Courtesy of Entertainment Weekly
The 2019 Netflix film “Tall Girl” was met with harsh criticism on Twitter before it even came out, for making a movie that seemed to equate being a tall, conventionally attractive woman with being an oppressed minority. The movie is a cute romantic comedy, though it is, to put it kindly, not good. The film stars Ava Michelle as Jodi, the titular Tall Girl, and despite this movie’s faults, it also gives us a look into a common story in American culture, as well as what it’s like to be raised by abusive parents.
“Tall Girl” isn’t a movie about oppression or social justice; it’s one about a girl who has been treated like a freak by her parents for her entire life. The movie highlights some of the bullying she experiences in school, but is also quick to show how her loyal friends stick by her. Regardless, Jodi’s self-esteem, damaged due to her parents’ abuses, prevents her from simply shrugging off the bullying.
In a scene that is treated as a throwaway joke about how tall Jodi was growing up, her father (Steve Zahn) takes Jodi to the doctor and asks if there’s a medication they can use to slow her growth. He suggests medication that he’s heard of, but the doctor responds that although it would likely work, there’s a risk that it would prevent Jodi from having children. Her father then turns to his daughter, who is three at this point, and asks, “Honey, this may be too soon to talk about, but do you even want kids?”
This man’s disregard for his young daughter’s reproductive rights in the name of making sure she looks “normal” sets the tone for his behavior throughout the movie. He constantly makes his daughter feel like a freak for her height, bringing up the health complications tall people face over breakfast and telling his daughter about tall women who die young because of height-related heart conditions. When Jodi opens up to her parents about how she stopped playing piano because she doesn’t want to give people another reason to look at her, her mother (Angela Kinsey) responds, “You just have to be strong in the face of adversity,” implying that her height is a problem to conquer, while also ignoring the negative role she and her husband play in Jodi’s life.
Jodi’s parents consistently make her life harder and make her feel more and more unaccepted by society. It peaks when Jodi comes home to find that her parents have invited a tall persons’ club known as the “Tip Toppers” over to their home to have one of their weekly meetings. Their intention is to try and give Jodi a sense of belonging, but they miss the mark, showing how little they really care about their daughter and her feelings. This does little more than exhibit just how different Jodi is in her parents’ eyes and once again leaves her feeling ostracized, freakish and unwanted.
The worst parts of Jodi’s life aren’t the occasional bullying or weird glances she gets at school, it’s that even at home she is treated this way. At school she has friends, a weird admirer and for the most part is a normal girl, but at home, her parents constantly discuss her health and threaten her sense of belonging.
“Tall Girl” was a bad movie in plenty of ways, but the way it fails to acknowledge her parents’ faults in scenes that are supposed to feel like jokes is its greatest failing. The movie had the chance to say something powerful about what it means to be made to be a freak in your own home, but it passes that opportunity up to focus on an underdeveloped love triangle and bullying that feels like it was ripped from a Disney Channel original movie from the early 2000s.
