Tall Girl is a 2019 teen Romantic Comedy. It was released internationally by Netflix on September 13, 2019.
Jodi Kreyman - the tallest girl in her high school - has always felt uncomfortable being herself, especially when compared to her beauty pageant queen sister, Harper. But after years of being made fun of and avoiding attention at all costs, Jodi finally decides to find the confidence to stand tall when a new foreign exchange student arrives at her school.
The film was directed by Nzingha Stewart and stars Ava Michelle as the titular Tall Girl, Sabrina Carpenter as Harper, Angela Kinsey and Steve Zahn as Jodi's parents, Luke Eisner as Stig, the sexy (and tall!) Swedish Foreign Exchange Student, and Griffin Gluck as Jodi's beleaguered best friend.
A sequel, Tall Girl 2, was released on February 11, 2022.
This film provides examples of:
- Alpha Bitch: Kimmy, the most popular girl in the school, Jodi's primary tormentor since childhood, and her love rival.
- Beautiful All Along: The "unattractive" Jodi becomes beautiful after she starts wearing makeup and Letting Her Hair Down. Even one of her former bullies develops a crush on her.
- Beautiful Dreamer: Dunkleman gets the opportunity to watch Jodi sleep later in the film. He even gets to gently touch her face.
- Big Little Sister: Jodi is much taller than her older sister Harper.
- Chekhov's Gun: The crate that Dunkleman carries throughout the film? It's specifically so when he and Jodi kiss for the first time, he can be taller than her.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Jodi spends most of the film rejecting Dunkleman's advances before realizing she really does love him in the film's climax.
- Cool Big Sis: Harper is loving and supportive to Jodi, wanting to help her younger sister get a boyfriend, even offering some advice. She seems to not like Kimmy, since she doesn’t let the latter hug her when she is crowned homecoming queen, most likely since she bullies Jodi.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Jack is this to Jody, although he finally ends up with her in the final scene of the movie.
- Face–Heel Turn: Stig comes across as a genuinely nice guy, until near the end of the film, when he ends up insulting Jodi to impress the popular kids.
- First-World Problems: Jodi is miserable due to being tall even though she’s an attractive woman from a well-off family.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: Kimmy shows off several times throughout the film by spouting random phrases in other languages; this is supposed to give credence to her Rich Bitch status by showing how she picks up languages in all the exotic locales her family vacations in.
- Height Angst: The central premise of the film; at 6'1, Jodi is the tallest girl at her school (and by many of the shots, one of the tallest students period) which provides her a lot of angst in her day-to-day life. Inspired in part by Ava Michelle's own experiences with bullying about her height.
- Height Insult: The movie revolves around this trope. Jodi is frequently bullied for her height by random students pranking her, asking her how's the weather up there, and calling her sasquatch.
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Hollywood Homely: Jodi complains about no one ever finding her attractive, but over the course of the film she has four boys interested in her. note - Hypocrite:
- Jodi constantly complains that no one is interested in her because of her height, yet refuses to date Dunkleman because he is too short.
- In order to make him stay away from Jodi, Dunkleman persuades Stig to date Kimmy (the popular girl) and reject Jodi (the girl Stig genuinely liked), even telling him that popularity is more important than feelings. Stig simply follows his advice, and later Dunkleman attacks him for daring to disrespect Jodi.
- Informed Flaw: Apparently, Jodie’s height is supposed to make her physically unattractive, but she’s a very pretty, blonde, and overall conventionally beautiful girl. Her outfits and hair are intentionally made to draw attention to her height, and the movie constantly points out how people pick on her for her height, including her own family, but it still falls flat. It also doesn’t help that she’s somehow the tallest girl in her massive school at 6’1” (there are plenty of women taller than that, and a ton of guys as well, yet she’s the only one picked on for it).
- Lovable Alpha Bitch: Harper, in contrast to classic Alpha Bitch Kimmy. She's a vain and shallow Attention Whore who is obsessed with beauty pageants, but is very willing to help Jodi and really cares about her sister.
- Love Dodecahedron: Jodi likes Stig, who likes her back, but goes out with Kimmy when she asks him out first. Dunkleman has had a crush on Jodi since childhood, but she constantly rejects him until the end of the movie. Kimmy's friend Liz has a crush on Dunkleman and they go out for a while but he can't get over his feelings for Jodi. Meanwhile, Kimmy's other friend Schnipper becomes interested in Jodi after a makeover and she goes out with him to try and make Stig jealous.
- Makeover Fairy: Harper steps in as this for Jodi, helping her find outfits and makeup that flatter her figure.
- No Guy Wants an Amazon: In the first scene, we see a boy ditching Jodi because of her tall stature, and she has always been made fun of for this reason. Downplayed, as Jodi is shown to be a Dude Magnet throughout the film, with three boys being in love with her.
- Previously Overlooked Paramour: Jack "Dunkers" Dunkelman is openly smitten with Jodi Kreyman, who dismisses him as a prospective match in favour of someone taller. While their friendship becomes strained by these factors, Jodi eventually realizes Dunkers' potential when she finds out that he stood up for her when other people were talking about her behind her back, including her Romantic False Lead.
- Reality Is Unrealistic: Lead actress Ava Michelle actually was bullied for her height back when she was on Dance Moms, yet the most common critique of this film is that the idea of anyone getting bullied for their height is unrealistic. Ava was bullied for her height when compared to her much more petite fellow dancers whereas Jody is not a dancer so is apparently bullied simply because she's 6'1.
- Shoe Size Angst: The film has an infamous line about the struggles of being a teenage girl with size 13 feet.
- Stalker with a Crush: Dunkleman has been obsessed with Jodi for years despite being rejected multiple times. In one scene, he's seen going to Jodi's room and touching her face while she's sleeping.
- Statuesque Stunner: Jodi is this by default due to being 6'1, and fits the trope even more so after her makeover, although the fact that it makes her a bullying target deconstructs it somewhat.
- Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Dunkleman and Jodi. They start off as friends, with Dunkleman being Jodi's Hopeless Suitor because of their height difference, but they eventually end up together. In fact, they currently provide the page image of this trope.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Jodi is a Huge Schoolgirl who usually wears pants and Tomboyish Ponytail, her sister Harper is a beauty pageant winner.
The sequel provides examples of:
- Appeal to Worse Problems: As a result of the criticism the first movie receives due to Jodi complaining about her hard life only because of Height Angst, a teacher calls her out on it in the sequel:Teacher: What would you say to people who don't think that being tall is a real problem? Getting a terminal illness, being homeless, not knowing where your next meal is coming from... Those are real problems. But you seem to have so much going for you. What do you have to complain about?
Jodi: Well, I'm not saying being tall is worse than those things. It's just sometimes it feels like it is, but I know that it's not. It just... doesn't make all the bad things that have happened to me every day of my entire life any less real. - Ascended Extra: Jodi's best friend Fareeda was a Token Black Friend and Satellite Character in the first movie. Here she has her own subplot and gets a Love Interest in Stig.
- Class Princess: Jodi is now very popular, and is shown to be helpful and friendly to all the students who talk to her.
- Dude Magnet: Jodi, just like she was in the first movie. While Stig has finally gotten over her, Dunkelman and Schnipper are still in love with Jodi, and new character Tommy also shows interest in her.
- Heel Realization: Kimmy undergoes one upon fully realizing that her attempts to make Jodi flake out of the lead part in the spring play are severely affecting Jodi's self-confidence and personal life.
- Lovable Alpha Bitch: Kimmy, who was a Hate Sink in the first movie and not much better in the first half of this one, redeems herself at the end and starts being kind to Jodi.
- No Antagonist: Since all the antagonists from the first movie Took a Level in Kindness, there is no villainnote . The main conflict is caused by the relationship problems of Jodi and Dunkelman and Jodi's anxiety issues.
- Pair the Spares:
- Played straight with Fareed and Stig who officially hook up, even if the two characters barely interacted in the first movie.
- Averted with Kimmy and Schnipper. While their friendship is fleshed out in the sequel, Schnipper is still in love with Jodi.
- Put on a Bus: Liz is briefly mentioned moving away from town.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Stig, Schnipper, and eventually even Kimmy lose their negative traits they had in the first movie after some Character Development.
