When she jumps around on the football field, it seems incomprehensible that this magical dreamy girl would get so into it. She doesn't have the skill as an actress to give us a sense that Stargirl has an inner life. She really is playing that ukulele! But she's opaque to the extreme here, and doesn't ignite the character at all. VanderWaal is a compelling figure in her YouTube videos and in any clips you might find of her singing live. What the device does is highlight the feeling that we can't really know another person, we can't know what goes on behind closed doors.īut this can be very frustrating cinematically, if not handled well. It can be an interesting device, although out of style now. What the girl (or girls) come to represent to the male narrators is what matters. Stargirl shares some similarities with Jeffrey Eugenides' 1993 novel The Virgin Suicides, in that the girl is seen totally from an outside perspective. Fans loved the book so much, Spinelli followed up with a sequel ( Love, Stargirl), even though the ending of the first book had been appropriately ambiguous. Stargirl came out 20 years ago, winning almost every award it is possible to win. What is appealing about Leo to Stargirl? It’s clear what she brings to the table, but what does he? I wrote in my notebook: 'Where's the conflict?' Stargirl picks him out of the crowd, falls in love with him, teaches him all kinds of things about himself. She also has a kick-ass music collection-on vinyl, of course. She is the hero of the school! She helps Leo come out of his shell.

She is asked by the cheerleaders to join their squad. Her mere presence at football games helps the hopeless team start winning games. Stargirl becomes the 'good luck charm' of the school. When she serenades kids in the cafeteria with her ukulele, they are charmed. At first, improbably, the whole high school falls in love with her, because if there's one thing we know about high school kids, it's how much they love nonconformity. Stargirl doesn't care what other people think. Leo ( Graham Verchere), who opens the film with a Voiceover narration giving us his backstory, sees Stargirl across a crowded football field, dressed like a kooky character from a 1970s movie played by Barbra Streisand or Diane Keaton.

Where, in an isolation tank or a bomb shelter, a la Brendan Fraser in 'Blast from the Past'? It's as though she's descended from the sky. She's a local girl, but nobody knows her because she was homeschooled. Stargirl, played by 'America's Got Talent' winner and self-created singer-songwriter phenom Grace VanderWaal, shows up at an Arizona high school from seemingly out of nowhere.

Whether or not you can tolerate all this manic pixie dream girl-ness will be a deciding factor in how you respond to 'Stargirl,' a film adaptation directed by Julia Hart of Jerry Spinelli's 2000 YA novel.

Love stargirl book summary