Catherine Called Birdy

Catherine Called Birdy

A teenage girl in Medieval England navigates life and tries to avoid the arranged marriages her father maps out for her.

  • Released: 2022-09-23
  • Runtime: 108 minutes
  • Genre: Adventure, Comedy
  • Stars: Bella Ramsey, Billie Piper, Andrew Scott, Lesley Sharp, Joe Alwyn, Sophie Okonedo, Paul Kaye, Dean-Charles Chapman, Isis Hainsworth, Archie Renaux, Michael Woolfitt, David Bradley, Mimi Ndiweni, Ralph Ineson, Rita Bernard-Shaw, Jake Middleton Cooke, Adam Aziz, Saskia Chana, Jamie Demetriou, Akemnji Ndifornyen, Russell Brand, Christophe Tek, Angus Wright, Jacob Avery, Douggie McMeekin, Lawrence Hodgson-Mullings, Bola Latunji, Jessica Ellis, Jordan Adene, Tyler Howitt, Jeffery Kissoon, Moya Brady, Ramesh Nair, Antony Bunsee, Tim Bevan, Colin Murtagh, Volenté Lloyd, Trevor Jones, Chris Ecob
  • Director: Lena Dunham
 Comments
  • msmialopez - 4 April 2023
    An unexpected delight!
    I must admit that I was predisposed to dislike this lovely movie, as I am not a big fan of Dunham. But curiosity got the best of me and I'm so glad it did! The movie was full of nicely developed characters and fun dialogue. Rather than tie up every storyline with a big happy bow, instead the viewer is met halfway and shown that happiness can take many forms. But youthful joy is the central theme, and keeps the plot refreshing even when dabbling in some familiar areas. Lots of wonderful performances by relative newcomers, and an excellent soundtrack of unexpected covers. Highly recommend for viewers of all ages.
  • M0n0_bogdan - 27 February 2023
    Birdy
    It works pretty well as a movie about growing up. But setting it in 1281 does make it a little dated. I mean, women can do now whatever they want, fundamentally...as long as they live in a civilized society and we're not talking about oppressed countries. If Lena Dunham is talking about those countries now, I don't know then how she thinks this movie is going to have any effect there...

    If she made if for entertainment purposes then by all means, it ticks all the boxes and it is fun and funny and Bella Ramsey is perfect in her role. Everybody is good in their role and the cinematography is especially pleasant. But after finishing it, I fear it might be a little forgettable, feeling like that the first minutes were watched last week.
  • okpilak - 8 December 2022
    Light and breezy
    This is a movie that will probably appeal to a younger audience, but I will never forget the vivid description of what Birdy thought was the birds and the bees. Birdy's father desperately needs money, and marrying off Birdy is the only way he figures can work. And Birdy is equally determined that she will not marry under duress. Birdy carries with her a title, so she has currency. There is a lot of humor involved, most of it light hearted and towards the latter part of the movie, there is narration as if it is stage direction. There is a certain sweetness to the movie, showing the predicament women faced in 13th Century England.
  • whenstorytelling - 24 October 2022
    Perfectly good movie
    A fun, perfectly cute, entertaining movie for young girls. The scrip is great, the cast is superb, everything about it is just well done. Perfect for a sunday evening.

    I honestly found quite funny that bad reviews are pretty much coming from very angry and very sad men. Maybe they should be looking for a better hobby, instead of getting triggered by things for girls :)

    Also, and gosh I'm going to have so much fun giving 10 stars to perfectly fine movies that have received stupidly bad reviews: if you ever think about giving a movie a 1 star rating because it ofends your christian beliefs, please, think again. Maybe you should get to church and stop destroying other people fun.
  • kellysailor - 20 October 2022
    Don't lie to us, this is nothing special
    Actually, I watched this to see Bella Ramsey making comedy before HBO premieres its brutal The Last of Us adaptation and this is what I have to say about her performance.

    It's difficult for an actress to add something new working with an elementary plot ( the girl bound to marry the repulsive old man and her fight to get rid of him), but things get worse if this plot cuts off parts of the book that were necessary to make a turn (the old man's son subplot is completely ripped off). Plus, woke elements in this environment look pretty ridiculous (a black noble woman in the 13th century England? Are you serious?). Finally, as the ending is not what the novel describes, the effort by miss Ramsey is wasted and the whole result a bit disappointing for those who have read the book.

    The movie is not as funny despite some people's reviews trying to convince us otherwise. It's unmemorable, deprived of spark, and miss Ramsey, portraying an exaggerated version of Catherine, can't do anything to provide a helping hand to this production.