We’ve seen the film about the awkward teenage girl that meets the rebellious girl that changes her life a million times before. But in “To The Stars,” the formula is mixed up a bit by transporting this coming-of-age tale to the early 1960s, where we find two young women trying to figure out how to grow up in Oklahoma in an age where females aren’t supposed to rebel.
The film stars Kara Hayward, Liana Liberato, Shea Whigham, Tony Hale, Malin Akerman, and Jordana Spiro. “To The Stars” is directed by Martha Stephens. Her most recent feature is the 2014 film, “Land Ho!”
READ MORE: ‘To The Stars’ Is A Beautiful, But Familiar, Coming Of Age Tale [Sundance Review]
We watched the film when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019. And in our review, we were a bit mixed on the film, saying, “There’s a luminous tenderness in Stephens movie and it aims at the particularly salient idea of quiet, subjugated, female discontent, but it ultimately proves too slight, too contrived and never truly takes flight.”
Interestingly, when the film premiered at Sundance, it was in black and white. However, judging by the trailer, it appears that “To The Stars” has ditched that and gone with the more traditional color. From our review, we commended the choice of shooting in black and white, saying, “The decision to shoot this film sans color is tremendously evocative, giving it a timeless quality and in fact, masks some of the movie’s aforementioned flaws because it’s such a visual pleasure to watch.”
Will the film suffer due to the lack of black and white photography? We’ll find out when “To The Stars” arrives on digital on April 24.
Here’s the synopsis:
Under small town scrutiny, a withdrawn farmer’s daughter forges an intimate friendship with a worldly but reckless new girl in 1960s Oklahoma.