*Not a ton to spoil here

IMDB Synopsis

A teenager living with her working-class family on a council estate in Wolverhampton, England, grows up to become a popular but conflicted music journalist.

“They say you’re unstoppable. So. Don’t Stop.”

High School is hard Juicers, and I think about a million books, movies and life experiences have told us that. A lot of people out there though are allowed to just go to school, come home, and live a normal life. However, there are numerous families out there like the Morrigans that need something extra to get by. Not many of those families have someone like Johanna though to make magic happen.

Our story starts with Johanna (Beanie Feldstein) in her humble British roots, just dreaming of anything bigger. Her family is poor and can hardly pay the rent and she does not seem to have a ton of hope at all. Miraculously though she finds a calling as a rock critic, and starts to be able to pay the families bills. She transforms herself into Dolly Wilde, Red headed, self described Bitch writer who of course has to sacrifice her morals along the way and decide what means more to her.

The movie is charming, even if the story is one we have seen before, and that is mainly due to the characters. Johanna’s family is a lovable cast of characters and all the friends she makes in her other life, are stereotypical but enjoyable nonetheless.

Stock Watch

Stock Neutral – Beanie Feldstein

After her coming out party in Booksmart last year Beanie is clearly a star in the making. This role is her usual fast talking and high sexual energy role, however she does it all with an interesting British accent. I am not an accentologist but it did not totally work for me. Overall she was very funny, but some of the serious parts did not totally work for me. Oh and she just does not look like a 16 year old.

Stock Neutral – Alfie Allen

I really thought he was good in this role, I just did not think he had nearly enough to do. Every time he was off the screen I felt like I wanted him back because him and Beanie have such good chemistry. Of course that chemistry is odd seeing as how she is playing a high school kid, and he is like a 30 year old rocker.

*A couple other tidbits

• This is Director Coky Giedroyc’s first movie in 20 years after doing TV for the last 20. I hope she makes more.
• Paddy Considine as the dad was hilarious.
• All the music in this movie was very sad.
• A really bad Aslan joke in here (I normally would not notice but I just recently rewatched The Narnia movies.)
• Ironic getting knocked out by her own award.

This movie gets a little too serious for me at the end based on the tone of the story overall, however I did not think it killed the movie. What failed to put it over the top for me was the tired storyline of young protagonist rises and gets too big for their britches and then feels sorry for themselves. The movie is still watchable though because Beanie is someone who can charm the pants off you.

Juice Rating:

*You can find my 2020 Rankings here.

*You can find all of my Movie Ratings here.

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