Tall Girl 2 (2022)

Tall Girl 2 works because it treats teen life like it actually feels: bright, messy, and loud inside your own head, even when everything looks perfect from the outside. Emily Ting keeps the story moving with a breezy, backstage-musical energy, letting the singing and dancing add real lift while the characters’ insecurities land with surprising tenderness. Ava Michelle’s Jodi is still charmingly earnest, but the movie wisely widens its focus so friends, rivals, and family get room to grow, turning what could’ve been simple high-school drama into an ensemble that’s easy to root for. It’s sweet, sincere, and occasionally a little corny in that Netflix teen-movie way—so if you’re allergic to big feelings and pep-talk optimism, it may not convert you—but if you want a warm rom-com with a gentler heart and more depth than you’d expect, this one earns its encore.

Tall Girl 2 is clearly trying to be a feel-good, teen-friendly follow-up about confidence, anxiety, and the messy growing pains that come with sudden attention, with a school musical backdrop to keep things light. The problem is it leans hard on predictable misunderstandings and familiar love-triangle beats, so the drama often feels manufactured rather than earned, and the story hops between side plots without building much emotional punch. If you’re hoping for sharper comedy, deeper coming-of-age insight, or a romance that doesn’t run on contrived miscommunication, this will probably feel repetitive and disposable. That said, it’s breezy, mostly wholesome, and has a few sincere moments around self-talk and stage nerves—so it works best as low-stakes comfort viewing, not as something that’s going to wow you.