Girl on Film: 12/24/19

Girl on Film by Cecil Castellucci is a graphic memoir about her love of films and her desire to be a filmmaker. The TL:DR version is that filmmaking didn't end up being her career; she's an author.

The book opens with Star Wars in 1977 and six year old Cecil is completely enamored with it. She decides right there to go to film school.

Although she can't go to the theater to see R rated Fame when it comes out in 1982, she does watch the TV show spinoff religiously. It's during this time that she makes her roadmap for getting into film school.

Her memoir then covers middle school, high school, her brief time at NYU, her time in Quebec, and finally her introduction to graphic novels. Frankly her time in Quebec is my favorite part because she shows the most growth as a person and as a creator.

Throughout all of this she name drops. She went to school with Cher's son. She met Andy Warhol. She was mentored by Mo Willems. Etc. etc. The name dropping gets tiresome after awhile.

But what really did me in were these long asides about the nature of memory. Backstory: her parents are scientists. Her father specializes in memory. I suppose while drafting this book she realized the flaws in her remembered timeline. She chose to add in her conversations with her dad about the failings of her memory.

The problem with these asides is they break the narrative flow. There's also a better, more engaging graphic novel on the subject of memory: Neurocomic by Hana Ros and Matteo Farinella (2014)

Three stars

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