
It often begins with a friendly adaption from a fellow parent or a member of the church, only for it to progress negatively when you are approached by a pastor who in a stern manner reprimands you for worshiping other deities. Even though you are being reprimanded, you feel as though the infraction is minor and unimportant to debate over, for instance, the integration of a non-modest apparel or rather an over-the-top dance move to grab some attention, but the fact remains that you are always being reprimanded only adds to the hostility of the scenario, furthermore, the persistent community cooperation to follow along with the rest of the crowd tends to bring consistency across the board, even in teenagers.
The sugarcoat smile as previously stated feels more like a mockery than an actual compliment because Jem Starling who is just 17 years old has been constantly bullied and judged by members of the community on the basis of wearing anything scandalous, and going out in public. The Starling Girl is of the best comfirmating dramas with its climax leaving you heartwarming, it revolves around love (or however as lust) and teenagers exploring what they want to do in their lives. The integration of family, confirmation structures, and community all in all can make things far more complicated than they need to be.
However, the film manages to treat her with subtlety, as she struggles with the clash of her wants and principles, and with the need to belong to the community that has strict penalties for her thoughts and sins, intended or not.
‘The Starling Girl’ directed and written by Parmet, portrays Jem as a teenage girl going through a lot. Her father Jimmi Simpson suffers from depression as his ex-band member dies and this takes a toll on Jem’s mother Wrenn Schmidt who asks Jem to avoid speaking about it or pretending that it isn’t existing. Jem’s relationship with Ben starts off lackluster but then her eyes fall on his elder brother Owen Lewis Pullman which makes a huge difference in the situation as Owen just returned from Puerto Rico with his wife Misty Jessamine Burgum. Owen was raised up in a pastor’s house making him responsible for the checking up on youth programs and Jem had no more reasons to keep talking to him. After some time, the feeling is mutual but Is it the will of God, or something?
‘The Starling Girl’ lives and breathes with the impeccable acting of Scanlen so is everything else.
She depicts the teenage disappointment of always being told what to do, the childishness of throwing tantrums, and the gullibility of being manipulated by the young church leader. It is a seduction that does not appear to be evident at first but later on, she definitely is trying to get his attunement and concern as he makes her feel he is the only one who actually listens to and speaks to her. Scanlen immerses herself completely in the descent of her character, which makes it easy to understand and feel why Jem becomes so enraptured by those first powerful glimpses of romance as she questions whether it is such a bad thing to adore too much in her prayers. She imagines making out in the shower while she has a purity ring on her wedding band, which is a traditional promise to preserve virginity until marriage. Scanlen goes into a trance-like posture; her eyes are full of adoration whenever she casts a glance at Pullman and when things turn out to be less than the ideal, the pain of her character is vividly displayed by her body language, from her wet eyelashes as she sobs to curled up fingers as she weeps, reverting her to her vulnerable phase.
Apart from her romantic interludes with Pullman, Scanlen, together with the actors who also play her parents, Schmidt and Simpson, have tragic but tense together.
Scanlen joins them in playing the role of Jem who tends to her younger siblings as a nurse, a rebellious kid wanting to be in charge of at least some of her life, and still a child who would sob when her parents punish her, or scold her. Jem doesn’t relate to her mother but regards her father much more, however, when he starts to withdraw because of his alcoholism and depression, she is the only person left. Such discussion about ego and selfishness is what sets the stage for Jem’s difficulties in the dance group she so much adored at her church. ‘Everything was always about me,’ Jem’s father recalls and kind of prompts her to avoid repeating the same mistakes if she traces back through his secular past. Her mother lectures Jem yet again when Jem insists that she should be the one in charge, ‘Is this for God or for show? And Gods teenage years.’ If they are not for show, then I don’t know when they would be. Jem’s strained interactions with her mother, who is stoic and emotionless, perfectly capture the religious struggle of a person in doubt about their purpose in life and of a devout believer who has a set path and is not willing to hope for other possibilities and life stories.
Parmet’s world for “The Starling Girl” is romantic yet painful as well. She enchants the audience with Jem’s disorganized life with her directing and embraces them with her writing.
Jem’s tale is tastefully brought to life by castings done in such a glamorous manner by Reid Dealy, gear from Brian Lanning, which revolves around cinematography around the rural world, sporting snazzy Duncan Andrew smooth strings which sit in mid-air like luminescent bugs during the summertime. Brian Lannin’s cinematography does such stiff work around the affair which starts off in total darkness to the broad daylight around circumscribing Jem’s world boundaries.
Parmet is skilled in the art of embellishing the feeling of being an outsider and so nerdy in “The Starling Girl ” while ensuring that the pieces revolve around her nostalgia intertwined with what seems to be a French revolution. It paints a very realistic scenario of what life looks like when being born in a very religious household as a rebellious teenager unable to get access and talked down on by elders, so suffocating and yet so free. While all these dreams are projected throughout the motion picture time the movie portray shifts as well.
Parmet’s work with Scanlen is astonishing, crafting both a story and character so compelling that the moment she is reprimanded for her initial error, the audience is fully supporting her. We see the Starling girl who is, in fact, still looking for herself, free to look for herself.
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