Deborah Ross

Worth catching the virus for: Saint Frances reviewed

Plus: but if you don’t dare go out, How to Build a Girl is available on Amazon Prime and is terrific too

Cute but honest too: Kelly O’Sullivan as Bridget and Ramona Edith Williams as Frances. Credit: Oscilloscope/Kobal/Shutterstock 
issue 25 July 2020

Two films about young women this week, one at the cinema, if you dare, and one to stream, if you don’t. Saint Frances requires the daring and I’d dare, if I were you, as it’s splendid and funny and tender and involving and taboo-busting, and if you do contract a deadly virus, it’ll be worth it. Only kidding. Of course it won’t. But, on the other hand, the government is currently encouraging us to venture into town to save Pret A Manger and I think this has more to say than a baguette. Or one of those pricey salads.

Saint Frances is written by and stars Kelly O’Sullivan who started working on the script after seeing Greta Gerwig’s Ladybird and you can see Gerwig’s influence all over it — the wry naturalism and episodic storytelling is very Gerwig-ian — but it’s still its own person. O’Sullivan plays Bridget who is a college dropout and worries about not being an ‘impressive’ person.

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