The Starling Girl movie review (2023)

That sugarcoat smile is just a thin cover for the near-constant shaming and judgment suffocating Jem Starling (Eliza Scanlen) as a 17-year-old girl growing up in a fundamentalist Christian community in Kentucky. Laurel Parmet’s brilliant coming-of-age drama “The Starling Girl” captures the vulnerable teen at the moment she’s finding herself, finding love (or is that … Read more

Point of No Return: Laurel Parmet, Eliza Scanlen, and Lewis Pullman on The Starling Girl | interview

Jem is thrown into further turbulence by her intense connection with youth pastor Owen (Lewis Pullman). As their bond deepens and soon turns transgressive, Jem struggles with conflicting loyalties to the church, her community, and her autonomy. Writer/director Parmet, whose empathetic lens previously distinguished shorts “Spring” and “Kira Burning,” steers her feature debut through a … Read more