The oldest daughter of Paul ( Jimmi Simpson ) and Heidi Starling (Wrenn Schmidt), Jem is seemingly the model example of the community’s expectations. Its young women are groomed to exude innocence and purity. Opening with Jem’s fervent prayers to God, spoken directly to camera, the 17-year-old becomes our conduit into a contemporary Kentucky religious community that adheres to strict fundamentalist tenets of patriarchal rule and servitude from its women. Scanlen’s searing performance elevates The Starling Girl from just being a familiar story into something far more interesting and compelling. Together, they craft an intimate character study of one devout girl’s discontent with what’s expected of her, which in turn ignites her eventual disillusionment with the fundamentalist ideology that has defined her entire world view. What distinguishes The Starling Girl within this particular genre is writer/director Laurel Parmet’s casting of Eliza Scanlen to embody this familiar coming-of-age story through the eyes of Jem Starling. But what differentiates the best of them is how they introduce secular audiences to these insular cultures, and then reveal how the power structures keep these ecosystems self-sustaining. Films about fundamentalist Christian sects who raise their girls under the strict tenets of chastity and control are nothing new.
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