What do you make of a book that does a good job of being what it's trying to be, but not a good enough job to prevent you from rolling your eyes at it? Such is the case with Girl on Film, Cecil Castellucci's graphic memoir, which really wants to inspire you as an artist and also humblebrag about all the famous people she has met over the years. This isn't a bad book; it has some interesting bits of writing and good art from four artists, but if the description inspires cynicism, don't expect to be fully won over.

The opening speech about how "being an artist is like being a pearl" drips with pretentious self-importance. To paraphrase The LEGO Movie, these dramatic inspirational platitudes might very well be true, but they also sound like a cat poster. The first source of genuine interest comes five pages in, when it's revealed this is actually a story about failure. Castellucci's artistic journey didn't end up going as she planned; she aspired to be a filmmaker, but ended up becoming a musician and eventually a comics writer instead.

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That story actually contains a valuable message about how dreams can change, and how finding what you're good at can take years. It's the strongest justification for why anyone should bother reading this book -- that is, if they aren't already a fan of Castellucci's other creative work and desperate to hear her life story.

Most of the actual narrative centers around Castellucci's time in an arts high school. While she keeps talking about how much she wants to be a filmmaker, it's noteworthy her classes are highly multidisciplinary, which may have prepared her for overcoming her disappointment when film school proved too challenging for her and she was forced to refocus her artistic drive. The different artists bring energy to the scenes of dancing and acting and performance art pieces.

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Castellucci also grows up in the vicinity of many different celebrities. She's close friends with Chaz Bono, terrified of Cher, and meets Andy Warhol at Chaz's birthday party. Jennifer Aniston's one of her classmates. She has encounters with Christian Slater, Steve Buscemi and eventually ends up working on set for her idol Steven Spielberg. Obviously at least some of those encounters are important and all are surely memorable, but it becomes easy to read all of this name-dropping in the voice of socialite Tahani from The Good Place.

This is also a memoir very concerned with its status as a memoir, and in lieu of chapter breaks, the main narrative is broken up by a series of asides going into the scientific nature of memory. This is one of those cases where the execution is successful even if you question the idea. Are these reflexive meditations on memory necessary for telling this story? No. Are they nonetheless interesting and presented in creative, visually appealing ways? Yes.

You'll know if Girl on Film is for you pretty quickly. However, even those who vibe with the book might find parts of it annoying, while those who are annoyed by it will still find parts of it valuable.

Girl on Film is on sale now.

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