‘Catherine Called Birdy’ Review: Lena Dunham’s Medieval Coming-of-Age Film Is a Delight

In her second directorial effort this 12 months, Lena Dunham forgoes the grownup themes of Sharp Stick to inform a extra conventional coming-of-age story a couple of headstrong teenage lady residing in medieval instances. A major departure from most of her earlier work, the playfully broad Catherine Referred to as Birdy, premiering on the Toronto Movie Pageant, is a honest effort on the type of traditional younger grownup movies that populated the 90s and early 2000s. Younger-adult storytelling has all the time been greater than brooding love triangles and devastating wars, however in a post-Starvation Video games world it’s straightforward to neglect the smaller, extra private tales. Fortunately, Dunham has no hassle remembering Karen Cushman’s 1994 novel on which this movie is predicated, capturing the guide’s humorous diary format with cheeky voiceover narration.

Within the early 1200s, Girl Catherine (Bella Ramsey) is a woman on the cusp of womanhood. That is nice information for her father Lord Rollo (Fleabag‘s Andrew Scott), who is raring to marry his daughter off to safe the household’s funds. Although they’re individuals of means, Rollo is deeply in debt, which he blames on his spouse Girl Aislinn (Billie Piper) for her costly tastes. However Catherine, nicknamed Birdy, has little interest in getting married, selecting as a substitute to spend her days holding on to childhood along with her peasant good friend Perkin (Michael Woolfitt) and servant lady Meg (Rita Bernard-Shaw). 

She retains a diary, writing to her brother Edward, who lives away from the household as a monk. There’s additionally her uncle George (Joe Alwyn), on whom she harbors a childhood crush. It’s a full of life forged, all embodying their roles with lightness and humor. The movie virtually feels just like the pilot of a collection, with Dunham depicting Medieval Instances like a high-concept playground.

Every character is launched with onscreen textual content, sharing their historical past and private qualities. This enhances the movie’s comedic tone, encouraging viewers to see the world by way of Birdy’s observant but immature eyes. Related in tone to the 2001 Heath Ledger automobile A Knight’s Story, Catherine Referred to as Birdy balances anachronistic narrative tendencies with real observations concerning the social issues of the time.

Ramsey performs Birdy within the type of traditional literary heroines like Pippi Longstocking and Anne of Inexperienced Gables, all coronary heart and vitality with the bravery to talk her personal thoughts. And along with Perkin, the 2 make a pair harking back to the French orphan Madeline and her good friend Pepito. The movie opens along with her enjoying within the mud along with her pals, reveling within the unbridled mess that’s childhood. Why would she need to go away that for organized marriages, dowries and family obligations?

However when Birdy begins getting her interval, she is aware of playtime is coming to an finish. And when her father begins organising conferences for her with potential husbands, Birdy does no matter she will to drive them away. In Princess Kaguya-like style, Birdy approaches the suitors with rapid dismissal. Each man is older than her, starting from younger to aged. Every is welcomed by pranks, lies, and old style unhealthy habits, sending Birdy’s father into an offended rage when her efforts succeed. 

Scott is the spotlight of the movie, enjoying a really unlikable patriarch with the manic vitality that made his Moriarity on Sherlock so compelling. He’s the proper match for Ramsey, whose honest face and voice masks a woman who is way smarter than she lets on. Alwyn can be in superb kind, together with his charming eyes and princely method. However as with most of her work, the true star of the present is Dunham, whose sharp dialogue and route equips each actor with an acidic tongue and realizing gaze.

Catherine Referred to as Birdy is the form of small, mid-budget adolescent movie that not often will get made anymore. Dunham’s route is breezy and calm, divorced from the melancholic tone and devastating brutality we’ve come to affiliate with tales set on this time. Regardless of the inherent darkness of a woman being pushed to develop up sooner than she would really like, Dunham finds humor within the absurdity of gender roles. Although the realities of the period imply that Birdy will finally should develop into a younger spouse, for a second, the movie lets her be a baby for slightly bit longer.