‘The Starling Girl’ Sundance Review: A Teen Defies Her Fundamentalist Society In Director Laurel Parmet’s Feature Debut
deadline.comThat old time religion takes another hit in The Starling Girl, an effective if somewhat overdrawn account of an obedient 17-year-old girl in a fundamentalist society who is lured astray by a local former pastor.
Everything about Laurel Parmet’s feature directorial debut has been fastidiously tended to in this well-carpentered drama that will appeal to young female audiences who will be both fascinated with and appalled by the rigid strictures and male-dominated activities that, according to the film, define the lives of the women in such fundamentalist communities.
Having made several short films up to now in addition to playing Eliza Scanlen in the HBO series Sharp Objects and Beth March in Greta Gerwig’s film of Little Women, Parmet shows dramatic confidence as she sets up a story that serves as a reminder of how dominant religion-based societies are in significant swaths of American life.
Quietly but firmly, the film makes clear its disapproval of such narrow and blinkered attitudes and spends more time watching the fundamentalists stuff their faces with dreadfully unhealthy food than providing much insight into the way they live their lives.
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