Famous Little Girls
Famous Little Girls
Directed by Luciana Caplan | Review by Nabadipa Talukder
Famous Little Girls as the name suggests is an inspirational story of a young girl piercing through the prejudice and bullying through school which then manifests as her denial to socialize and come out of her shell to mingle with her schoolmates and playmates. One might think this is a story of self-discovery and healing, but there is more to what the eyes meet. She is crouched in her own world of imaginary friends and she has taken refuge in the obvious and readily available. What we go through the film and discover is her journey to overcome all of these hurdles and boundaries and ultimately becoming free of any obligations.
What is more impeccable is that the script is so well mapped and written in detail by the young and talented, Melanie Caplan who also happens to play the role of the protagonist “Jenny”. To come to this age and realize such vital details about bullying and overcoming your fears and manifesting it as this beautiful film. Her efforts are as commendable as the ones of her co-actors, all of whom are extremely young girls of around the age of 7 or 8. What is more gripping is how the young writer uses her cognitive experience to chart out the simple yet important issue in hand that most children face in childhood through school and other activities growing up. These issues are subjected to various outcomes in a child’s life. But the protagonist here tries to work through her issues by trying to get a grip on her life and grok through her problems while she reads a book on famous and influential women. We get a glimpse of the young Simone De Beauvoir who was a French writer, Coco Chanel, a fashion designer, Marie Antoinette – who was the last queen of France & Sabina Spielrein – a Russian Physician and Psychoanalyst. When all the girls encounter each other, they conclude that every individual is subjected to certain hurdles in life and the best way to tackle them is to face them and make the most of it by learning from it and taking actions. Melanie dreams of these women since she was reading very explicit and deriving the oblivious courage and inspiration out of these encounters.
Soon Melanie becomes a successful young child who makes peace with her life and her demons. She faces her fears and overcomes what could be her worst nightmare. Her rendezvous with these four women makes her realize that she is not alone and that every successful person has had to motivate themselves to be where they are not. There is a lot of deriving from this film and how it paces. Cinematically neat and not too flimsy yet accurately executed. This film stands a chance to be one of the best educational films to come out recently. Kudos to the writers and directors for having able to execute this story so brilliantly. It is commendable that the filmmakers have taken such a sensitive topic and made a film out of it. It was a blissful watch and would love to recommend it.
Dr. Nabadipa Talukder is a doctor by profession with a passion for creative writing and has been into digital content writing for almost 5 years now. She practiced as a dental professional for two years in Kolkata before she quit her job in order to pursue a career in writing. Nabadipa was exposed to the freedom to write for various fronts which opened up her mind and introduced her to the world of screenplay and script writing. She wishes to travel and understand various cultures and wishes to write their stories.
