A Cinderella Story: Starstruck (2021)

IMDb plot summary: Finley Tremaine, a small town farm girl, longs to spread her wings and soar as an aspiring performer.

Directed by Charlotte Colbert and Michelle Johnston. Stars Bailee Madison, Michael Evans Behling, and April Telek.

A Cinderella Story: Starstruck is a retelling of the Cinderella story, this time featuring a young girl who helps run her deceased father's farm but secretly wants to be an actress. When a big-budget production comes to town, her stepmother won't let her audition, so she dresses up as a man for the audition, gets a part, and along the way falls in love with her male lead. This isn't a Disney Channel movie, but it feels about that level of quality. The acting is all pretty stagey, in not a positive way. The twists and turns are predictable. The leads are generically good-looking young people, but they don't really have a lot of charisma. And of course the step-siblings and stepmother are written so broadly that it's hard to really see them as much of an actual threat. It's not necessarily a painful watch, just so much as an incredibly boring one. I didn't love the original A Cinderella Story either, but I feel like it has to have been at least a little bit more well-thought-out than this, which just feels cookie-cutter at every turn.

🎥 A Cinderella Story: Starstruck (2021)

📊 Ranked #3962/4321 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 9

lost to Exotica (#2199 → #2099)

lost to Sunshine (#3273 → #3226)

lost to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (#3799 → #3801)

beat Dragonball Evolution (#4060 → #4061)

lost to Move Over, Darling (#3930 → #3890)

beat Ouija House (#3995 → #3961)

lost to Mannequin (#3962 → #3964)

beat The Good Doctor (#3978 → #3988)

beat The Boy Friend (#3970 → #3973)

lost to The Story of the Weeping Camel (#3966 → #3968)

beat The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (#3968 → #3972)

beat Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (#3967 → #3971)