In making a sequel to their 2020 Disney+ hit, Co-writer/director Julia Hart and her co-writer husband Jordan Horowitz have evidently completely departed from the novel sequel, which was titled Love, Stargirl. In that, Stargirl leaves Mica and moves to Pennsylvania, whereas here she (again played by Grace VaderWaal) and her mother Ana (Judy Greer) move to Hollywood when Ana gets a job designing costumes for a movie. On arrival, Stargirl meets Evan (Elijah Richardson) who, after hearing her sing, asks Stargirl to be in the ‘sizzle reel’ that he’s written and his brother Terrell (Tyrel Jackson Williams) is directing as a pitch for the film they want to make. While working on the film, Stargirl also meets Roxy (Uma Thurman), a musician who put out one album 25 years ago and her cantankerous neighbour Mr Mitchell (Judd Hirsch), who used to be a producer.
It’s clear early on that not only is this going to be a significantly different film to Stargirl, but Hart and Horowitz have some intent to use it to address head on some of the criticisms of the first film. This is still a romantic fantasy of coming of age, but Stargirl herself is somewhat more grounded. Gone are the whimsical sequences of her walking along the sidewalk, ukulele in her backpack, feeding parking meters as she goes. Also absent is the explicit way that her very presence brightened the environment. If there was an insinuation previously that Stargirl was literally magical, that’s put aside, replaced by someone who is, quite simply, a charming, caring person.
The other issue that Hollywood Stargirl addresses head on is the fact that in the first film she was essentially a mechanism to facilitate a boy’s coming of age story. Hart and Horowitz again paint with a broad brush, so they tackle this by having Evan, when he pitches his script to Stargirl, tell her that the female character has agency, that she has her own story and inner life. That’s clearly a major goal of this sequel, and while it’s more true than it was in the first film, Stargirl is still more defined by how her presence and help makes others dreams come true. This intent to deepen Stargirl’s agency is backed up with some themes that nod to women’s struggles, and how they overcome them, in the entertainment industry. Roxy’s experience with the music industry wasn’t good, but we eventually see how she’s reinvented and empowered herself. There are implied, but only glancingly addressed (this is still a Disney movie for a family audience) #metoo themes in Ana’s story, as she deals with a director who is a dick.
Grace VanderWaal reprises her lead role, and while she’s still not the world’s most nuanced actress, she remains perfectly cast here. She brings a little more shading to Stargirl this time, but the performance is again largely powered by her innate charm and magnetism. It’s easy to see why people are drawn to Stargirl because it’s easy to be drawn to VanderWaal. There’s an easy chemistry between her and Elijah Richardson, and we believe the way she’s able to draw out the cranky adults around her. While VanderWaal still delivers some lovely vocal performances, and the song Stargirl and Evan write together forms a through-line for their relationship and for Stargirl’s growth, their song, Figure It Out (which VanderWaal did actually co-write), isn’t quite memorable enough to tie the film together as effectively as Big Star’s Thirteen and The Cars’ Just What I Needed did for the first. Music also ties together the relationship between Roxy and Stargirl (who knows the songs from her rare, and only, album because her mother was a fan), and it’s worth noting that Thurman does her own singing for the performance of Dreaming, acquitting herself quite well next to VanderWaal.
Among the older cast Judy Greer, as ever, delivers more than you suspect was on the page. Ana’s story is a bit rushed through, but Greer puts a lot of the mother daughter relationship across purely in how Ana looks at Stargirl. Thurman also comes and goes from the story, in fact for large parts where it’s focusing on the sizzle reel, it almost seems that the film has forgotten her. In a way she serves the same purpose here as Stargirl did for Leo in the first film, her presence facilitating Stargirl’s coming of age. The film never quite leans into this as a surrogate mother daughter relationship, but Thurman is well cast, and you see why the character connects to Stargirl, even beyond her charm.
Hart and Horowitz’ screenplay, and Hart’s direction, deliver the themes in letters bold enough for the young audience to read. Where it, somewhat ironically, lacks credibility is in the third act, as Evan and Terrell shop their sizzle reel around. On the whole the relationships between the characters, rather than the sweep of the story, is what’s really engaging here.
Hollywood Stargirl is something of a departure, but it ultimately delivers much the same feelgood coming of age tone as the first film. It’s not deep, but it’s hard not to surrender to its warmth and to its cast’s charm.
