HOLLYSHORTS FILM FESTIVAL 2023 REVIEW! During adolescence, teens are in a desperate search for their identity. Writer-director Makez Rikweda’s horror short, Fat Girl, shows just how far one teen will go to find it.
Lexi (Stella Stevens) is an awkward high schooler. She obsesses over the glamorous TikTok influencer Carly (India Lillie Davies) and her DIY cosmetic make-up tips. Her thin schoolmates Olivia (Sun Sharma) and Addison (Carla Colado) are trying to post a dance routine on the popular social media platform. Seeing this, the shy wallflower decides to take matters into her own hands.
 
“…Lexi engages in a highly critical analysis of her body. She sees flab, small lips, and bags under her eyes…”
It’s in the second act where the filmmaker comments on the rampant disorder of body dysmorphia. The very normal-looking Lexi engages in a highly critical analysis of her body. She sees flab, small lips, and bags under her eyes, choosing then to go to extreme lengths to “remedy” her condition.
Though Fat Girl is considered a horror, it’s made for the young teen audience and is not nightmare-inducing. Rikweda effectively uses the medium to make a point about the sinister underbelly of body image that’s existed for centuries. As Lexi, Stella Stevens masterfully takes us on that journey of teen obsession by showing us when the seed of self-doubt is planted to its final blossom at the end.
Fat Girl screened at the 2023 HollyShorts Film Festival.