Believe it or Not, "Tall Girl" Falls Short
By Felix Faber
Netflix's Tall Girl is a very straightforward film that rarely strays far from a high concept which, if this high concept were anything other than the fact that the film's main character is a “Tall Girl”, might provide some emotional torque to the events of the film. But it isn't. While there is any number of complaints to be made about a film so brazenly mercenary in its approach to the algorithm-based market of online streaming services, the most glaring failure of Tall Girl is just how lazy it is.
The clearest example of this apparent apathy towards the film from its creators is in the plot, which follows the cookie-cutter beats of an in-house Netflix romantic comedy: Tall Girl is angst-ridden about her height, and convinced that she will never find love - until a tall exchange student comes to the school, and she falls head-over-heels for him. Deeply wounded at this outcome is Tall Girl's best friend, Short But Nice Guy, who has been in love with her since childhood. Eventually, after a dull grind through plot points, a requisite number of artificial crises, and an achingly awkward homecoming dance scene, Tall Girl realises that Short But Nice Guy is the one for her and falls in love with him.
Enduring this process wouldn't be such an ordeal if any effort whatsoever had been placed into the films production. Other Netflix-produced films of a similar bent like To All The Boys I've Loved Before and Set It Up show that, with enough charm, a basic romantic comedy like this can make up for its banality. Every person involved with Tall Girl, however, seems to have tapped out after day one of shooting. The script meanders from scene to scene, with little consideration given to the overall denouement of the film until the ending comes barging in out of nowhere - the only point in the script that demonstrates any sort of foresight is the milk crate that Short But Nice Guy carries with him at all times, in the event that he needs something to stand on to kiss Tall Girl. The performances are so universally uninteresting that to single any one out as a failure seems unfair. Lines are delivered with little passion, and the characters' end goal in every scene appears to be moving on to the next one. No aspect of the production, from the cinematography to the costume design, really works - there aren't any glaring failures, but the overall picture is one of little risk for little reward.
Ultimately, though, the film's greatest failure is its own inability to figure out what it really is. There are moments when it feels like the creators are aware of the faintly ludicrous nature of the film's concept, and are willing to poke gentle fun at it - it's difficult to imagine any world where the line "You think your life is hard? I wear size 13 Nikes" was conceived with any goal other than to mock the character delivering it. Stuck between sincere attempt at self-love sermon and absurd spoof of itself, Tall Girl fails to commit to either, leaving viewers wondering why they watched it. This confusion, coupled with an apathetic cast and crew leaves Tall Girl, if not the worst movie I've seen this year, then certainly the most pointless.