Girlfight (2000) Movie Review

Girlfight is a sports drama film directed/written by Karyn Kusama starring Michelle Rodriguez, Jaime Tirelli, Paul Calderón and Ray Santiago. Made with a very low budget of 1 million dollars, the film was an independent production that was born out of the director's interest in a boxing story with a female lead, propelled by her own experiences learning boxing. Part of the struggle was to get this possibly offensive and daring movie even done in the first place, so she had to accept the very small amount of money and had other filmmakers contribute.

The film follows aggressive and explosive teenager from Brooklyn Diana Guzman (Michelle Rodriguez) as she begins to become captivated by boxing when she visits a gym to pick up her brother, Tiny. Diana lives with her previously abusive father, who pushed her mother to suicide, and his already mentioned brother who becomes a hope for his father as he wants the boy to be a professional boxer, even if the kid doesnt want to. Diana is told she can train but cannot fight by a local hispanic trainer, Hector. However, after spending some time with the girl the man begins to realize her potential. Taboos and baseless preconceptions are broken and Diana begins to fight professionally with both men and women, accomplishing her goals in a strict and sexist system.

While female sports movies have been more common in recent times, back then they were very rare or relegated to small projects or brief mentions, but this movie was quite a breakthrough for challenging and shattering some ideological fallacies and inspecting the life of its characters in a more raw and down to earth manner. Even outside of the sports and athletic aspects of the film, which are prominent, the film is, at its core, a very well directed and contained family drama that extrapolates the hidden rage and anger of such a troublesome environment into the protagonists desire for fighting, at first in school and then in the ring, and unleashing her previously repressed feelings. This is a very well handled coming of age story.

I was surprised by the great job the director did at stripping down the film to its bare essentials, emphasizing the performances, particularly the one by a great Michelle Rodriguez in her debut, and perfectly shooting and choreographing both the actors and the sportsmen in the fight sequences. The direction and camera work is so slick that it really becomes transparent and the drama gains power and prominence, ending up becoming deeply immersive. The many technical pitfalls of very low budget films are overcomed by a strong and pulsating vision that tries to be clear and simple every time.

There are flaws, like some strange ideological misconceptions and even some tropes that feel a bit too tiresome, like lovers having to fight or some cheap lines of dialogue that were a bit too on-the-nose. However, I will say that these are far more tolerable here than in mediocre movies of this kind, the actors and the naturalistic writing make those dialogues and scenes play out quite nicely.

A pivotal film in the subgenre, it kickstarted the career of action girl star Michelle Rodriguez into the mainstream and the career of feminist filmmaker Karyn Kusama (Aeon Flux, Jennifer's Body) as well.

Recommended for sports movie fans and those who like some urban dramas with an edge and that are well executed.

Bubblegum Crisis (1987-1991) OVA Review and Retrospective - Episode 8: Scoop Chase

Scoop Chase is the eighth and final episode of the original Bubblegum Crisis series. It's directed by Katsuhito Akiyama, Hiroaki Gôda, Hiroki Hayashi, Masami Ôbari and Fumihiko Takayama; and written by Toshimichi Suzuki, Katsuhito Akiyama, Shinji Aramaki, Emu Arii, Hideki Kakinuma and Ken'ichi Matsuzaki; with the voices of Yoshiko Sakakibara, Kinuko Ômori, Michie Tomizawa and Akiko Hiramatsu.

During one of their typical Boomer hunts, the Knight Sabers spot a mysterious girl taking pictures of the team, Priss closes in on her and destroys her camera. The girl turns out to be Lisa Vanette, the niece of the chief of the A.D Police, and she just so happens to be put under the care of Nene as the girl tries to get close to the Knight Sabers and uses the A.D Police to that end. Nene finds out about Lisa's true intentions and attempts to conceal her secret life as a Saber while keeping a distance from Lisa. The tiny redhead also has to deal with her newly gained weight and bad training performance! Things go even worse when a Boomer attacks the A.D Police headquarters, trapping Nene and Lisa inside with a brand new and improved Boomer chasing them.

We have seen different episodes centering on individual members of the Knight Sabers, this final outing centers on Nene and it's one of the high points of the series. The show has been far from bad but these character driven episodes are more involving, they set the stakes higher and they amount to more resonating resolutions since we are presented with a familiarity with the characters that digs deeper into their intimacy and relatability as they struggle with some intense conflicts. This episode makes Nene deal with her insecurities and the usual heavy load that's often put on her at both of her jobs but these are things that she is able to overcome by trusting herself and counting with the support of her friends. Her virtues and troubles are very well presented and portrayed, incisively setting up and solving these issues while blending the subplots and the overall arc of the characters together seamlessly.

The episode unfolds with more or less the same formula: a new person is introduced who attempts to interfere with the Knight Sabers' fight against the Boomers, while a certain villain puts a secret plan in motion. However, things are more fast paced, comedic, pleasant and lively, fitting nicely considering this is a story focused on Nene. So tone-wise it's pretty perfect and features a more solid use of the typical plot beats in the formula by injecting them with more enjoyable interactions and more complex relationships between the protagonists and the antagonistic force in the story that eventually is changed into an ally, delivering solid moments like when Sylvia has a little speech about the Sabers and the Boomers or expanding the world by showing how the Saber Knights play round and train.

For a lot of the series you almost forget certain aspects like how Sylvia owns a lingerie store or even the character of Mackie, but this one at least has the decency to mention some of this stuff and bring it all back. When the Sabers show up for Nene in one of the concluding scenes, it really encapsulates how this team works and the strong bond that has been seen on occasion and that is present implicitly but that shines brightly in moments like these from time to time, kind of making it a very good ending overall. You can tell they sort of knew that this could be the very last one as evidenced by the opening credits sequence and its devotion of time to every single important character in the show.

Featuring the obligatory bombastic and excellently crafted battle/mechanical action animation and investing more time on its characters with such a well handled self-contained plot that at the same time closes the story appropriately and gracefully, this final episode encapsulates everything anyone can find to love and take delight in when it comes to Bubblegum Crisis. Possibly one of the best if not the best.

Killing Mary Sue (2025) Movie Review

Killing Mary Sue is a comedy action film written, directed and edited by James Sunshine. Starring Sierra McCormick, Dermot Mulroney, Sean Patrick Flanery, Jake Busey, Martin Kove and Jason Mewes.

The film follows Sierra McCormick as Mary Sue Harper, the troublesome deadbeat step-daughter of a Senator. The man wants to win an election but some recent scandals involving Mary Sue make him consider another option: hire an assassin to murder his step-daughter. The plan doesn't work since she discovers her unnatural and previously dormant fighting and shooting skills that allow her to murder her attackers. The girl now battles a death squad and unravels the conspiracy behind every strange event and element in her life.

This wild parody takes the meme and writing stereotype known as "Mary Sue" (a mostly false term that very hardly applies to female characters outside of fanfiction) and attempts to give it a new spin by making the tone light and the fiction itself self-aware or reality-bending (like in the finale) to launch some comedic scenarios and gags. This idea of an irresponsible couch potato who plays videogames and parties all day turning into a skilled assassin isn't anything new and the concept of the Mary Sue never goes far enough as this main character sort of struggles in many ways, her abilities are explained and her emotional conflict does present her with some character flaws and troubles to get over. So it never truly commits to the Mary Sue thing and I think that's one of the biggest issues a movie like this can have.

Otherwise, this is a rather average but serviceable action comedy, the movie warns you of its eccentric and odd nature by having Jason Mewes of Clerks fame as Mary Sue's biological father early on, setting the tone for the kind of humor you will be presented with and they do a rather decent job with the strange and peculiar jokes that sometimes come out of nowhere or are nutty and exaggerated just for the sake of it. This can usually lead to some irritating sequences but here it's toned down for its own good to a certain degree.

The fights and shootout sequences are not bad, but sometimes they feel somewhat artificial and plastic due to the abundance of CGI in a lot of the shots but they do retain a certain energy and dynamism that save them. Nothing out of the ordinary but the crew did a good job putting them together. Sierra McCormick is also quite good in the main role.

While a bit playful and self-aware it doesn't go far enough to truly work all the way. I can see some people who are into bizarre and frisky comedies enjoying it, even when the entire concept doesn't play out to its full potential and it loses a bit of team in the middle.