Catherine Called Birdy (2022)

Directed by Lena Dunham. Starring Bella Ramsey, Andrew Scott, Billie Piper, Michael Woolfit, Isis Hainsworth, Lesley Sharp, Joe Alwyn, David Bradley, Paul Kaye, Sophie Okonedo, Rita Bernard-Shaw. [PG-13]

Fiercely independent and rebellious plain-Jane teenager Catherine (called Birdy and played by Ramsey) had the misfortune of being born in 13th-century England, which means her worth can be measured by marital prospects and little else, and now that she’s hit puberty, her cash-strapped (er, coin-strapped?) father can start bringing in the affluent suitors. Although not quite as sharp-tongued and shrewd as Lyanna Mormont (the character she played so well on “Game of Thrones”), Birdy is obviously in Ramsey’s wheelhouse, and she has roughhewn charm and headstrong attitude to spare. A pity she so easily laps her co-stars and the rest of the movie doesn’t have the same freshness and bite, merely repurposing a lot of the established revisionist and feminist period piece tropes we’ve seen a hundred times before (and far too frequently of late). Oddly enough, because the anachronisms are done “tastefully” (non-diegetic pop songs in the background, contemporary phrasing in the dialogue, etc.), they’re more galling for lack of commitment to an ultra-heightened/stylized reality à la A Knight’s Tale, Marie Antoinette, et al. Music composed by Carter Burwell. Ralph Ineson and Russell Brand have small roles.

61/100