Girlfight [DVD] [2001]

One thing strikes you about the film, not the camerawork, nor the editing, nor the fight sequences; no, every stunning aspect of this film is outshone by its star Michelle Rodriguez. Her performance is simply breathtaking, but what makes it all the more incredible is that she had never acted before this film, nor boxed. Both of which she does brilliantly. Many reviews of the film compared her to Marlon Brando. Don't worry she's not chronically obese, nor is she a man. The major similarity is their intensity, that brooding, boiling, tension that they exude. It is truly frightening to watch in places. And yet it is a performance than an acting veteran would have been unable to replicate, produced by a first-timer. Michelle Rodriguez is a name to watch.

The performance is the driving force behind this film, and given the other performances from unestablished actors, it seems that Kusama has a quality of bringing out the best in her actors. Perhaps this is in some ways a problem as Rodriguez is incandesent as a goddess in comparison to the rest of the film, which isn't actually bad.

Thus I have decided to now come on to the plot because Girlfight is one of the few films where a good plot is inadvertently upstaged by an upstart young performer. The film starts in a school corridor, we see Rodriguez's feet as people rush past her in both directions, and slowly the camera rises to her face and a jumpcut later Rodriguez's brooding features fill the screen. The power of this shot can't really be conveyed on a TV screen, the cinema is needed to appreciate it fully. 60 seconds later Diana Guzman (Rodriguez) is in a scrappy fight with another girl. Then, having grabbed you the film pulls you along at a rapid pace and doesn't let go.

I don't want to give all the plot away but I'll condense it. Basically Diana Guzman is on the verge of being chucked out of school for fighting too much. She lives in an appartment block with her abusive father and intelligent brother. When suddenly she discovers... boxing! This helps her curb her aggressive tendancies and she gets rather good, progressing through the gender-blind boxing tournament, until she reaches the final. Then disaster strikes, the other finalist is announced and it's her newly discovered boxer boyfriend. What will happen? Will she fight him and will he fight her? You'll have to watch to find out, but that's it in a nutshell.

The beauty of this film lies in some of the smaller touches. Firstly the boxing scenes are wonderfully shot and there's no implausible Rocky-style heroics. Kusama handles the filming very well and the fights never bore; the film's well edited and well shot. One particular shot that stands out is the wide-angle fighter perspective, which actually works rather well.

Kusama herself was also a female boxer and so the scenes are shot almost lovingly, with the camera lingering on the footwork of the boxers and neither glorifying nor embellishing the action. Kusama does manage to convey the potential passion and beauty of boxing in one scene. You see Rodriguez and her boyfriend sparring reluctantly and as they lock together she whispers "I love you" in his ear, and then "I really do", before unleashing a fearsome right-hook. Hard-to-describe, beautiful to watch.

Another enjoyable aspect was the evocative shooting of scenes inside the appartment block. A recurring motif is that of people looking out of windows. We never see what it is they are looking at; the sense is one of intense claustrophobia but depression at the same time. Each of the film's characters wants to escape the lifestyle, but for some, particularly Diana's father, there is a sense that he will always be trapped in his world looking out on a happier, more affluent world forever tantalisingly out of his reach. Diana's brother escapes this hell through his drawing and the possibility of studying art at college, while Diana uses boxing to vent her anger, and finds that love can render beautiful even the squalid greys of the appartment block.

The most obvious theme is sexism. Perhaps the film's an extended allegory of women's fight for not solely the right to be equal but recognition as being equal too. Diana earns he right to fight in a genderblind boxing competition but she has to really fight for respect from her male opponents and the male-dominated crowd. Equally the film rails against the traditional stereotypes of women, portrayed as a dichotomy between a life of compliant servitude and not fitting in. If a girl does not wear dresses and make-up and try to attract men then she is an outcast. Diana suffers from this especially at the hands of her female friends. If Kusama is illustrating the next step in the feminist fight then it is for respect. Kusama's treatment of the feminist issue is not one dimensional and she uses powerful imagery to convey her messages.

Kusama and Rodriguez will go on to great things after this film. If you're looking for something that will startle you, make you think and entertain you then this is for you. Even if you abhor boxing you cannot fail to see its potential for beauty through this film. Put simply this a brutally beautiful film.

While most of the male boxers of Hector's boxing school consider this sport as a way to make money in order to leave their poor neighborhood, Diana is boxing because she has too much aggressivity in her. The school authorities want her to see a psychiatrist but what's the use with a girl who doesn't want to be helped. So boxing will replace the doc at a lower cost and allow Diana to face her father for a cathartic final confrontation.

Karyn Kusama is without any doubt very talented and knows how to make you feel the rage of the boxers during a fight. Michelle Rodriguez is outstanding, giving a stellar performance that our young starlets should study again and again in order to understand what is cinema really about. A movie highly recommended.

A DVD zone Raging Bull.