Girl Flu | Film review - Dorie Barton's charming period comedy

It's a period piece.

Bookish 12-year-old Bird (Jade Pettyjohn) is sent into a spin when she experiences her first period in embarrassingly public circumstances (school picnic, white jeans). And her scatty single mother Jenny (Katee Sackhoff) is next to no use at putting her at ease.

A comedy about menstruation might not sound the most beguiling prospect but Girl Flu, a coming-of-age indie movie from actress turned first-time writer-director Dorie Barton, proves utterly charming. Pettyjohn is a delight as the precocious Bird, constantly exasperated by her mother’s fecklessness and fed up that she has to be the grown-up in their relationship. Sackhoff, meanwhile, makes the irresponsible Jenny funny as well as annoying. And she doesn’t let us lose sight of her essential good nature, either.

Certificate 15. Runtime 92 mins. Director Dorie Barton

Girl Flu debuts on Sky Cinema on 8 May. Available on digital from Glasshouse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI05l65GjDk

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.