Jemima Kirke's apparently effortless charm makes her worth watching even when the writing wanders. We are just as persuaded by her firmer performances, which can give a hesitant drama some focus.
Fi1m perspective
Jessa Johansson's charm in Girls (2012) makes it tempting to forgive her lack of boundaries, and Jemima Kirke lets that charm do much of the work. There is little sense of an actor asking for approval. We like the freedom this gives Jessa to be difficult without becoming dull company. It is a valuable quality, though a script can grow too comfortable with having someone fascinating standing about.
Her feature debut, as Charlotte in Lena Dunham's Tiny Furniture (2010), led directly to Jessa, whom she played across all six seasons of Girls. Dunham gives her a place in a sharp, unsparing comedy, and it remains the work we would recommend first. The middle seasons wander, however, and Kirke's charm has to sustain detours the writers seem unable to finish. We keep watching Kirke while wishing the writers would settle on something for Jessa to do.
Sex Education (2021), with Kirke as headmistress Hope Haddon, offered a move towards authority, rather than another free spirit. It is a useful change to keep in mind when watching her Melissa Baines in Conversations with Friends (2022). We felt relieved by her firmness there, because the scenes around Melissa come into focus while the central romance keeps us at a distance. She makes the drama more engaging without having to wrench it into a different style. That control is a persuasive answer to the idea that her appeal begins and ends with Jessa.
That does not make Conversations with Friends a success: Kirke and Sasha Lane, as Bobbi Connolly, cannot justify twelve episodes built around so muted a romance. It does make the supporting performances worth considering separately from the programme's shortcomings. We would welcome another part that gives Kirke Melissa's firmness, preferably in a drama that does not need her to keep rescuing it.
Biography
Jemima Kirke is a British-American artist and actress. Born in London on 26 April 1985, she moved to New York City at the age of 11 and was raised there. She is the daughter of drummer Simon Kirke. Kirke studied painting at the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2008.
She made her screen debut voicing a character in the 2005 short film Smile for the Camera. Her feature debut came in Tiny Furniture (2010) as Charlotte. Kirke is best known for playing Jessa Johansson in the HBO series Girls (2012–2017). She has also appeared in Maniac (2018), Sex Education (2019) and Conversations with Friends (2022).
