Hollywood Stargirl: The sparkle is gone

Hollywood Stargirl (2022) • View trailer

Two stars (out of five). Rated PG, for mild profanity

Available via: Disney+

By Derrick Bang • Published in The Davis Enterprise, 6.3.22

Sigh.

 

All that was fresh, clever and endearing about 2020’s Stargirl, is missing in this ill-advised sequel.

 

Over twin Shirley Temples, Stargirl (Grace VanderWaal, right) tries to find out why
Roxanne Martel (Uma Thurman) abandoned the music scene so many years ago,
after the well-received release of her one and only album.

The title is apt, because Hollywood Stargirl is pure product: a cynical, coldly calculated triumph of commerce over art. Everything feels processed and artificial; the dialogue throughout is particularly contrived and false.

Sadly, this “packaging” particularly applies to Grace VanderWaal. Gone is the bubbly, fresh-faced, free-spirited and wholly natural 16-year-old who starred in the first film. She has been replaced by an overly poised and coifed runway model whose gamine look has been based on Jean Seberg’s appearance in 1960’s Breathless.

 

And, my goodness, the make-up. Way too much, particularly with the overdone Elizabeth Taylor/Cleopatra eyes. I cannot imagine what make-up supervisor Geno Freeman was thinking.

 

The result? VanderWaal has been transformed into another of the interchangeable Radio Disney bubble-gum poppettes. Her uniqueness is gone.

 

In fairness, costume designer Natalie O’Brien outfits VanderWaal in dozens of adorable and wildly colorful outfits, each cuter and more vividly imaginative than the last. (The Los Angeles Times logo T-shirt Stargirl wears, at one point, is a deliberate nod to the Herald Tribune logo shirt Seberg wore in Breathless.)

 

It must be said, though, that this young woman of modest means has a stunningly large wardrobe.

 

As for the story…

 

Absent the Jerry Spinelli novel on which the first film was based, scripters Jordan Horowitz and Julia Hart — the latter also directed — have reached back to early 1940s Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney musicals, with a soupçon of 1960’s Pollyanna thrown in. But instead of “Hey kids, let’s put on a show,” this 21st century version is “Hey kids, let’s make a movie!”

 

That isn’t a bad idea, in and of itself, but Hart and Horowitz aren’t able to make their handling of said plot the slightest bit credible.

Stargirl: Shines bright

Stargirl (2020) • View trailer 
Four stars. Rated PG, for no particular reason
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 3.27.20

One can’t help being amazed by the synchronicity between Grace VanderWaal and Jerry Spinelli’s 2000 young adult novel.

When Leo (Graham Verchere) finally works up the courage to introduce himself to
Stargirl (Grace VanderWaal), he finds her inquisitive candor even more enchanting
than her colorfully eccentric wardrobe choices. Not to mention her pet rat.

The heroine of Spinelli’s deservedly popular best-seller is a cheerfully nonconformist high school girl who — among other quirks — brings a ukulele to school each day, in order to sing “Happy Birthday” to deserving classmates (whether or not they desire such attention).

Sixteen years later after that book’s debut, VanderWaal won American’s Got Talent at age 12 (!), by performing her original songs … accompanying herself on ukulele.

As far as I know, she never has claimed direct inspiration from Spinelli’s book … which makes her having been cast in the film adaptation, well, quite inspired.

The obvious question: Can she also act?

Oh, my, yes.

Director Julia Hart’s big-screen adaptation of Stargirl, available via the streaming service Disney+, is a tender coming-of-age saga: charming, poignant and bittersweet by turns. The screenplay — by Hart, Kristin Hahn and Jordan Horowitz — is faithful to the spirit and tone of Spinelli’s book, along with its core plot beats. That said, they’ve softened some of its harsher sequences, while bringing the story into the social media present (which, as we all know, can be brutal in its own way).

VanderWaal and co-star Graham Verchere, just two years older than she — and isn’t it nice, to see these characters played by age-appropriate actors? — are splendid on screen together. They’re natural, uncomplicated and unfussy: endearingly authentic as high school students, even given her character’s eccentric nature.

But that’s getting ahead of things. We’re introduced first to Leo Borlock (Verchere), who as a younger adolescent lost his father and — ever since — has cherished the absent parent’s whimsical porcupine necktie. In an effort to forge a new life for them, Leo’s mother (Darby Stanchfield) moves them to the serene desert community of Mica, Ariz.

Leo’s initial exposure to Mica High School cruelly demonstrates the folly of standing out from the crowd, and — during the next several years — he slides into quiet conformity. It’s easy to do at this school, where absolutely nothing happens. The football team never has won a game; the hallway trophy case displays nothing but spider webs; the school marching band — wherein Leo plays trumpet — is absolutely dreadful (wincingly so).

Hart and editors Shayar Bhansali and Tracey Wadmore-Smith economically sketch this back-story material in montage, while an off-camera Leo narrates his own saga (from something of a remove, we realize, which is telling).