The Starling Girl’s thoughtfulness and lingering optimism toward a story that is predictably sorrowful is a necessary balance.

“The Starling Girl” lives and breathes through Scanlen’s stellar performance.

Laurel Parmet makes a striking, assured feature directorial debut with “The Starling Girl,” which serves double duty in solidifying Eliza Scanlen’s already pretty solid reputation as a young actor worth watching.

The Starling Girl‘s most direct criticism of these fundamentalists is that they are far less concerned with living according to Christian teaching and philosophy than with appearing to do so in a kind of ongoing intracommunity competition.