Hello! Welcome to my first blog about films directed by women. My favorite film released in 2023 is The Starling Girl. The film is directed by Laurel Parmet, and it is her debut feature. It stars Eliza Scanlen and Lewis Pullman. I found out about the film because I am a fan of Eliza Scanlen’s previous work such as Little Women, Babyteeth and The Devil All the Time. Therefore, I was looking forward to this performance and she did not disappoint. This blog post will contain spoilers for The Starling Girl.
Scanlen plays a 17-year-old girl named Jem Starling who lives in an ultra-fundamentalist Christian community in Kentucky. The community seemed very cult-like to me, which set an almost eerie tone for the rest of the film. She is also very sheltered. For example, she is homeschooled and she is not allowed to listen to secular music. Lewis Pullman plays a 28-year-old youth pastor, Owen, who has just returned to the church and community after being a missionary to Puerto Rico with his wife, Misty. Owen’s personality is hinted at in the beginning. Owen seems to want to go back to Puerto Rico, but his wife is very glad to be home. I think it must be because the community in Kentucky supports her more than her husband did in Puerto while on their mission trip. Jem is very passionate about dance and is a part of the dance troupe at the church. The troupe is in trouble of stopping because of not having a leader. Jem asks Owen if she can be appointed, and he says yes. They become closer because of Owen’s support of her passion for dance. Jem develops a crush on him and attempts to catch his attention and spend more time with him. One night, Jem stays at the church after dance practice while Owen is still there working, and they end up kissing, which is the start of their barred relationship. I think the casting of Lewis Pullman in this role was genius. Since the film is centered around Jem, and is from her perspective, the viewer is supposed to also be infatuated with Owen. Pullman does a great job at playing into Owen’s charm. I couldn’t help crushing on him along with Jem, even though I realized he was a bad person at the start of their affair.
What stood out to me the most in this film was the way the adults perceived Owen. About two thirds of the way through the film, Jem and Owen’s affair is found out. The pastor sits down with Jem and her mother to talk with them about it. Instead of blaming Owen, since he is the adult and the one who is married, he blames Jem. The pastor reveals that Owen claimed to have been seduced by Jem, and the pastor chooses to believe him. This part didn’t necessarily surprise me since fundamentalist Christians tend to be more traditional in their practices. So, this patriarchal way of thinking seemed logical for the pastor’s character. Therefore, I was not surprised that they took the man’s word over Jem’s, especially since that man is the pastor’s son. Another part that stood out to me was that the pastor seemed to look down on Jem because Owen is married, but not bat an eye about the fact that she was 17 when they had the affair. He also seemed to only look down on Owen because he had a wife, and not because he was 28. They looked down more on Jem’s sexuality as an unmarried woman in a fundamentalist church, compared to the man who was married and having an affair. This surprised me, but it shouldn’t have since Jem’s mother, in the beginning of the film, tells Jem that she should start thinking about marriage. I was 19 when I first saw the Starling Girl, and I couldn’t imagine being married. The fact that Jem had to think about that at 17 was incomprehensible to me. Perhaps they didn’t think about the age gap because of this value of being married early, they see Jem as more mature than she actually is.
After their conversation, the pastor made Jem stand up in front of the congregation, confess her sins, and ask for forgiveness. The congregation was then invited to go up to Jem and say, “I forgive you.” This is the part that made me cry because she had to ask for forgiveness, even though she was the victim. I think it also affected me because I grew up in the church, myself. I think being able to confess a sin and have people offer their forgiveness would be therapeutic and comforting. Even though Jem shouldn’t have had to apologize, I hope she felt the support from some of her community, and was consoled. Owen was not asked to do this, which further solidifies his “innocence.” He does not have to confess his “lustful and immoral thoughts,” which implies that he did not have them, even though he did. Owen resigned from his position as the youth pastor, but there is no further punishment. Considering he should be in prison since Jem was 17, having to resign is very minimal. Also, on top of Jem having to confess, the pastor tells her she should go to King’s Valley. King’s Valley is described earlier as a place where kids do hard labor. Her mother also tells her if she doesn’t go, she will no longer be considered a part of her family. Jem receives two punishments, Owen gets one. Therefore, the perception of Owen exemplifies the patriarchal structure within the community, since he is not the one directly blamed or punished correctly by the church or the law.
Despite Owen being the aforementioned exemplifier of the patriarchal structure, he is also the reason Jem stops submitting to it. The lead up to this is in little rebellions that he forwards her to do. For example, he inspires her to follow her passion of dance, even though her mother believes it is vain. On the same night they kiss for the first time, he helps her pierce her ears, even though she is not allowed. Their relationship, although bad, is one of these rebellions as well. After Jem’s confession at church, Owen asks her to go back to Puerto Rico with him, and at first she is reluctant. She is angry at him because of what he told the pastor about her being the one to tempt him. Her mother catches Owen and Jem in their driveway, punches Owen, and tells him to leave. When Owen gets in the car, Jem runs up to it and gets in with him. On my first watch, I thought that she went with him because she forgave him, and still loved him. Even though I think that is part of it, I also think she saw it as her chance to get away from the community that blamed and punished her for something she felt was not wrong.
Owen and Jem stop at a hotel before going to Puerto Rico, and one night, while Owen is sleeping, Jem leaves him. She takes his car keys, steals his car, and goes to Memphis. She visits Arleen’s Bar, which is where her father used to perform with his secular band. Her father starts drinking heavily again after a friend of his from the band commits suicide. Before Jem runs off with Owen, her father tells her about the band, the bar, and how it made him feel. He also had overdosed on her mother’s pills and ended up in the hospital before Jem left. The film ends with Jem dancing to music in the bar, and feeling free for the first time.
Even though it is open-ended in a way, I hope that Jem went back to Kentucky. I know she would want to see her father again, anyway. I also think her mother would take her back, even after going away with Owen. Before she punched him, she told him that he knew exactly what he was doing. She knows that he hurt her daughter. I feel like she only told Jem she would not be in the family anymore if she didn’t go to King’s Valley because the pastor was there. She was just submitting to the patriarchal structure of the community. If Jem went back, maybe they would all leave the community, after what happened to their family while living in it. I like to think they did, at least.
To conclude, Owen exemplifies the patriarchy in the community by going basically unpunished and supposedly able to run off to Puerto Rico. Yet, he is also the person who freed Jem from the patriarchal community. The film as a whole treats every topic that it brings up with nuance, but Owen’s character is my favorite one to analyze. I hope that even if you have read this without seeing the film and having it spoiled, you end up watching it anyway. I think it is a five-star film, and an amazing directorial debut. I look forward to seeing what Laurel Parmet does next.
Kate Goranson – Assistant Blog Editor, Assistant Prose Editor, Blogger
Kate Goranson – Asst. Prose Editor, Asst. Blog Editor & Blogger: Kate is a Sophomore majoring in English with a Literature/Language Concentration. She works at the Writing Center during the week and a banquet hall on the weekends. She has been playing violin since 5th grade and has also picked up guitar and singing. During her free time she likes to go to the movies with her friends, nap with her cat and thrift shop. Some of her favorite authors include Sally Rooney and Madeline Miller.