By: Skyler Lamar
If you have been on Twitter in the past couple of weeks or have had an ad come on after binging whatever series you’re currently obsessed with on Netflix, you may have heard of one of the newer Netflix originals, “Tall Girl.” For those of you unfamiliar with it, yes, it is exactly what it sounds like. The basic premise of the film is about a girl named Jodi who is being bullied, which is relatable for most and sounds like most high school movies, but the twist that has many people talking is that what she is being bullied for is for being 6 feet 1 inch – that’s it. The immediate response to the film’s trailer was as expected: reactions such as, “A movie about a girl being bullied for being tall? Does that even happen often enough to be a serious issue in a movie?”, “Out of anything a person can get bullied for, Netflix chose being too tall?” or “She’s complaining about being too tall when I have [insert issue here] happening in my life? I wish that was my only issue.” Honestly, all of those opinions are valid. Bullying happens for so many different reasons in high school, but a trait that you almost never hear people getting severely bullied for is for being tall. I thought all of this going into watching the movie, and after watching it, was it worth my time? Yes and no.
This movie has every teenage movie trope that one could think of. I was surprised by how much of it was predictable. You would think that with a premise focusing on a girl being bullied for being too tall, that they would throw some curveballs in there so that it does not make it all seem too dry, yet here we are. It had it all—the guy best friend who is in love with the “bullied girl,” the girl best friend who sticks up for the bullied girl, the popular girl who has bullied the tall girl all her life and the perfect sister who is a pageant queen. It has a mom who used to be popular, and therefore cannot relate to the bullied girl at all, a dad who tries to make it better but just makes it worse and something along the lines of “do you really think the perfect guy is just going to walk through that door?”… and then he does. Jodi spends the whole movie pining over him and “competing” against the popular girl—shocking right?
Another predictable element in the film were the comedic aspects. The jokes that some of the characters would say when making fun of her height were so juvenile. “What’s the weather like up there?” appeared at least three times. Another one was, “Taylor Swift? More like Taller Swift.” The jokes’ lack of creativity showed that bullying for being tall rarely happens.
However, as I watched more of the movie, I became interested in how this strange plot would play out. It was actually entertaining with a splash of self-positivity thrown in there once in a while. I think that no matter what the platform may be, whether it be through a movie, TV show or an Instagram post, self and body positivity will always be something that should be appreciated. We as people in an imperfect society are similar in that we all have insecurities or things about ourselves that we wish we could change, but we are different in what those things may be. What could seem as not a big deal to you could be a major deal to someone else, and I believe that was one of the underlying points under all the cringe comedy in this movie.
At the end of the movie, Jodi does end up coming to terms with her height and being herself, much like every other bullied teen in a coming-of-age movie, but the way that it was filmed was actually very empowering and not completely cringe, which can be tough when filming cliché scenes like those in the movie. Also, [SPOILER ALERT] the girl who gets bullied ends up with her male best friend, which I thought was a really great twist. We tend to focus so much on what we don’t have that we forget to look at what we do have, so I thought it was an endearing way to end the movie and it made me feel like I did not completely waste my time.
Do I recommend this movie? I don’t think it is all that bad if you don’t mind some cringe comedy and underdeveloped dialogue, but I think the underlying message makes it worthwhile. While I somewhat recommend it, I also argue that it is not the best movie to broadcast these positive messages and the plot is somewhat hard to relate to. Netflix movies tend to be a hit or miss—this one was right in between.
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