Tall Girl

image for Tall Girl

Short takes

Not suitable under 8; parental guidance to 12 (themes, possible lack of interest)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Tall Girl
  • a review of Tall Girl completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 7 October 2025.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 8 Not suitable due to themes and possible lack of interest.
Children aged 8–12 Parental guidance recommended due to themes.
Children aged 13 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Tall Girl
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild Themes, Mild Violence
Length: 103 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Jodie (Ava Michelle), a 6ft 1inch tall, 17-year-old girl, struggles to fit in as she is taller than everyone else at her school, and her high school experience is being tainted by bullying. It seems the only people who truly accept her are her two friends Jack (Griffin Gluck) (nicknamed ‘Dunk’) and Fareeda (Anjelika Washington). Jodie is often made fun of for her height by a group of ‘cool kids’, including main bully Kimmy (Clara Wilsey) and her friends Liz (Paris Berelc) and Schnipper (Rico Paris). Jodie doesn’t even feel like she can fit in at home with her parents constantly talking about her height and comparing her to her beauty queen sister, Harper (Sabrina Carpenter). Jodie also feels like she will never be able to date a boy as she wants someone taller than her, but when Swedish exchange student Stig (Luke Eisner) comes to her school, she feels she may finally have a chance with someone who is taller.

Jodie goes on a journey through the ups and downs of a high school relationship, to self-love and acceptance of her height while learning to form and maintain more understanding relationships with the people around her. In the end, Jodie learns not only to accept herself for who she is but also to feel confident in her own body, she finds comfort in her family and friends, and she learns that the people around her also have struggles fitting in and insecurities she never knew about.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Bullying; Not fitting in; Rejection.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • Harper throws knives at a target with a picture of another girl on it. One knife accidentally flings back and almost hits Jodie.
  • Jodie threatens to kick another character in the “nards”.
  • Jodie slaps Harper.
  • Characters say things like, “I’m gonna kill that kid” and “I’m gonna run him over”.
  • Jodie punches Dunk in the throat when he tries to wake her up.
  • There is a video of Dunk getting beaten up at a party.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • There are instances where characters are being unkind, calling each other names and paying pranks to humiliate others. In the beginning of the movie Kimmy often refers to Jodie as ‘Sasquatch’ and ‘Beanstalk’.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • There are instances of physical violence between characters.
  • Towards the end of the movie Dunk gets in a physical fight after listening to Stig say he never truly liked Jodie and that he was just joking.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Jodie states she is wearing size 13 Nike shoes.
  • Jodie wears a Champion jumper.
  • Coca Cola is in the school cafeteria.
  • Characters have Apple iPhones.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • One of the characters is referred to as, "Super-hot older sister".
  • A character walks into a classroom and all the girls look at him longingly.
  • Characters talk about caesareans.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • Jodie and Stig kiss on a tram-car multiple times.
  • A group of characters, all sitting in a room together, kiss their partners.
  • Jodie and Dunk kiss at the end of the movie.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Characters having a party hold coloured cups with unknown drinks.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Crap
  • Biatch
  • Pissed
  • Suck
  • Jesus Christ!
  • Jodie is called names like ‘Sasquatch’ and ‘Beanstalk’.
  • Harper tells Jodie, “If you see me eating carbs please knock it out of my hand”, referring to not gaining weight for her pageant.
  • Jodie is bullied and told “you're the tall girl, you will never be the pretty girl”.
  • Referring to clothing as being for ‘Drag queens’.

In a nutshell

Tall Girl is a (2019) coming-of-age, teen romantic-comedy with powerful messages about overcoming insecurities, valuing yourself for who you are and seeing the value in others. The film is best suited for teens and over.

The main messages from this movie are to accept, love and appreciate yourself for who and how you are; as well as remembering that everyone has insecurities and each individual is worthy of compassion and understanding.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Acceptance of everybody
  • The importance of self-love
  • Compassion and empathy
  • Friendship
  • Being kind to others.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children the importance of being confident and comfortable with yourself and accepting others regardless of their flaws.