Pearl

For a film about the most physically powerful and intimidating women on Earth, Pearl shows just how vulnerable and fragile these competitors are-and the opportunistic monsters who groom them for competition. Not a date-night flick and certainly not the kind of disturbing fare to share with children.

The two leads are perfect in the roles- Julia Fory is a natural on camera as Pearl, and Peter Mullan brings just enough sleeze as her motivational trainer/coach/rx. Those merits aside, I can't rate any higher-the entire film made me nauseated.

This movie offers an insider view on body-building, its miseries and pain. It works almost as a documentary.

The portrait of the main character is subjugating and deep, and it shows a kind of woman that we don't usually see on the screen, with a set of values that we tend to associate with men.

On top of that, the film is visually powerful, with close ups that show the human skin in a way that we haven't seen before.