been hit and miss with their original new movies so far; let’s see where this one falls.
When Leo (Graham Verchere) was younger, his father passed away, prompting his Mum and himself to move to a smaller town were nothing ever happens. That is, until Stargirl (Grace VanderWaal) comes to school, and singlehandedly inspires the football team to start winning games, through her upbeat songs and infectious positive attitude. Leo takes a liking to Stargirl, and Stargirl reciprocates, starting a happy teenage romance. When the crowd turns on Stargirl, following an incident at a football game, Leo wonders if Stargirl could be a little more normal, to fit in with the flow. Julia Hart directs.
Stargirl is a manic pixie dream girl, but for an entire school. Leo makes the point that in his town, nothing happens, nobody ever wins and it’s hard not to fall into a malaise of monotony just to fit in. It’s startling to me that Stargirl faces no initial resistance when she bucks this trend in a big way. Leo’s flashbacks show the bullies that kept him down when he dressed differently, wearing his father’s tie to school, but nobody baulks at Stargirl’s peculiarities; at least, not right away. In reality, anyone could have inspired the school, and without a scene where side characters demonstrate their offence at Stargirl, the thought of having to lay low to fit in appears to be completely in Leo’s head. Yet, the movie uses clothing to indicate the group mentality of the entire school – at first, everyone is dull, wearing a lot of blacks and greys; then they are vibrant, full of colour when inspired by Stargirl, and the football team’s success. The footballers, band players, cheerleaders and media people all seem to get along fine, as if there’s an accepted unison. For me, it almost seems otherworldly; it’s not often an entire student body is represented to move as one, or at least I’ve been conditioned to believe that it’s unreal; usually a high school has a social hierarchy, or there are cliques. On one hand, I think the movie pushes the extremes of conformity to make a point – Stargirl is inspirational, bringing everyone along. But on the other hand, I think the supporting characters are undeveloped, to the detriment of the real-life point the movie is trying to prove about the value of being yourself.
With that being said, sometimes the movie’s scenes could be described as contrived – the rest of the school kids dance at prom while the one sad girl is stagnant until Stargirl issues an apology. Leo’s friend Kevin (Karan Brar) pushes Leo to ask Stargirl to be on his media show, Hot Seat, when he could just ask her himself. There are also moments where I found the movie sickly sweet – hey, Stargirl is objectively weird; I mean, Stargirl goes along putting an extra quarter in every parking metre out of the kindness of her heart; wouldn’t you just hit up only the metres that are about to run out? I dunno! I’m probably being jealous; because the times in which she sings are completely adorable (I’ve had ‘Be True to Your School’ stuck in my head for days since I saw the film). The movie plays with the idea that Stargirl might be omnipotent, because her awareness of others is through the roof. Leo reckons she makes it rain at one point, and near the end, the movie kind’ve reminded me of Grease; but instead of Danny and Sandy driving off into the heavens after they’ve changed each other for the better, Stargirl dances and beckons Leo into the arbitrary snow. The tension comes when Stargirl helps an oppositional football player overcome the shock of what could be a life-altering injury and the entire school revolts against her – it’s a football game, guys, and the other player could be paralysed forever. Put your newly developed school pride aside for a moment! At the top level of the Australian Football League, if any player is stretchered off the field hurt, the entire crowd shows support as one, so I had trouble relating to this dilemma. Stargirl’s better soul-searching moment comes when a student relays why Stargirl shouldn’t have returned her brother’s bike; indicating her actions don’t always achieve the desired generosity. It’s intriguing, watching Stargirl try to conform (using her real name; Susan Caraway), but ultimate realise, she is completely fine the way she is, even if she’s going to get ahead of herself, make mistakes and need to apologise every now and then.
I’d like to think that Stargirl comes from some terrific source material that isn’t adapted to its full potential, but I can’t be sure having never read the book. I could see how the book could be better, if we get inside Leo’s head, and particularly get how he was interpreting his school and its reaction to Stargirl. Because apart from Leo’s mother laughing at the name ‘Stargirl’, we see no pressure from his significant others that Stargirl is not to be accepted, so his discomfort with Stargirl, is all coming from him, or people we don’t know, and it’s never fully relatable. At the end of the day, Stargirl’s message about individualism is a great one, but not necessarily one I personally need; I think I’ve swallowed too much of Brad Goodman’s advice from The Simpsons as it is, sometimes – ‘I do what I feel like.’ That’s not to say I can’t appreciate any book or movie aiming to articulate the importance of being yourself to teenagers. Yet Stargirl is a little rough around the edges. I wish it was more.
3.0
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