After breaking out in Babyteeth and Little Women, Eliza Scanlen finds an impressive new starring role with The Starling Girl. The directorial debut of Laurel Parmet, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and opens on May 12 from Bleecker Street, finds Scanlen in a fundamentalist Christian community in rural Kentucky. She starts to become attracted to the group’s youth pastor Owen (Lewis Pullman) and so begins a journey that finds her looking to break free. Ahead of the release, the first trailer has now arrived.
Michael Frank said in his review, “Scanlen shines as Starling, playing someone much younger than herself. She brings an assurance to the role. We belive in Jem. She’s naive-yet-overconfident, isolated-yet-connected, carefree-yet-shackled by a system designed to believe the word of men much older than her. Scanlen shows all of that and more. Her performance grounds a film that risks blending together with preceding pictures, raising it above any average trappings.”
Watch the trailer below.
The Starling Girl opens on May 12 in theaters.