'Tall Girl' comes up short

When I first heard about "Tall Girl" (2019), my initial thoughts were actually pretty positive. As someone who has always been tall, I’m well aware of the disadvantages to towering over peers. Then after watching just the first few minutes of this movie, I wanted to simultaneously chuck my television out the window and gouge my own eyeballs out.

In short, "Tall Girl" is a new Netflix original movie whose story centers around Jodi (Ava Michelle), a blonde 16-year-old girl whose life is perfect, except she’s 6 foot 1. She’s beautiful, intelligent and has supportive friends and family, but is taunted for her tall stature and thinks of herself as a freak of nature. Through a series of events and a crush on a Swedish exchange student, Jodi discovers that she’s more than just her height.

The premise of "Tall Girl" as a movie is absolutely ridiculous. I’m tall. I watched this movie with a literal team of tall girls. Each of us found this movie equally cringeworthy. Because here’s the thing: 6 foot 1 just isn’t that tall. If Jodi were 6 foot 4, then I could begin to understand how a scenario like the one in the movie could realistically present itself.

Normally, I have no qualms about suspending reality in order to enjoy a good old-fashioned romantic comedy, but the plot of this movie was so unoriginal and underdeveloped that suspending reality wasn’t enough to redeem it.  While I appreciate that "Tall Girl”’s plot-line harkens back to the heyday of classic teen coming-of-age movies, I don’t think John Hughes would approve. The character development was shallow and painfully obvious. The plot-line almost directly follows Hughes’ "Pretty in Pink" (1986), complete with Jodi’s best friend Jack Dunkleman (Griffin Gluck), the modern version of Duckie, with his quirky demeanor and funky style.

While "Tall Girl" missed the mark more than it hit, it did have some redeeming qualities. Like some of Netflix’s more successful studio movies, "Tall Girl" was scored aptly and the music ended up doing much of the emotional and contextual legwork in places where the script and acting lacked. The cinematography was reminiscent of the more popular Netflix original movie "To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before”'s (2018) chromatic colors and blunt camera angles.

The one relatable plot line for all tall girls out in the world was Jodi’s struggle to find shoes that fit. But while any woman over a size 10 can tell you that it becomes difficult to buy cute kicks after a certain size, a woman who stands at 6 foot 1 doesn’t usually wear a men’s size 13 shoe.

All in all, it seems to me that this movie wasn’t made by tall people. There are multiple holes in the plot that could have been avoided with just some expert advice from someone who actually has experience being asked, “How’s the weather up there?” The exaggerations are understandably for dramatic effect, but "Tall Girl" takes the exaggerations to a point where they are no longer plausible.

This movie is just the latest installment of disappointing, cringeworthy Netflix original teen movies. "Sierra Burgess is a Loser" (2018), "Swiped" (2018), "The Kissing Booth" (2018) and now "Tall Girl" all seem to have come out of the same movie-making factory where little thought goes into character development or script drafting.

If you enjoy incredibly cheesy movies with unrealistic plot lines or just really loved "Pretty in Pink," then "Tall Girl" might be the movie for you. Otherwise, it’s not worth your time.

Being tall rocks, and "Tall Girl" makes it out to be an issue that Jodi has to grapple with in order to accept herself. But you know who can reach the top shelf at the grocery store? Jodi can.