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.

Thelma & Louise (1991) Movie Review

Thelma & Louise is a crime-drama directed by Ridley Scott starring Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, Christopher McDonald, and Brad Pitt. Screenwriter  Callie Khouri came up with the idea that would be a staple of road trip crime movies and an iconic women on the run flick which perfectly captured the feminist sentiments at the time but that still maintains some relevance 34 years later.

The plot involves Thelma, a hardworking housewife whose husband shows no respect for, and Louise, a witty and sharp single waitress, two friends who embark on a trip to a fishing cabin for a weekend vacation but things get ugly when a man tries to abuse Thelma and Louise saves her by shooting the perpetrator. Both women now have the police on their trail as their misadventures accumulate until a breaking point.

A very defiantly feminist text that while certainly not being the first fiction feature length movie to present feminist ideas it was one of the first highly popular films to actually break certain tropes and stereotypes and directly confront mundane patriarchal ideas in society, having women break their bond to the male-dominated civilization.

The film works with the characters of the two main ladies and their development is fueled by their dynamics and interactions, their friendship. Louise has toughened up living by herself in a harsh patriarchal world while Thelma has only known how to live under the wing of a man who doesn't even appreciate her and is controlling. The film presents the situations these leading women live in without falling into caricature. Throughout their journey and after the inciting incident Thelma becomes harsher and develops a sharpness and daringness previously missing while Louise softens up and learns to open up and feel comfortable around her friend. Both helping each other and discovering a new facet they previously were forced not to find.

This story takes place in the hot and cruel American desert, where several freeway movies and outlaw stories in western cinema took place, this time the historical misogyny of such landscape and genre is inhabited by modern day women who, tired of being tied to a sexist civilization and society, escape it to find new things about themselves while on the run from uniformed men of the law who want to punish them for it, but we never feel compelled to call them criminals, neither does the movie, as their crime is not one of viciousness but of frustration and circumstance.

With beautiful cinematography by Adrian Biddle, repetitive but fitting and somewhat emotional musical score by Hans Zimmer and a very solid direction by Ridley Scott, the film shines in the vast majority of aspects and reveals itself to not be dated at all in the ways most movies that touch upon social issues could get. Carried also by the astounding acting of Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis. This is one of those movies where you get to inhabit the world of the characters and through their point of view you gain empathy, accompanying them on their struggles.

While not that well rounded, it is a movie that stands the test of time and has as much of an edge now as it did back then, helped out by the caliber of filmmakers and performers that give it a certain quality.