Spoilers prefer to leave the beard on.

Placing a character in the fringe might feel like you’re taking the audience into unfamiliar territory, but often enough the opposite is true. It’s the commonalities that bring you back in and give you the realization we’re all just human. It’s showtime.

The Bearded Girl (2025) is written and directed by Jody Wilson. Following a tradition passed on from mother to daughter, Lady Andre (Jessica Paré) is the matriarch in long line of bearded ladies who puts on show with her daughter Cleopatra (Anwell O’Driscoll) of swallowing swords. But Cleo eventually wants more than following the tradition. After her ideas to change the show get ignored again, she eventually decides to travel the world, build herself a life and eventually find love as well.

It’s hard not to see the fairy tale aesthetic of the world in which Lady Andre and Cleo live in. Cleo’s loudmouth sister Josephine (Skylar Radzion) has not inherited the bearded gift but has no qualms about living here. It’s only when we meet people in the real world that we feel them alien and cold. Cleo is determined to fit in, committing even the sin of shaving her beard. As she falls in love and takes steps towards normalcy, something still draws her back in. She better make her mind up soon, as a ruthless land developer (is there any other kind?) is trying to turn the land where the sideshow is located into a parking lot. Lady Andre is going to need all the help she can get.

Highly recommended with some minor reservations. It’s a visually stunning story, with a fairy tale setting and some quirky characters to boot. You can probably tell how the story is going to go from beginning to end, although I feel it’s missing a satisfying conclusion with the antagonists getting their comeuppance. Still very much worth a watch.

That will do for now.