To the Stars

The acting was extremely well done, the plot - while not necessarily action driven - is done very well and the character development is fantastic.

I didn't know what to expect from this movie that I randomly chose on Amazon. Beautiful story about Iris, a small town girl stifled and controlled by her unhappy, unfulfilled mom, and by the petty and narrow minded townsfolk. Then a newcomer, Maggie, arrives, turning Iris' world into something completely unexpected, and welcomed.

Loved the film, the setting, the costumes, the acting. So many great actors in this film. I recommend it.

To say too much about this movie would reveal some late story twists/reveals, but it really does a great job of capturing a time period and pulling you into the friendship between to seemingly opposite teenage girls (one confident and one shy/awkward). Not always an easy story to watch, as it shows the dark underbelly of a time period that we love to look at with such nostalgia and romanticism.

I didn't know what to expect from this film, because I'd never heard of it and randomly picked it out for a Sunday evening flick.

The story is about an outcast, bullied high school girl in Small Town, USA (Oklahoma) who is so unhappy with her circumstances that she wishes she would disappear. Enter the pretty, cool girl from a bigger town who moves to the neighborhood and, from the start, sets out to help and liberate the bullied girl and help her find her way in life.

I won't give much away, but I wasn't expecting the turn the story took about 3/4 of the way in. I felt that although the "event" that occurred was hinted at, it all seemed to occur too late into the story. From this event forward, everything followed a predictable dive towards the ending like the movie couldn't get to the ending fast enough, so much so that several major story lines were left dangling on the prairie wind.

The acting is not bad at all, and the stifling atmosphere of small towns/small minds is well captured. But as much as the story was going somewhere most of the film, before taking a sudden turn and race, I wish it had either stuck to one main plot point or at least given the last 3rd of the film much more depth.

Overall, I'd give the film 6.5/10 stars and would recommend it being watched at least once.

Maybe one reason this movie resonates well with me is I was a teenager in the 1960s. My brother-in-law served in Korea. In the 1960s it was common in smaller communities for a beautician to have her shop in the living room or dining room, as my own aunt did. School dances in the gym were supervised by faculty walking around, making sure students didn't make out too aggressively.

This one is set and filmed in small-town Oklahoma. There is a quiet, smart girl that gets bullied a lot, along comes a cosmopolitan girl who knows how to handle herself, and the spoiled brat boys. Against the odds the two girls form a fast friendship.

Good movie, treats a number of subjects with sensitivity. The acting across the board is excellent. I found it on Amazon streaming movies.