Girlfight

Since adding my review of this movie way back when, I have been disappointed and surprised to see so many IMDb reviews that see "Girlfight" as a kind of feminist fantasy. Is everyone aware that there really are women prize-fighters, some of whom really are capable of beating the crap out of most men? What's so improbable about the final boy-girl match isn't that the girl wins, but that it's her boyfriend she has to fight. And the only feminist thing about the movie is that the women's movement is probably what made it possible to write it as a drama instead of as a comedy. But there is no feminist "message" in this movie.

In most sports movies, you'll have the corny story of triumph and it might be not too great. But this film is different. It uses it's independent edge (it won numerous awards at the Sundance and Caanes film festivals) to not be cornball, but to a good achievement. Michelle Rodriguez definately makes an credible debut as the troubled and always angry Diana, who decides a way to get out some of her aggression is in boxing, and it works, even when she has to face her boyfriend in the (improbable to be sure) ring. Better than I thought, but the liability is that Diana is always angry (so angry that any regular girl's worst day of PMS is Diana's best day) and she does some things to her family and friends that are very questionable, method and emotion wise which almost makes her not the best girl to emmulate. Pretty good, never-the-less. B+

Watching Michelle Rodriguez deliver a confident performance in FF7 -- just one of many in her career -- it is easy to overlook this breakout role in this semi-indie boxing film.

Just because it is easy does not mean you should do it.

I re-watched Girlfight prior to this review and, just as I remembered, her reaction shots and dead-man stares were the standouts in a film which holds up surprisingly well.

I cannot over-emphasize how elegant this breakout role is. Stallone, the Jedi master of fight films, had his breakout role in a very forgettable film called the Lords of Flatbush. In it, he had a wrestling scene.

Recommended. And the rating should be higher than it is. It was intended as a character study and there are no bad performances, no dull moments.

Poverty is the great equalizer. Or at least one would think so. Imagine that in addition to financial instability you are a young Latino woman, with no aspirations, opportunities or positive role models, who does poorly in school, and has a powder keg temper. Welcome to Diana Guzman's life.

Whether it's because she refuses to talk about lipstick and boys or because she settles disagreements with her fists, Diana is an outcast. After her fourth fight in as many months, the principal informs Diana that she's run out of chances - one more fight and she's gone. She files the incident under "Whatever", and curses about her detention as she heads to a squalid little athletic club on an errand for her father.

When Diana walks into the gym, she is entranced by the combination of salty sweat, testosterone, and men boxing. In keeping with the atmosphere, she decks one of the boxers after he takes a cheap parting shot at her little brother after a bout. Rather than chastising her, the men edge back, affording her a measure of respect, the first she has ever experienced. And she likes it. Realizing that she has found her niche all she convince a skeptical, chauvinistic trainer to take her on, get money to pay him, and hide her passion from her abusive, dismissive, alcoholic father. Well, at least it's no tougher than anything else she's had to do.

Anyone expecting a female "Rocky" will be disappointed - "Girlfight" is not about endorsements, glory or bone crushing slow motion boxing sequences - boxing here serves as the background for the film, not the main attraction. The film would more appropriately be described as - and I really hate this phrase - a coming of age story. But Diana is a much more complex than the typical lead in this genre - she struggles not only with the issues we normally associate with adolescence - awkwardness, a desire to belong, and racing hormones - but also with discrimination, blinding rage, and expectations that are constantly forced upon her. As Diana's training progresses, she grows both literally and as a person -she learns to control her anger, walk with confidence, discover who she is, smile and risk the vulnerability of romance. The acting is superb.

From the initial appearance of her glowering image on screen, Michelle Rodriguez is superb. Chosen from among several hundred actors at a cattle call, Rodriguez, who had only previously worked as an extra, captures Diana's hostile intensity and indifference perfectly and has a screen presence that most actors would sell a couple of souls for. In addition to honing Diana's persona, Rodriguez underwent four and a half months of gruelling training to develop the necessary boxing skills and physique to match. The final product is one of the strongest performances I've seen since Hillary Swank's Oscar winning role in "Boys Don't Cry". Rodriguez is bolstered by a strong cast: Jaime Tirelli, who plays her Doubting Thomas trainer Hector, and Santiago Douglas, as Adrian, her sensitive partner in love and in the ring.

Rather than opt for the clean Hollywood look, Girlfight feels like a documentary both in the locations and filming. From the dingy little hole in the wall gym plastered with mottoes written on cardboard ("Champions are made, not born") to the crumbling deadly projects where Diana lives, everything has that unpolished grit that is difficult to fake. The director also chose a departure from the accepted standard of choreography in boxing films - instead of the whiplash-in-action slow motion sequences, the sparring is shown from a first person perspective with the glove coming straight at the viewer's face. I flinched more than once.

Take a date, or go alone. Either way you will agree that "Girlfight" works on many levels, and disappoints on none.

Casting unknown Michelle Rodriguez as Diana was a stroke of genius. She's perfect. Her acting inexperience actually works in her favor. We've never seen her before so it really feels like her story. She also brings across genuine toughness. This works against her though, because we never doubt her. You never have to cheer for her to win because she never goes up against any fighter we don't think she can beat. So as a boxing movie, it fails.

Then again, this isn't really a boxing movie. How do you make a movie about a girl who wants to be a boxer that isn't a boxing movie? You don't. But Karyn Kusama has anyway. Like many indie films, "Girlfight" defies classification or genre and stands on its own as folklore that could darn near happen in real life.

Diana is doing poorly in school. She beats up people she doesn't like (all the other girls in her school for example). She doesn't fit in. Her father is forcing her kid brother Tiny to learn to box so he can defend himself when things get tough. He gives Tiny money for his boxing sessions and gives Diana nothing, as if she has no need to defend herself, nor anything worthwhile to make of her life. Tiny wants to go to art school (cliche', yuck), so he gives up his boxing allowance to Diana, who actually wants to box. Things get complicated when Diana falls for another boxer, Adrian (Santiago Douglas), who's looking to turn pro. From there the story winds down toward the inevitable...the two meet in the amateur title fight.

What left me cold was that I never found any of this all that interesting. It's all just a bit too believable. Kids with tough lives growing up in rough urban areas fall back on sports. A lot of professional boxers have risen from these circumstances. The mental and physical toughness this upbringing requires lends itself to a game like boxing, where anger is your friend. So this time it's a girl. Big deal.

Or there's another position to take: finally, a boxing movie about a girl. Women's boxing has been around a long time. The brutality we usually see in boxing films is replaced here by discussions of people's their lives and their feelings. The whole fighting thing is used as a platform from which to paint a larger picture. Respect. Overcoming adversity. Self-discovery.

I recommend "Girlfight" because it has a good spirit and is an example of some great work by a first time director. The dialogue never rises above soap opera quality, but the story itself actually changed my view on some things. Yes, the world now seems like a better place. A film did that.

Grade: B-