The stakes here feel higher and far less sexy than something like Bridgerton, and it’s more sincere as a result, despite all the wisecracks.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 11, 2024

A charming adaptation of a beloved young adult book.

| Oct 4, 2023

Dunham delivers the most polished and confident feature of the four she has made so far.

| Jul 27, 2023

Funny, fresh and well acted, Catherine Called Birdy is a joyous and cute flick that conveys themes of feminism and has a blast in the process.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 24, 2023

This story seems to me to be like a cross between 'Tom Jones' (1963) and the Jane Austen story, 'Emma.' Comedy is hard, but writer-director Lena Dunham has the knack. The screenplay she wrote is very clever, with a lot of unexpected plot twists.

| Original Score: A | Jan 11, 2023

Dunham finds exactly the right tone in a film that’s funny, fast-moving, and expertly juggles the combination of sort-of-historically-correct details and unabashed anachronisms.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Jan 2, 2023

The big question from “Catherine Called Birdy” is this: when will the thirty-six-year-old Lena Dunham grow up?

| Jan 1, 2023

Even better, given the rampant lazy anachronisms in so many period pieces of late, this one has fun with the wedding of its modern soul to the stylized language of the period.

| Original Score: B+ | Dec 29, 2022

There is a great deal to enjoy here in a fast paced, lively tale which highlights the hypocrisy of its characters without demeaning them, and which is full of heart.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 21, 2022

Just like the movie's titular protagonist, Catherine Called Birdy can be petulant, repetitive, and irritating, but it's got enough flashes of wit and comedy to be entertaining. Writer/director Lena Dunham creatively puts a modern spin on a medieval story.

| Dec 19, 2022

Birdy challenges assumptions and rewrites rules so they are better suited to everyone. As her story ends, she wishes she could “Help every girl in the world.” Dunham’s delightful movie is a step in the right direction.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Nov 28, 2022

A raucous and ribald medieval comedy that will cheer independent adolescent girls.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Nov 27, 2022

The middle lags quite significantly and it can’t always balance the humour with the deeper stuff, but this is a very nice addition to the ever-growing list of great coming-of-age stories.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 19, 2022

Adapting the film from Karen Kushman's book, Dunham presents Birdy with a rollicking style that might remind older film lovers of Tony Richardson's Oscar-winning, badly dated but still infectiously energetic Tom Jones from 1963.

| Nov 7, 2022

Whether or not you enjoy Catherine Called Birdy will, as always, come down to personal taste, but it is difficult to imagine a film with this subject matter and this style being made better than writer/director Lena Dunham has already done.

| Original Score: 10/10 | Nov 5, 2022

A story so light on its feet that it’s easy to breeze through without considering some of the meatier ideas being commented on.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Oct 30, 2022

A fresh entry into the congested coming-of-age movie stratum...a brisk, consistently delightful jaunt.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 30, 2022

Such a joy, a medieval-set teenage comedy, like Clueless performed in kirtles and capes.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 28, 2022

A really clever spin on the coming-of-age comedy with a whip-smart script that feels pretty discerning with how to play into its timeframe while also making relevant, useful commentary. Actually pretty damn funny, too.

| Oct 27, 2022

We don't need an excessively tragic or forceful film, empathy for the protagonist suffices to get behind the female empowerment message that Dunham always stamps on her work. [Full review in Spanish]

| Oct 21, 2022