Ben Grantonic is a senior and reporter for the Fishers Tiger Times. His views do not necessarily reflect those of the newspaper.

(Spoiler warning of the first Tall Girl movie) 

     Netflix has been pumping out original rom-coms for the last few years now. Not many of them are good, for example the critically panned “The Kissing Booth”  and its two follow-ups, though another example would be the also critically panned “Tall Girl.” The film follows Jodi Kreyman (played by Ava Michelle), an abnormally tall girl who is bullied and struggles to find love with her especially tall stature. “Tall Girl” has some funny moments, though struggles to get past its strange premise and generic plot. For such a strange basis, it is awfully odd that the movie does have such a boring and overdone plot structure. Many of these problems persist in the sequel “Tall Girl 2,” though it borders on the absurd in its characterizations and plot threads in its quest to stick to genre tropes. 

     “Tall Girl 2” starts four months after the events of its predecessor, with main character Jodi Kreyman dating long time best friend Jack Dunkleman (played by Griffin Gluck). The plot primarily follows Jodi trying out for and getting the lead role in the school musical, which fills both Jodi’s time and her with anxiety. Jodi’s over-focus on the musical leads to her leaving her and Jack’s anniversary dinner, which eventually leads to them breaking up. On top of this, Jodi’s love interest from the first film — Stig Mohlin (played by Luke Eisner), who is a Swedish exchange student — has his sister Stella Mohlin (played by Johanna Liauw) come visit. Jack and Stella have some strange fake romance subplot that goes nowhere. Also, Jodi and her co-star in the play have some quick romance which causes mild drama. Other important characters include Jodi’s best friend, Fareeda Marks (played by Anjelika Washington), and Jodi’s sister, Harper Kreyman (played by Sabrina Carpenter). 

     I would like to start with the positives of the movie. There were multiple times when this movie made me legitimately laugh both intentionally and unintentionally. Towards the end of the movie, Jodi has a pretty realistic and well done panic attack scene, though it felt out of place with the rest of the melodramatic rom-com. 

     As for the bad, this film has a myriad of problems. First is how many of the characters lack any proper characterization and any solid, logical basis to their actions. For example, Stig, who in the last film was a bit of a remarkable jerk, acts like an awkward, but kind dufus for most of this sequel. Many subplots, like both the leads’ romantic side plots, start and then either do not end or are resolved poorly and quickly. I feel the central conflict is resolved far too easily and quickly, and Jodi shows no growth whatsoever from her starting the conflict to her ending it. 

     I would give “Tall Girl 2” a 2 out of 5 stars; it has some cute moments, some okay laughs, but ultimately fails in delivering a compelling and well thought-out plot and commits the worst sin a movie can commit; being boring. It is a very boring teen rom-com, and for what it is, it does not even do a good job of. I cannot recommend wasting an hour and fifty minutes or so of your limited life on this film. There are plenty of other, much better, rom-coms to spend your precious time on.