This review originally ran in conjunction with the film’s world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.
Karen Cushman’s children’s novel “Catherine, Called Birdy” is written in the form of the diary of a 14-year-old girl living in England in 1290. Cushman was most interested in exploring the details of what it was like to live as a young girl during the Middle Ages, whereas this film adaptation of the book, which was written and directed by Lena Dunham, retains the setting but filters everything through Dunham’s very narrow modern sensibility. The result is listless, plodding and self-congratulatory.
During much of the Obama administration, you couldn’t avoid seeing or reading something about Dunham and her HBO TV series “Girls,” which was over-promoted and relentlessly picked apart online.