Catherine Called Birdy review – the perils of medieval teendom in Lena Dunham’s sparkling comedy

Lena Dunham, who turned wry solipsism right into a profession with the HBO collection Women and the indie film Tiny Furnishings, is probably not the primary identify you'll consider to adapt and direct a interval movie set in medieval England. However Catherine Known as Birdy, primarily based on the 1994 novel by Karen Cushman, is a peppy, irreverent delight. Following the pig-wrestling, husband-repelling antics of 14-year-old Girl Catherine (AKA Birdy), performed by an irrepressible Bella Ramsey, it is a teen comedy with a refreshingly forthright strategy to the whole lot from puberty to the standing of Thirteenth-century girls as chattels to be bartered.

After her charming however feckless father (Andrew Scott) has frittered away the household wealth, Catherine finds herself in an unlucky place. Her marriage, to a title-hungry gentleman of means, is the final hope of solvency for her household. However Catherine has different concepts, and units about scaring off her suitors with each unsavoury trick in her in depth repertoire. Ramsey, so poised as a child-queen in Recreation of Thrones, right here brings a skittish mischief to her function; Dunham directs with liberal use of goats, geese and chaotic vitality.

  • In cinemas now and on Amazon Prime from 7 October

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