Tall Girl 2 Movie Review: It’s lonely at the top, again!

STORY: Nothing can stop the hopelessly tall Jodi (Ava Michelle) from questioning her capabilities as an actor, dancer… basically her whole life when voices in her head start to plant seeds of self-doubt. ‘Tall Girl’ attempts at being an introspective movie about ‘trivial’ self-esteem issues, but it clearly has a long way to go.REVIEW: To be astoundingly tall, and crawl up to popularity just in time, in school, must be every teenager’s dream. Not Jodi’s though. ‘Tall Girl 2’ is a slice-of-life flick that ended its debut production with her delivering a dramatic monologue about being the laughing stock—“the weather is pretty awesome up here!”—and why she was sick and tired of enduring psychological punches from local bullies. With a little help from her short yet sweet boyfriend, Dunk (Griffin Gluck), Jodi finally musters the courage to stick up to those who deserve some good-old verbal thrashing, and hasn’t looked back since. What new problems conjure up in this version of events, however, are more to do with the voices within.Director Emily Ting’s whole idea behind this second innings was perhaps to put the spotlight on those human insecurities that are deemed too ‘small’ or ‘insignificant’ in comparison to, say, racism at school or anything that is mainstream and more scarring. In reality, what she does is put the protagonist on a pedestal—could have been a game changer for the film if she wanted—and portray the inner voices as the real antagonist here: the constant brawl between one's analytical and subconscious mind. The tussle, however unconventional, is real and legit but the character is so hung up on her own life situations that there is no room for other stories to develop: a best friend whose fashion dreams are about to be dashed, a Swedish boy who has just found his footing in America, two potential romances that don’t even get respectable send offs. ‘Tall Girl 2’ sets out with a serious mission to accomplish: of rendering a professional, virtual tour on self-criticism and how to tune out one’s unfounded insecurities. Instead, it barely scratches the surface of this wide subject and ends up projecting itself as one long rant by a self-proclaimed life coach on YouTube.However, the film’s grade sheet is adorned by some likeable actors and their performances: Michelle’s ‘tallness’ doesn’t overpower her confident presence on screen. Sabrina Carpenter’s glam-doll avatar, as Harper, has some of the best lines—“There’s no bigger bully than the one you create in your head”—in the movie. As for the boys, either they are hopelessly good-looking or just plain funny. Both work in an easy-vibes movie like this. Barring the lackluster writing, in all honesty, the film does justice to the genre by adding loads of colour and school-y elements to the narrative: for instance, a musical play, support group. It is worth observing that the hallways of any school—in the romcom and coming-of-age world—decide the fate of that film; prettier the better. ‘Tall Girl 2’ set department doesn’t blow that up, more or less. In short, ‘Tall Girl 2’ addresses some glaring mental health issues, but ends up choking on its farsightedness. Owing to these reasons, it sure does get lonely at the top for Jodi—pun intended!