How to Build a Girl
IFC Films | Release Date (Streaming): May 8, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
69
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
7
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Film ThreatLorry KiktaMay 8, 2020
How to Build a Girl is an incredibly fun movie. Read full review
88
The Associated PressLindsey BahrMay 7, 2020
Based on Caitlin Moran’s semibiographical novel, How to Build A Girl is a wickedly funny, sweet and vibrantly told coming-of-age story that feels like a teen classic in the making. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Mark KermodeJul 30, 2020
It’s a credit to Feldstein that the wobbliness of her Wolverhampton accent never comes between us and her character. Instead, we simply get on board with her adventures, accepting her for what she is – however odd that may sometimes sound. Read full review
80
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisMay 7, 2020
Like a stone skipping on water, How to Build a Girl leaps from raunchy to charming, vulgar to sweet, earthy to airy-fairy without allowing any one to settle. Yet it’s so wonderfully funny and deeply embedded in class-consciousness . . . that it’s tonal incontinence is easily forgiven. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 15, 2019
What a thoroughly likeable and funny film. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinSep 11, 2019
As fun as a night in the mosh pit with your best mate ... Directed by Coky Giedroyc with a fizzy vibrancy and supercharged by Feldstein's intense charisma, this crowd-pleasing comedy has smart things to say about class, sex and female identity. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesMay 8, 2020
Still, it takes a special someone to sell this larger-than-life character onscreen, and to make you forgive how the galloping script glosses over some crucial beats. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattMay 11, 2020
Still, there's a sort of willful energy field between Giedroyc and Feldstein that pushes the story along; the blithe, anything-can-happen thrill that comes from being young in a world where anything is possible — including the right to wreck yourself spectacularly, rebuild, and then start it all over again. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshMay 6, 2020
This sincerely felt and utterly effervescent coming-of-age tale expresses a universal truth about being alive: that hopefully, you'll have the chance, and the awareness, to make and remake yourself, again and again, dusting off the old bricks you've got and forming them into something familiar but new. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayMay 6, 2020
The comedy that Feldstein and the filmmakers find in Johanna’s often disastrous attempts to become herself keeps the movie afloat; what keeps it tethered to reality is the universal drama of a young woman finding her voice without losing her soul. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMay 6, 2020
Adapted by Caitlin Moran, from her own semi-autobiographical novel, it’s both a dead-on take on what it’s like to be a young critic as well as a smart movie about class and 1990s culture. Read full review
75
IndieWireKate ErblandSep 11, 2019
A smart twist on the coming-of-age comedy. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorSep 10, 2019
The nerd’s coming-of-age is a well-established genre, as is humiliation comedy, yet Coky Giedroyc’s How to Build a Girl is different enough to stand out. Read full review
70
TheWrapSteve PondMay 6, 2020
The way it rushes from silly to vicious to sappy can put you in a tonal whirl. But it’s also fun, and not insignificant in the way it puts an unconventional heroine on screen and then gives her the agency to act both stupid and smart as she sees fit. Read full review
70
Rolling StonePeter TraversMay 6, 2020
It’s funny — as is a lot of this eager-to-please, all-over-the-place movie — thanks to the dry snap of Moran’s dialogue and Feldstein’s exhilarating performance. Read full review
70
Vanity FairKatey RichSep 11, 2019
Winning and funny, while also a bit surface-level and predictable, it is an excellent case for the twin powers of Feldstein and Caitlin Moran, the author who adapted her own autobiographical novel to the screen. But it also fails to make the best use of either woman; Feldstein is significantly hampered by a working class British accent, while Moran’s unforgettable comic voice doesn’t come through nearly enough. Read full review
70
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganSep 11, 2019
The trouble with a high-stakes “small” British project like this is that everyone involved tends to want to play it safe. Read full review
67
The Film StageJared MobarakSep 11, 2019
So even though the whole can feel a bit cutesy at times, there’s real weight beneath that façade. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comMonica CastilloMay 8, 2020
There is more in How to Build a Girl that works than doesn’t. It’s charming and sweet, and even in its more serious moments, the movie never loses its sense of humor. Read full review
60
Time OutAlexandra SimsAug 24, 2020
The film may fail to probe many of the issues thrown up following a working-class girl trying to break into a privileged world, but it only goes to show that cinema could certainly benefit from the presence of more plus-sized, funny, working-class, feminist girls like Johanna. Read full review
60
CineVueClara Bradbury-RanceAug 4, 2020
A funny and touching coming-of-age story that occasionally loses its way, just like its protagonist. Read full review
60
EmpireBeth WebbJul 20, 2020
If it fails to mine the deeper themes in this story about a working-class writer fighting to find her footing in the music industry, How To Build A Girl is a resounding success as a showcase of Feldstein’s capabilities in a leading role. Read full review
60
VarietyAmy NicholsonSep 11, 2019
The final product feels like if the greatest musician in the world tried to write a classic in 15 minutes. Yet, “How to a Build a Girl” dares to argue that reinventing yourself doesn’t make you a poseur ... It’s a young person’s jam that will hit the right teen like a thunderbolt. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeMay 8, 2020
Feldstein is as contagiously ebullient as always in the role, and her English accent is mostly passable, although it breaks down at times during the voiceovers that bookend the film. But her character’s actions keep chipping away at the actor’s natural charisma. Read full review
58
The PlaylistChris BarsantiMay 7, 2020
Clumsy and erratic, though possessed of an undeniable bounding and puppy-like energy, How to Build a Girl is a star vehicle for Feldstein that, while it often does not do its star justice, also knows when to just stay out of her way. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyMay 8, 2020
So it’s no small tribute to Feldstein — who really is something — to say that she’s the very best thing in How to Build a Girl despite being so wildly miscast. Her performance is a tour de force, even if it’s too forceful for either its own good or that of the movie. Read full review
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