By Jamie Keebler
Disclaimer: I am 5’6 so I can’t speak on the experience of being a tall girl and will only be making outsider observations.
Tall Girl 2 is the product of the terrible entertainment cycle that we have been stuck in since the pandemic. This kind of content feeds the algorithm and only exists to spur millions of hate watches.
The original Tall Girl came out three years ago, but only three months have passed since the first installment. We pick up Jodie and Dunkerman dating (how could they not be after he spent his life carrying a milk crate just to kiss her) and for some reason, the Swede love interest is still there on what must be an extended foreign exchange program. Don’t worry, Jodie is still a bad person, even though she is slightly more comfortable with her above-average height. Her new conflict is tackling the school musical production of Bye Bye Birdie and dating Dunkers, which ends up being very complicated due to her total inability to communicate.
Jodie is not only struggling in her relationship due to miscommunication but she obviously has feelings for the boy playing the male lead in the musical, Tommy. While Dunkers is overbearing and suffocating to an incredibly annoying extent, Tommy has a certain coolness which is probably the highest amount of coolness that can be achieved by a teenager in musical theatre.
While I struggle to sympathize with Jodie due to her blandness, her relationship with Dunkers is endlessly frustrating. Their issues hit a peak when he tells her that she can leave during the anniversary dinner that he prepared for her because she is stressed with the musical. When she takes him up on his offer he gets offended that she actually wants to leave. During all of this misunderstanding, do you know who is being the perfect person? Steg. He helps Dunkers when he destroys the dinner and it's not only this night that he comes through for Jodie. He later ends up paired with Jodie’s best friend Frieda, which I don’t necessarily dislike, but I do think that his kindness to Jodie really emphasizes how she and Dunkers don’t fit together. And the couple notices it too because they break up after the failed dinner.
Ironically, the reasons that I liked this movie were not for the tall girl at all. My favorite character in this movie was Kimmy. She starts off the movie by messing with Jodie because she is jealous that she lost the lead to her. During a scene where all of the theatre kids are performing a pre-show ritual on the beach, they all have to pick items of their past to burn. I must say that I also did theatre in high school but our traditions went to the extent of standing in a circle and saying ‘merde’ and I still found it slightly culty. Jodie throws the shoes that Dunkers gifted her at the end of the first movie into the fire and when she immediately regrets it, who else but Kimmy maneuvers them out of the flames. She also shows a lot of growth and has a redeeming arch when she helps Jodie with a line that she forgot on opening night. Kimmy was great in the movie and I always like to see a mean girl get to keep her personality but grow as a person.
I can’t in good faith recommend this movie but you should at least be prepared for the pure insanity that it creates to fill the lack of plot. The musical sequences look like a mix between a Dance Moms group number and a Dua Lipa music video with no aspect of musical theatre choreography insight. The film’s musical moments are not limited to the musical, because of course when Steg’s sister drops by the two Swedish siblings need to sing a terrible ABBA rendition in the middle of a Hibachi restaurant.
Of course, the movie wraps up with Jodie and Dunkers back together and the musical turning out to be a success. I think that it is showing that I can’t remember many exact details of the end of the movie, but I can remember that Jake from State farm was dancing at the post-show party right before the end credits rolled.
In the end, I don’t think that you should watch Tall Girl 2 unless you really want to. And if you really want to then I still recommend that you don’t, for the sake of your brain cells.