How Such A Pretty Girl (2025) Addresses Societal Conformity
We all have expectations set upon us from the day we could walk. Some would say even from the day we were born. Your parents think you’ll be the next greatest doctor or perhaps a highly successful businessman. As you grow up, those expectations slowly dwindle away. Or they may be met in certain situations. But what happens if you secretly suffer from gender dysphoria in a world with strict societal expectations?
We open to someone wearing a yellow dress and applying lipstick, calling themselves a “pretty girl” and that yellow is their favorite color. The person’s mother, Meg (played by Sarah Drew), walks in. It’s revealed that the person wearing the dress is a boy named Finn (played by Cole Moreno). Meg gives him five minutes to change into appropriate clothes for church as she hears her father, Frank (played by Harry Groener), calling her name from down the hall. She helps him tie his tie as he tells her how lucky he is to have both her and Finn helping him. Later we see Finn enter wearing a button down shirt also needing help tying his tie.
Despite the film only lasting for about six minutes, you feel the impact of every minute from beginning to end. The opening scene does a wonderful job misleading you, as you genuinely believe you’re watching a girl talk to herself in her bedroom. It isn’t until we see Meg walk in is when we’re treated to the full picture. And her reaction is not one of scorn, rather surprise. Despite this, she doesn’t shame him. She doesn’t even tell her father, even though he knows something was bothering her. And deep down, she truly wants the best for her son, even if she has to stand up to her father’s strict expectations.
This brings me to the Frank’s character. It’s clear he represents a traditional form of masculinity and what “guys are supposed to be”. We see this from his line that men are expected to wear ties, even though he himself needs his daughter’s help tying it for him. This is further enforced when he sees Finn walk in wearing his Sunday best complete with plans on wearing a tie. He calls him a “handsome young man”, contrary to how Finn described himself in the film’s beginning. However, Frank’s also not a one dimensional character, as we see his more sensitive side when he comforts Meggie over her deceased mother’s memory. Showing that he isn’t your stereotypical macho man. Rather, he’s just an older gentleman who has old school ideas on what men should do.
Deborah Puette’s directorial debut Such A Pretty Girl asks us whether we can be brave enough to be ourselves in a world where we must conform to societal expectations. Even if it’s just wearing something that may not be seen as socially permissible. It’s a theme that feature length films have tried to address but sometimes fail. And for a short film and directorial debut to actually pull off such a task is very impressive. Complete with multidimensional characters, Such A Pretty Girl is a short movie worth every minute of your time.
