March 19, 2023
FILM: CATHERINE CALLED BIRDY
DIRECTED BY: LENA DUNHAM
STARRING: BELLA RAMSEY, BILLIE PIPER, ANDREW SCOTT
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
It’s been six years since Lena Dunham’s much heralded and sometimes reviled series Girls ended its long run on HBO. Since then Dunham’s output has been more sporadic and under the radar. She had a cameo in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in 2019, an ill-fated series called Camping in 2018, and an absolutely awful feature film early last year called Sharp Stick that thankfully has faded into obscurity. So, it came as a surprise to me to find that her latest release, the film Catherine Called Birdy, is a very satisfying piece of entertainment. It received little attention after premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival this past Fall but it did earn Dunham an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Screenplay.
The script is based on a novel by Karen Cushman and stars Bella Ramsey as a 14-year-old girl in Medieval England who is resisting her father’s attempts to get her married off to pay his large debt. Ramsey is truly what drew me to the film. I’d recently finished watching her on the HBO series The Last of Us. Having not seen her in Game of Thrones, I was unfamiliar with her work. In the series, she first quite annoyed me in her overly precocious role as a girl on a cross country journey with Pedro Pascal during a very dark, alternate version, apocalyptic period in the 21st Century. However, as the season arced, so did her character and I became quite taken with her abilities as an actress. It’s great to see her in Catherine Called Birdy as it demonstrates her wide comic range (and her natural British accent.) In both this film and The Last of Us, Ramsey plays a strong, tough young female who is willing to push boundaries to get what she wants (or doesn’t.) The difference being the eras in which her characters live. Catherine, or Birdy, has no interest in marrying but lives at a time when men controlled such decisions. All that she can do is rebel with humor and perseverance.
If the premise of the film seems a bit un-Dunham like there are plenty of the writer/director’s usual themes as well as her strong knack for writing sparkling dialogue to be found. This is, after all, a story about a girl coming of age, dealing with her sexual awakening while under the thumb of other men. The sexual discussions are not nearly as in your face as what was found in Girls so this film would be fine for an adolescent on the cusp of puberty. Mostly, Catherine finds the men unattractive and vile. That is, except for her Uncle George, played by Joe Alwyn. Even if she is a bit smitten with him there’s never a strong sense that there is anything morally wrong with her attraction. Compared to the other men her father sends to her as possible suitors, he is the most charming and seemingly together of them all. This is also not the main focus of the film by any means. Rather the story is crafted to depict this teenager’s defiance and strength under a male-controlled society. Catherine or Birdy is a “caged bird” herself on the verge of flying free.
The tone of the film brings it into the realm of English farce. There are elements of Monty Python and certainly the recent film The Favourite as well as the series The Great. I actually enjoyed this tight and well-edited film to the overly long and more drama-ridden latter series. The cast is also great. Andrew Scott (the hot priest in Fleabag) has a lot of big, showy, and loud scenes as Catherine’s somewhat insecure father. The actor clearly has some fine comic timing. There are also some very enjoyable performances from Lesley Sharp, Sophie Okonedo, and David Bradley.
The sets and costumes winningly capture the period and the music by Oscar nominated composer Carter Burwell (Fargo, No Country for Old Men, In Bruges, The Banshees of Inishirin) is appropriately whimsical and never over-powering. There are even a few relatively recent pop tunes (Girl on Fire, My Boyfriend’s Back) that keep the tone seeped in the mindset of an adolescent girl.
Overall, I really enjoyed Catherine Called Birdy. It’s too bad that the film has been seen by so few people since its release. It is currently available to stream on Amazon Prime.
FILM: CATHERINE CALLED BIRDY
DIRECTED BY: LENA DUNHAM
STARRING: BELLA RAMSEY, BILLIE PIPER, ANDREW SCOTT
RATING: 3 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
It’s been six years since Lena Dunham’s much heralded and sometimes reviled series Girls ended its long run on HBO. Since then Dunham’s output has been more sporadic and under the radar. She had a cameo in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in 2019, an ill-fated series called Camping in 2018, and an absolutely awful feature film early last year called Sharp Stick that thankfully has faded into obscurity. So, it came as a surprise to me to find that her latest release, the film Catherine Called Birdy, is a very satisfying piece of entertainment. It received little attention after premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival this past Fall but it did earn Dunham an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Screenplay.
The script is based on a novel by Karen Cushman and stars Bella Ramsey as a 14-year-old girl in Medieval England who is resisting her father’s attempts to get her married off to pay his large debt. Ramsey is truly what drew me to the film. I’d recently finished watching her on the HBO series The Last of Us. Having not seen her in Game of Thrones, I was unfamiliar with her work. In the series, she first quite annoyed me in her overly precocious role as a girl on a cross country journey with Pedro Pascal during a very dark, alternate version, apocalyptic period in the 21st Century. However, as the season arced, so did her character and I became quite taken with her abilities as an actress. It’s great to see her in Catherine Called Birdy as it demonstrates her wide comic range (and her natural British accent.) In both this film and The Last of Us, Ramsey plays a strong, tough young female who is willing to push boundaries to get what she wants (or doesn’t.) The difference being the eras in which her characters live. Catherine, or Birdy, has no interest in marrying but lives at a time when men controlled such decisions. All that she can do is rebel with humor and perseverance.
If the premise of the film seems a bit un-Dunham like there are plenty of the writer/director’s usual themes as well as her strong knack for writing sparkling dialogue to be found. This is, after all, a story about a girl coming of age, dealing with her sexual awakening while under the thumb of other men. The sexual discussions are not nearly as in your face as what was found in Girls so this film would be fine for an adolescent on the cusp of puberty. Mostly, Catherine finds the men unattractive and vile. That is, except for her Uncle George, played by Joe Alwyn. Even if she is a bit smitten with him there’s never a strong sense that there is anything morally wrong with her attraction. Compared to the other men her father sends to her as possible suitors, he is the most charming and seemingly together of them all. This is also not the main focus of the film by any means. Rather the story is crafted to depict this teenager’s defiance and strength under a male-controlled society. Catherine or Birdy is a “caged bird” herself on the verge of flying free.
The tone of the film brings it into the realm of English farce. There are elements of Monty Python and certainly the recent film The Favourite as well as the series The Great. I actually enjoyed this tight and well-edited film to the overly long and more drama-ridden latter series. The cast is also great. Andrew Scott (the hot priest in Fleabag) has a lot of big, showy, and loud scenes as Catherine’s somewhat insecure father. The actor clearly has some fine comic timing. There are also some very enjoyable performances from Lesley Sharp, Sophie Okonedo, and David Bradley.
The sets and costumes winningly capture the period and the music by Oscar nominated composer Carter Burwell (Fargo, No Country for Old Men, In Bruges, The Banshees of Inishirin) is appropriately whimsical and never over-powering. There are even a few relatively recent pop tunes (Girl on Fire, My Boyfriend’s Back) that keep the tone seeped in the mindset of an adolescent girl.
Overall, I really enjoyed Catherine Called Birdy. It’s too bad that the film has been seen by so few people since its release. It is currently available to stream on Amazon Prime.